IBM z Systems Benelux Study Tour unveils benefits of the modern mainframe

IBM z Systems Benelux Study Tour unveils benefits of the modern mainframe

29 March 2017 | Written by: Hans Deketele

Categorized: Servers | Mainframe

Ask anyone on the street to tell you what they think of when you say the word “car” and you will get descriptions of the latest Ferrari, BMW or Porsche. You will never get a description of the first car by Carl Benz back in 1886.  When you ask the same thing about the word “mainframe”, you will get a description of a huge, room-filling computer from the 70s with spinning tapes in the background. In most cases you will not get the image of today’s stealth-like designed, state-of-the-art computer the IBM mainframe really is. To get people up to date on modern mainframe technology, IBM offers people who are interested in the IBM z Systems a Benelux Study Tour from May 15 to 19 2017. This trip will go to the IBM Client Center in Manhattan, New York.
There they will learn that worldwide 80% of all transactional data still reside on mainframes and that 90% of all credit card transactions pass through this modern IT-platform. Why ? Because of the proven availability, scalability and security of IBM z Systems, in conjunction with new technologies and imperatives like blockchain, hybrid cloud, instant payments and data privacy regulations. And with the vast amount of data on mainframes, it is only logical to do the analytics close to the data. This enables real-time analytics. This makes it possible eg. for insurance firms to detect potential fraud in real-time, before any settlement is paid or document is signed.

Day 1

The agenda of the first day of the z Systems Study Tour is composed of several sessions: one is on the trends in enterprise IT-architecture. Here we will discuss what workload to put on what IT-platform and why. Participants will also get a glimpse into what the future holds for IBM z Systems and LinuxONE (IBM’s dedicated Linux environment on z Systems architecture). As well as how to minimize costs of, for instance, distributed Oracle environments by consolidating on Linux on mainframe or on LinuxONE. We end the first day showing you why LinuxONE is the ideal platform for your blockchain environment.

Day 2

The second day starts with an overview of the new workload strategy for IBM z Systems: (real-time) analytics, hybrid cloud, the API economy, … and a reference case is also on the agenda. Mainframe as cloud server?  Yes, indeed. Cloud is all about agility and scalability: what to think of the possibility to create 80.000 virtual servers in one box, with a single click of the mouse? That is the flexibility needed in an agile cloud environment. Furthermore, on the agenda: cognitive computing (artificial intelligence, self-learning systems, …) and the architectural considerations around it plus of course IBM Watson. We close the day with our IBM Research department giving you insight in the newest of the newest: quantum computing.

Day 3

On the last day we will discuss the IT-impact of European rulings and regulations on data privacy (GDPR) and payments. Having z Systems as platform, increases the ease of compliance with these regulations. We end the day with a presentation on Security on z Systems and on digital transformation.
Want to join this IBM z Systems study tour? Have a look at the program and the application form.
Enrollments end on April 13, so be sure to reserve your seat!
Download the application form >>>

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Hans Deketele

z Systems & Power Platform Leader

Ancient programming language COBOL can make you bank, literally

by MÁR MÁSSON MAACK — 1 day ago in FINANCE

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You’d think a computer programming language created in 1959 would be outdated — but you’d be incredibly wrong.

Most people know Java and C++, but good ol’ COBOL is still alive and kicking. In the US, around 80 percent of in-person transactions and 95 percent of ATM swipes are based on programs written in COBOL. The problem is there’s not enough people to maintain the current COBOL-based systems.

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According to Reuters, around three trillion dollars in daily commerce flow through COBOL systems. Many major financial corporations and some parts of the federal government have built their entire infrastructure on COBOL bases from the 70s and 80s.

So if something goes wrong, we might be looking at a major shitstorm. However, you could make money preventing that.

Retirees who can’t stop working

Companies are in desperate need for some young blood with COBOL knowledge. Only a few universities are still teaching COBOL but it’s not enough to meet demand.

Currently, banks and financial companies heavily rely on retirees, paying them $100 an hour to fix simple problems (for people with the right expertise).

75-year-old Bill Hinshaw, founder of COBOL Cowboys, is one of the veterans who can’t stop working. In an interview with Reuters he said that he often comes across software he wrote over 40 years ago, which shows how enduring the language is in today’s financial systems.

However, using retirees isn’t exactly a sustainable solution because, let’s face it, they’re going to die at some point and there’s no one to replace them. But the difficult thing about getting new people is that COBOL isn’t as sexy as working with Elixir, or Golang.

COBOL work is often seen as boring maintenance duties which kills creativity. That isn’t necessarily true as there’s still new development and extending of COBOL applications being done, but the reputation persists.

Why not switch from COBOL?

Since there aren’t many young programmers specializing in COBOL, the best thing would probably be to switch to a new coding language. But that isn’t simple.

In 2012 the Commonwealth Bank of Australia replaced its core banking platform to modernize their system. The change ended up costing around 750 million dollars, which is why many banks have opted for trying to keep their COBOL systems going.

