THE BEATING HEART OF ENTERPRISE I.T.: THE MAINFRAME IN A HYPER-DISTRIBUTED WORLD

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1 WHITE PAPER: MAINFRAME SOLUTIONS THE BEATING HEART OF ENTERPRISE I.T.: THE MAINFRAME IN A HYPER-DISTRIBUTED WORLD A recent international CIO study reveals that new technology trends, such as mobility, are having a major impact on the mainframe application environment by driving up MIPS usage, costs and complexity, resulting in slower mean time to resolution when troubleshooting problems and huge investments in time and personnel. Solutions from Compuware demonstrate the need for a new generation of mainframe solutions that can enable companies to manage the end-to-end performance of mainframe applications: helping companies improve code efficiencies, lower costs and proactively fix performance problems before they impact the end user. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY IT plays a central role in today s enterprise. That s a given. But not all IT enterprises operate the same way, and those that perform very well increase the productivity and effectiveness of lines of business and give companies a competitive edge in the marketplace. While cloud and virtualization have been heralded as the panaceas to end enterprise dependence on the mainframe, more often than not they are reliant on the mainframe to complete transactions and are actually driving up usage. In tandem with the increase in usage driven by new innovations, we are seeing customer expectations soar. Today s customers are technologically savvy, armed with high-computing devices such as tablets and smartphones, and they have become accustomed to speed and high performance. They are also more fickle and will move to a competitor if they are unhappy with a service; therefore performance is more critical than ever. Yet ensuring these new applications and services run smoothly and efficiently is an extremely complex task. Mainframes were not originally designed to interact with customer-facing applications, and mobile was still just an imagined future. w that the old and new worlds have been forced to collide, the challenge of managing these environments and ensuring consistent performance can seem like an insurmountable task. Yet, failure is unthinkable with reputations, relationships and revenues at stake. However, despite the dynamically changing nature of the IT environment, many companies have failed to adapt their approach to monitoring and managing the performance of their mainframe application environments. IT teams are still siloed and visibility across the application delivery chain is poor. As a result, costs are escalating, inefficiencies are seeping through the cracks, and companies are regularly being forced into war-room situations, which are a drain on time and resources, resulting in slower mean time to resolution, and delaying innovation across the business. These issues and challenges were highlighted in a Compuwarecommissioned study of 350 CIOs from enterprise organizations. The study examined the impact of new technologies and trends on the mainframe application environment. The findings are compiled in the following report, which provides analysis of the data and an overview of potential solutions. Key highlights from this study include: More than half (55 percent) of enterprise applications call upon the mainframe to complete transactions 89 percent of CIOs stated mainframe workloads are increasing and getting more varied 91 percent of CIOs say high customer expectations are increasing the pressure on the mainframe to perform 87 percent of CIOs believe complexity is creating new risks in relation to application performance 70 percent of CIOs say mobility has increased MIPS consumption by over a quarter since their mainframes began interacting with mobile applications 63 percent of companies are unaware of application problems until calls start coming into the help desk 80 percent of IT departments are fire-fighting performance problems in war-room scenarios on a monthly basis

