The Seven Habits
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Mainframe Teams
of Highly Effective
Mainframe Teams
The mainframe has a bright future, but only if you
continue to leverage your mainframe investment
and explain how it maximizes the entire corporate
IT investment. To accomplish this, practice the
seven habits of highly effective mainframe teams —
those teams with a track record of successfully
leveraging and promoting their mainframes.
By Bill Moran
1
T
he mainframe is a vibrant processing that can ensure a productive future for the
platform; it has a bright future within mainframe in your organization.
the enterprise. Mainframe IT staff know
that the mainframe offers superior perfor- 1. Collaborate with Your Counterparts
mance, availability, and security in processing Your mainframe, UNIX, and Windows teams
critical computing workloads — both batch should constantly share information about
and online. They have watched the mainframe the way things need to be done. This proactive
become ever more efficient and flexible, with collaboration (as opposed to the reactive
the ongoing evolution of its architecture and collaboration in a war room) increases the
the availability of Linux on the mainframe. overall productivity of IT and lowers costs.
Today’s mainframe is well equipped to oper-
ate as a highly cost-efficient server in the data However, collaboration rarely happens out-
center and to run advanced applications. side of war rooms. Try to be proactive in your
leadership: Cross-train and cross-manage
Proactive collaboration with distributed your teams. Various advanced tools from
systems teams can help expose a new vendors can help. For example, at one Ptak,
generation of IT technicians to the mainframe Noel client, a new staffer was assigned
and its modern capabilities. to diagnose a mainframe problem using a
GUI-based, cross-platform tool, and a main-
Unfortunately, to others in IT — and to senior frame veteran was assigned a similar
management — the mainframe may be a problem using a 3270-based traditional
mystery. Worse, it may be perceived as an tool. The new staffer’s productivity nearly
expensive and outdated piece of hardware equaled the veteran’s.
cranking away in the depths of the data center.
A large inhibitor to mainframe growth is its
Therefore, IT organizations still face a few complexity, along with the fact that main-
challenges in getting the most from their frame talent is looking to retire. For the
mainframe investments. For example, they mainframe to continue, new staffers will
must be able to overcome organizational need to enter the field, and it is important to
silos and increase recruitment. And they recognize this reality. Proactive collaboration
must be able to demonstrate that the main- with distributed systems teams can help
frame actually helps maximize the entire expose a new generation of IT technicians to
corporate IT investment. the mainframe and its modern capabilities.
Meeting the Challenge Mainframe management tools are constantly
Mainframe teams who have met these challen- improving, enabling non-mainframe IT staff
ges make use of seven critically important to manage mainframe resources with little
habits. Read on to learn about these habits of or no training. Mainframe tools are also
highly effective mainframe teams — along evolving to appeal to a new generation of IT
with suggestions for senior IT management — technicians. For example, event management
2
software can now send alerts to iPhone and how new mainframe applications could
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Mainframe Teams
iPad devices. benefit the business.
Although tools can help, staffers first must be 3. Actively Seek New Opportunities
willing and able to learn and use the tools. Keep looking for places where the mainframe
That’s where your leadership and inspiration can efficiently solve business problems. For
come in, which leads to the next habit. example, new Web applications that handle
high transaction volumes are usually ideal.
2. Leverage People, Not Just
Technology Here’s a great example of what can happen.
Remember that the knowledge in the minds The IT organization at a Ptak, Noel client
of your mainframe experts is a valuable reduced its expenses to levels of five years
asset. They’ve probably been in the business earlier, while increasing transaction rates
for a while, and they really know how to run several times. The company achieved this by
big, brawny applications 24x7x365. Also, migrating work to the mainframe. It had been
they’ve been working with virtual systems migrating away from the mainframe, but in
for years. Virtual sprawl and virtual stall may this case the company made an against-
appear to be new kinds of problems, but in the-grain decision. As a result, it achieved
fact, mainframe teams faced and solved a dramatic improvement in its business.
these kinds of problems years ago. They have
a lot to offer to distributed systems teams. Keep looking for places where the mainframe
can efficiently solve business problems.
Capture their knowledge and wisdom. Build
it into processes, of course, but also use it to And many clients have consolidated multiple
inspire and train newer hires. Everybody Linux systems on the mainframe and saved
wins: The veterans receive recognition and on software, air conditioning, power, and
satisfaction, and the newer hires quickly cooling. The mainframe can also save signifi-
become valuable to the business and cantly on staff costs. Roughly speaking, in the
advance in their careers. distributed systems environment, you need
more staffers than would be required on a
Don’t hesitate to involve the mainframe mainframe.1 This means the mainframe
experts in decision making. For example, could, in many cases, provide the same —
most companies that are maintaining or better — service to the business units
mainframe applications are unwilling to at a much lower cost.
develop brand-new mainframe applications,
usually because the mainframe experts Take advantage of these more-favorable
have not been tapped for their expertise in economics by identifying problematic
1 Of course, this depends on the mix of Linux, UNIX, and Windows in the distributed environment. You must make the
comparison accurate by counting all support personnel.