The great need for new COBOL programmers means great job-security and possibly higher salaries in the future, as the talent-pool gets smaller and smaller.

Some predict it will remain a major language for the next 20 years, which is an amazing feat, given it was created at the very beginning of the computer age. So if you’re a programmer who doesn’t mind working in a slowly dying but fairly lucrative field, then COBOL might be just the thing for you.

Read next: Undercover investigation confirms spyware companies are super shady

TECH

https://thenextweb.com/finance/2017/04/10/ancient-programming-language-cobol-can-make-you-bank-literally/#.tnw_EgHEDTVC

Who are these millennials with the mainframe vendettas?

• Published on February 6, 2017

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Rhiannon Dakin

Helping to Future Proof Mainframe, IBM i, Unix and MultiValue Applications | Secure Modernisation, Mobile & Cloud

It’s becoming a weekly occurrence. Whether in conversations with customers, or in our industry’s publications, the millennial distain for the mainframe is a hot topic.
We are supposed to subscribe to the idea that we have a looming skills crisis because people in my generation treat the mainframe with contempt. Where did this idea come from? Have we all been throwing our mobiles in disgust as we check our bank balances, or crashing GSE conferences chanting "death to COBOL"? Do I just miss the invites? If there’s anything causing large scale unrest in my generation at the moment- it's not the mainframe.
We are guilty here at Flynet as well, that’s actually what prompted me to write this post. I was reading our article in Compare the Cloud and this paragraph struck a cord “we have technical push back from new millennial-aged employees who simply refuse to work with a system where they can’t touch the screen or point and click. Explaining that the application has been built over many years and therefore not all the processes are linear and in turn the information architecture isn’t intuitive doesn’t seem to quell their complaints”
How irrational are we perceived as a generation, when the lack of a responsive, touch screen UI would make us down tools? That’s it, I can’t pinch to zoom, I’m off! I don’t care that I am likely at a pivotal point in my career, I cannot and will not lower myself to use those function keys.
It’s a tragic state of affairs, well it would be, but it over simplifies and misses the point. I’m 27, right in the middle of the millennial bracket and I love the mainframe. I’m not going to pretend that I’m not an outlier, I am. The majority of my generation have no real opinion on it whatsoever. When I asked my friends for their take (it was a wild night) there wasn’t a negative view amongst them. In the interest of full disclosure there were a couple of Matrix comments as I tried to explain the green screens.
There’s no denying the skills shortage though, or the training and retention difficulties with millennial employees on green screen legacy applications. So if it doesn’t come from an inbuilt repulsion for 'legacy technology', where does it come from and what can be done?
Our generation were the first to learn tech from childhood en masse. We learnt, but we weren’t taught and this distinction is important and often overlooked. Few of our parents or teachers could use computers before we could. I have fond memories of teaching my mum to use our computer and watching her pick up the mouse and tapping it on the boxy monitor to ‘click’. We are used to a fast pace of technological change, we accept it, adapt to it and have even come to expect it. I will be quite disappointed if in the next ten years I can’t project a browser from my watch down my forearm and eliminate my phone entirely. My mum would not share this view. In fact, I am already dreading the support calls.
So what happens when we enter organisations and are faced with green screen mainframe applications? Contrary to popular belief, the majority of us don’t throw a hissy fit, or spontaneously combust. We try to learn and adapt, but our default technical learning style makes this more difficult. It's a weakness.
We can’t learn green screen applications instinctively, they just don't work that way, so we have to be taught. This isn't how we previously conquered the Tivo box and mastered applications; it’s unchartered territory for us and it jars. It’s like memorising your times tables when you know you’ll have a calculator. You understand the need, but it seems a bit tedious when you know there’s a much quicker way. Training will take longer, moral may be lower, but in isolation it’s unlikely to make anyone leave.
The real problem comes when those same applications force a convoluted path through 100 screens to enter information that could easily fit on one web page. When you spend an hour completing a workflow when a comparable task on your phone takes minutes. This is where frustration builds. Millennials don’t leave because you have a mainframe, millennials leave because the green screen applications are completely at odds with everything we have learned about technology in the last 20 years.
The applications restrict productivity and breed a level of frustration that may not be as acute in previous generations. For people like my mum who were programmed to learn by rote, so much so that she used to write the workflow for eBay purchases or Google searches in a little book, a green screen application is unlikely to build much resentment. She would accept it as something distinct and follow her process. Learning styles have changed, my generation is adaptive; we are problem solvers driven by intuition, but we are not patient.
That’s actually why I love the mainframe. The mainframe is anything but slow; get the emulator right and modernise the UI and ironically you’re left with a millennial nirvana. Performant, robust applications with almost zero downtime. Responsive applications that accessible instantly on any browser or device with intuitive navigation.
That’s what I help customers do and it’s probably why my opinion of the mainframe is apparently atypical. I work with other millennials to develop these mainframe applications with commodity skillsets using our no code low code software. I don’t see the skills shortage, or the frustration, I just see the power and it’s a beautiful thing. 