2 MAINFRAME IN THE NEW HYPER-DISTRIBUTED WORLD; NEW WORKLOADS, NEW CHALLENGES Contrary to the popular myth that mainframe usage is in decline, in reality it is in heavier use today than ever before, and performing a wider variety of tasks. The research showed that more than half (55 percent) of enterprise applications call upon the mainframe to complete transactions; with one in 20 relying on the mainframe to complete all of their transactions (chart 1). These applications are not just the traditional back-end systems with which the mainframe made its name; 89 percent of CIOs said that the mainframe is now running more new and different workloads compared to five years ago (chart 2). As a result, CIOs estimate that distributed applications have increased the mainframe workload by an average of 44 percent over the past five years (chart 3). Distributed applications are not only forcing the mainframe to work harder due to the surge in demand, there is further pressure for it to deliver these services at even faster speeds. The smartphone generation of consumers expect services to launch in seconds; if they don t, dissatisfaction is often expressed very swiftly, scathingly and publicly. As a result, CIOs are feeling the pressure: 91 percent said now that customer-facing applications are using the mainframe, performance expectations of the mainframe have increased (chart 4). However, meeting these expectations is not straightforward. Integrating new applications with older mainframe applications adds layers of complexity to the application delivery chain, and greater complexity invites more risk: 87 percent of CIOs agreed that the integration of new technologies into the mainframe application environment is creating complexity and business risks that previously did not exist (chart 5). In particular, CIOs highlighted lost revenue (48 percent), loss of employee productivity (47 percent) and brand/ reputation damage (43 percent) as being the top three performancerelated risks to their business (chart 6). This added complexity is also increasing hidden costs. The single largest cost associated with the mainframe is the computer power required to operate it, also called Million Instructions per Second (MIPS) usage. As mainframe usage increases, it is logical that MIPS consumption rises as well. The research shows that mobile in particular is driving a significant rise in consumption, having increased MIPS usage by an average of 41 percent; with a small, yet significant, 2 percent saying consumption had more than doubled as a result of the introduction of mobile (chart 7). Yet these figures could be misleading. It is not only an increase in usage that is driving MIPS consumption, but inefficiencies are also making the mainframe work harder than it needs to. The research shows that a staggering 68 percent of developers creating new distributed applications have very limited understanding of the mainframe (chart 8). Many CIOs (70 percent) are concerned that this lack of skills and understanding of Most applications still calling on the mainframe to complete transactions Mainframe workloads more varied than five years ago Mainframe usage rises with introduction of distributed applications % 5-75% 75%-99% 10 89% -25% 5-75% Over 75% Chart 1: 55 percent of enterprise applications call upon the mainframe to complete transactions, with 5 percent calling upon the mainframe to complete ALL their transactions. Chart 2: 89 percent of CIOs believe the mainframe is running more new and different workloads compared to five years ago. Chart 3: CIOs estimate distributed applications have increased the workload on the mainframe by an average of 44 percent over the last five years. Customer expectations driving need for even higher performing mainframes Integration of new technologies creating new business risks Top CIO headaches in relation to mainframe performance problems/failures Customer churn Compliance failure Brand/reputation damage 91% 87% Agree Disagree Agree Disagree Loss of employee productivity Lost revenue Chart 4: 91 percent of CIOs say now that customer-facing applications are using the mainframe and performance expectations on it have increased. Chart 5: 87 percent of CIOs believe the integration of new technologies into the mainframe environment is creating more complexity and therefore business risks around performance that did not exist before. Chart 6: CIOs main concerns in relation to a mainframe performance problem or failure are: lost revenues (48 percent), loss of employee productivity (47 percent) and brand/reputation damage (43 percent). 2

3 the mainframe application environment is leading to inefficient coding of distributed applications, resulting in increased MIPS consumption and impacting performance (chart 9). YOU CAN T FIGHT NEW BATTLES WITH OLD WEAPONS: A NEW APPROACH TO PERFORMANCE CHALLENGES IS NEEDED Despite a clear understanding of the risks and costs associated with the new hyper-distributed world, as outlined in the previous section, the research shows that companies are still trying to combat new threats with old defenses. As the mainframe environment has matured and diversified, for many, performance monitoring has not. 89 percent of companies are still relying on infrastructure tools to aggregate data or averages to monitor the performance of their IT (chart 10) and only a fifth of companies (21 percent) are using nextgeneration business transaction monitoring; with the majority (79 percent) having no visibility of the actual end-user experience (chart 11). Yet relying on averages and internal-facing monitoring tools only gives companies a snapshot of performance. While these approaches provided a solid indication of performance in the days when the mainframe was performing less complex tasks, today s applications rely on a number of different links to form the customer experience. As a result, even though everything is working fine internally and the green lights are on, certain transactions might be failing, which can create bottlenecks and frustration for those customers impacted. As a result, many companies (63 percent) are often unaware of performance problems until calls start coming in to the help desk (chart 12). This reliance on outdated performance monitoring is hindering organizations ability to proactively prevent performance problems before they take root; meaning IT departments are constantly having to fire-fight problems after they have already started to cause disruptions. This is impacting IT s ability to deliver, as they are constantly on the back-foot trying to troubleshoot problems. It is no surprise, therefore, that 75 percent of CIOs are feeling under extra pressure to reduce mean time to resolution on application performance problems (chart 13). However, the added complexity of the new hyper-distributed application environment means that isolating the cause of performance problems is increasingly difficult: 74 percent of CIOs believe cross-platform complexity created by the combined use of mainframe and distributed environments in the application delivery chain is slowing down problem resolution (chart 14). Mobile driving up mainframe MIPS consumption 45% 4 35% 3 25% 15% 1 5% -25% 5-75% 75% Chart 7: The increased use of mobile applications has increased MIPS consumption by more than two-fifths (41 percent), with 2 percent saying it has more than doubled. Distributed app developers don t really understand the mainframe Good understanding of the mainframe Very limited understanding of the mainframe mainframe knowledge or experience Chart 8: 68 percent of developers working on distributed applications using modern languages and frameworks, such as.net and Java have a very limited (at best) understanding of the mainframe. CIOs concerned that ineficient coding is driving up MIPS and damaging performance 7 Chart 9: 70 percent of CIOs are concerned that inefficient distributed applications are increasing MIPS consumption and impacting performance. Companies have limited view of performance based on averages and aggregated data Companies still relying on outdated performance monitoring techniques Mainframe usage rises with introduction of distributed applications Gut-feel performance tuning % Native mainframe capabilites Intelligent performance analysis tools Business transaction monitoring % 5-75% Over 75% Chart 10: 89 percent of CIOs still use aggregate data or averages to monitor the performance of IT. Chart 11: 79 percent of companies still using outdated methods to monitor performance in the mainframe environment. Chart 12: 63 percent of companies find that application performance problems are often first highlighted by end users calling the help desk. 3