3
applications with high service-level Architectural advancements such as zLinux
requirements and high operating costs. are very popular, and the new zEnterprise
How can the mainframe help? System shows great promise. It has the
potential to provide unified management of
Proactively identify opportunities where much of the data center.
the mainframe could save money or improve
business performance. Even the development environment has
evolved. You can now buy an attractively
In most organizations, there is a communi- priced emulator that allows you to do
cations gap between the mainframe team zSeries development and initial testing
and senior management. More so than the on a PC. For many IT organizations, this
technology gap, this communications gap is a major productivity boost.
often makes it difficult for IT organizations
to understand how the mainframe can solve Use all this knowledge to benefit the
“non-mainframe” problems and maximize whole business. Push yourself and your
the overall investment in IT. Take the initiative vendors for new ideas that stretch the
and bridge that gap by proactively identifying mainframe’s utility.
opportunities where the mainframe could
save money or im prove business perfor- 5. Show the True Cost and Value
mance — then talk about those savings and Determine and demonstrate the true, accu-
improvements in business terms. rate cost and value of the mainframe, and
make an apples-to-apples comparison
4. Think Outside the Mainframe with distributed systems. Remember the
While it was evolving from the sole processor com munications gap between the main-
to the multi-tiered environment, the main- frame team and management. The main-
frame has changed in many different ways. frame team should take the initiative and
The most conspicuous change is the user present its numbers to all stakeholders.
interface, from green screen to GUIs. It’s not
just a cosmetic improvement; it’s also an Start by reminding senior managers that
important cultural improvement, because they have already made the acquisition
new staffers are no longer forced to learn an investment in the mainframe in many areas:
interface they may regard as obsolete. the hardware, the staff, and the software.
Point out that internal expense management
The mainframe, which started as a batch- systems may still have the mainframe paying
oriented system, has been extended to the full freight for the data center, including
transaction processing and the Web — floor space, electricity, heating, ventilation,
and it still does an outstanding job of batch cooling, and air conditioning. Try to develop
processing. This dual capability enables an accurate picture of your IT expenses.
the mainframe to play a flexible role in
today’s hybrid data center.
4
In some companies, even if senior manage- Mainframes are able to operate at a 90 per-
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Mainframe Teams
ment agrees that the mainframe is cheaper, cent utilization rate, whereas distributed
they still prefer distributed systems because systems may operate at 20 or 30 percent.
it’s so easy to assign costs. Major vendors can In other words, the mainframe provides a
help answer this objection; they have software strategic advantage: a far greater ability to
that helps to assign mainframe costs easily. meet service level agreements (SLAs).
In addition, calculate the benefits. Don’t be 6. Talk Business, Not Technology
timid; be aggressive. Remember the 80/20 Most IT leadership is concerned with meeting
rule: The mainframe is 20 percent of the over- SLAs and controlling costs and may view
all expense but does 80 percent of the work. mainframes as old-fashioned and expensive.
When mainframe folks use “mainframe-
Don’t forget continuity and disaster recovery. speak,” they confirm the belief that mainframe
If a mainframe is properly maintained, you people are living in the past.
won’t even have unscheduled downtimes.
The key for the mainframe team is to always
The cost of outages on your distributed talk in terms of business requirements. Start
systems is variable by business type, by the conversation by observing that the main-
applications, and so on; it’s difficult to deter- frame can help the business maximize its
mine the cost precisely. However, the cost investment. Find out what your business
tends to be a significant number over time counterparts need. How can you serve their
because, when the distributed system with business units in the best possible way?
the database goes down, it may take many With its unrivaled availability, the mainframe
hours to get it back up, to rebuild the data- can help deliver the level of service defined
base, and to correct it. in SLAs.
5 bEnEFiTS
of Practicing the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Mainframe Teams
» Raise staff productivity
» Control costs
» Improve continuity
» Facilitate quicker disaster recovery
» Enable business to enter new markets
5
For example, is there a database that is un- tions, UNIX, Windows, or Linux stand-alone
avail able and holding back some key busi- systems might be the best solution.
ness objective? The mainframe could almost
certainly help there. Here’s an exam ple: In the Web-based environment, the main-
A federal agency was using zLinux and frame plays, or can play, a significant role.
wanted to serve other agencies. It talked It offers outstanding availability, the best of
about the Linux services it could provide and any general-purpose system you can get
the guaranteed SLAs it was willing to sign. today. For some businesses, the mainframe
It didn’t mention the mainframe at all. is the place to put the front end of the Web,
This approach was quite successful. The but in many businesses a distributed system
lesson: Lead with the ser vice and it s might be better.
benefits, not with the mainframe or its
capacity. Don’t even mention platform; users Utopia will have arrived when the mainframe
may never know or care that they’re running is so smoothly integrated into corporate IT
on a mainframe. that people will forget they’re using it. They’ll
just know they’re getting great service.
Lead with the service and its benefits, not with
the mainframe or its capacity. Maximize Your Investment
Ptak, Noel clients who practice these seven
7. Be a Reasonable Champion habits of highly effective mainframe teams
Be careful not to overdo your advocacy. By all gain substantial business benefits. Your organi-
means, the mainframe is a very effective zation can, too. You can raise staff productivity,
platform, so take credit for the mainframe control costs, improve continuity and disaster
where credit is due. But don’t risk your cred- recovery, and enable business units to enter
ibility by claiming that the mainframe is the new markets. Your mainframe will help max-
ideal platform for everything. It’s not. It’s imize your entire corporate IT investment,
OK to acknowledge that for certain applica- and you will have the numbers to prove it. ●
About the Author
As research director at Ptak, Noel & Associates, Bill Moran leverages his
more than 30 years of experience in IT analysis, technical management,
and technical education to help clients elevate their solution sales
discussions out of the technical weeds. He also organizes technical
updates for clients on such issues as new hardware, new software,
and implications of competitive actions. Moran has also held research positions and
senior management positions at Ideas International, D.H. Brown Associates, and
Coopers & Lybrand. Previously, he held management and technical management
positions at IBM and was responsible for the company’s worldwide, large-systems support
for the IBM World Trade Corporation and benchmark testing for IBM’s mainframe systems.
*200006*