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Rhiannon Dakin

Helping to Future Proof Mainframe, IBM i, Unix and MultiValue Applications | Secure Modernisation, Mobile & Cloud

UK.gov still drowning in legacy tech because no one's boarding Blighty's £700m data centre Ark

Little love for Crown Hosting from Whitehall depts

23 Jan 2017 at 08:09, Kat Hall

Analysis Only in IT is “legacy” a pejorative term, where it is used to condemn ageing systems and forgotten workarounds.
In the UK government, as with banks, increasingly difficult-to-maintain mission-critical systems are a huge problem. Not least because of the dwindling number of folk who remember how the damn things work.
One solution to Whitehall’s myriad string and sticky-tape systems was the creation of the Crown Hosting programme in 2015. That was intended to house departments’ legacy systems in facilities run by a joint venture of which the government owned 25 per cent and small data centre biz Ark the remainder.
By “lifting and shifting” all the legacy systems and housing them in one data centre, it was hoped replaceable systems could be identified, contained and run at a much lower cost – with the eventual plan to ditch them entirely.
But since it was announced, that programme has gone eerily quiet.
The Register whipped out the Freedom of Information Act to ask for a list of public sector bodies that have signed up to the arrangement. However, we were told the Cabinet Office could not disclose the customer list for this commercial arrangement because “authorities could be targeted by individuals or groups willing to use malicious or other hostile ways to gain unauthorised access to information (sensitive or otherwise) stored at colocation sites.”
One can’t help wonder why the UK government bothered to announce the deal at all: it was supposedly meant to contain all of government’s data centre estate via Ark's two data centres in Farnborough and Corsham in a deal worth up to £700m.
But there could be another reason why the Cabinet Office veiled the project under a cloak of invisibility (beyond that being its usual modus operandi). According to numerous sources, uptake has so far been extremely low.
One source revealed that the Department for Work and Pensions had intended to shift 250 of its systems to the data centre, but is now migrating just five. That was part of the department’s mega £340m hosting services refresh to tackle its ageing infrastructure. In this instance, the department had hired hundreds of contractors to help it virtualise the current platforms onto the new kit.

Ignore that burning, everything’s fine

At the end of October, several contractors got in touch with The Register to report there had been hundreds of layoffs and hundreds of millions in overspend at the DWP. But that has been vigorously denied by the department. Commenting on the refresh programme, a spokeswoman said of the eight-year SSBA refresh programme: “It is ahead of schedule and has already delivered three large-scale, secured and resilient platforms.”
Reg readers are welcome to ponder the plausibly of a government project of that size being ahead of schedule. Nevertheless, it’s possible some of the systems have been refreshed.
One source told us: “My guess is that it will be the Customer Information System (CIS) that is moving as IBM were already commissioning a replacement [CIS] at Corsham & Farnborough, currently hosted on ancient Sun E25k frames, which have caused serious outages [of] Critical National Infrastructure due to hardware failures.
“Therefore it would it make a lot of sense to put these together in the same data centres. Moving CNI systems to Ark should be a lot more secure."
One contact said part of the problem with Ark for government use was the fact that some of the departments’ legacy kit won’t fit in its racks, while in other cases the hardware is partly or fully owned by a system integrator – making it difficult to shunt their kit somewhere else.
Another said the problem is that the government knows little about its old systems – citing the Home Office’s 1995 Casework Information Database (CID) as an example – and has been patched many times in haste and changed only when legislation requires.

Systems from the 1990s

“It uses old versions of everything at every layer of its architecture," we're told.
"There probably isn’t anyone who really knows how it works. Worse, CID isn’t just ‘CID’ – it’s a system that interacts and exchanges data with dozens of other systems, some inside the immigration department, some in the rest of the Home Office and some across government. So when you move ‘CID’ you are moving a living thing.
“Many of these systems don’t even have true disaster recovery – the ideal option would be to move the disaster recovery (DR) to the Crown Hosting site and fail over to it, so avoiding lots of hassle. But in the 1990s and 2000s government tended not to build real DR (in the sense of active / active or even active / near active).”
As a sidenote, the CID system was to be replaced by an Immigration Case Work (ICW) system in December 2008 by IBM that was intended to support applications for visas and immigration. However, the department was forced to write off £347m in 2013. The National Audit Office noted in 2014 that the CID system is plagued by problems such as freezing, a lack of interface with other systems, and a lack of controls.
According to one of our sources, the Home Office is still working on its Ark transition, building a couple of environments there for production services, but have yet to move anything. “I’ve done a lot of hosting moves in my time and, unless the folks doing it have also done a lot, they will massively underestimate how hard it is, especially if the hosting and the apps people are separate companies,” a contact told us.
For him, a failure to migrate the legacy kit comes down to "the cost being too big, with a relatively long-term payback, while managing an awful lot of risk, particularly the risk that it just won’t work because you don’t understand how the system works.”
No doubt many poor souls tasked with working out legacy replacements would love nothing more than to pull the plug, throw it in a skip and install something else. But unfortunately when it comes to mission-critical legacy gear, that particular Gordian Knot can’t be cut. ®

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