4 IT departments told to solve problems faster ELIMINATE WAR ROOMS When you look at how an enterprise typically deals with a problem when it occurs, you can see why problem resolution in the new mainframe application environment is such a lengthy process. When an application starts to falter, companies often have to call upon all the different parts of the IT team to come together to identify and resolve the issue; a situation that is commonly referred to as a war room. The research shows that IT departments are being forced into these war-room situations on a regular basis, with the majority of respondents (52 percent) saying their IT departments are tied up in war rooms at least once a week (chart 15); and an alarming 39 percent having to do this more than once a week, or even daily (9 percent). When you consider that each of these sessions tie up an average of nine employees (chart 16), these war-room situations can have a major impact on an IT department s ability to innovate and perform their core roles. 75% Chart 13: 75 percent of CIOs say that their IT department is under pressure to reduce mean time to resolution on application performance problems. Complexity of distributed/mainframe application environments slows problem solving CONCLUSION All these issues put together are creating a major drain on today s enterprise. The mainframe is working harder than ever before, due to the increasing numbers of distributed and mobile applications calling upon it. Added to this, rising customer expectations are putting pressure on IT teams to deliver a seamless experience within seconds, every time. Also, the varied nature of new workloads is increasing the complexity of the mainframe application environment, meaning there are more links in the chain that could break. Traditional approaches to performance management are no longer effective, meaning companies are unable to take a proactive approach to ensuring an excellent user experience. As a result, by the time the company is aware of an issue it has often already started to impact staff and customers. Yet troubleshooting these problems is not as straightforward as it once was. With no visibility into how distributed and mainframe applications interact, distributed teams can t track performance into the mainframe. And, mainframe teams are blind to the impact of distributed code on mainframe transactions and workload. In addition, distributed developers may not realize how their code impacts the mainframe, all of which results in inefficient coding and rising costs, as well as slower mean time to resolution when problems do occur. This is why a new approach to mainframe application performance management is required. Companies need to move from a reactive to a proactive approach; identifying and rectifying problems before they occur. To do this, total end-to-end visibility of the entire application delivery chain from the end user right through to the mainframe is required. Rather than taking snapshots of performance through averages, companies should have dynamic data on the health of their IT in real time, combined with the ability to conduct deep application transaction management to delve down to line of code, giving IT teams a much clearer view of where and why a problem has occurred. Similarly, through correlating data across the entire application delivery chain, companies can bridge the technology silos that exist within their organization and improve mean time to resolution. Employees forced to abandon day-to-day activities to troubleshoot problems 20+ people people people 5-9 people Chart 14: 74 percent of CIOs think the added complexity of applications working across distributed and mainframe environments is making problem resolution take longer. Companies regularly stuck in war-room situations Less frequently Once a quarter Once a month Once every two weeks Once a week Couple of times a week A few days each week 74% Daily 1 3 Chart 15: 79 percent of CIOs say there is a war-room situation in their organization on a monthly basis; with more than half (52 percent) having one at least once a week and 9 percent on a daily basis. 1-4 people Chart 16: On average, if there is a war-room situation involving both distributed and mainframe components, nine people need to be involved in isolating the root cause of the problem. 4

5 COMPUWARE APM FOR MAINFRAME Compuware APM for Mainframe is the industry s only 24/7, end-toend transaction management solution that provides a single view of every transaction from mobile devices and browsers, through the middle tiers and into the mainframe and database. The solution is comprised of the following: PurePath for z/os CICS provides transaction monitoring for CICS applications, providing response and CPU time measurements from user click, through all application tiers and into mainframe applications including database interaction and back, to determine the fault domain. PurePath for z/os Java monitors mainframe Java applications. Compuware Strobe provides performance data for z/os applications. The solution shows where applications are consuming excessive CPU and wait times as well as generating recommendations for improving the performance and address root-cause issues based on the data collected. By extending the reach of PurePath Technology into the mainframe and combining it with the capabilities of Strobe, Compuware APM for Mainframe lets you proactively monitor interconnected system applications (including mobile), as well as transactions that interact with mainframe CICS or Java applications. For more information, visit: compuware.com/apm4mainframe SURVEY METHODOLOGY Commissioned by Compuware and conducted by independent research company Vanson Bourne, the survey was administered to 350 CIOs at large companies covering a cross-section of vertical markets in Australia, Benelux, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. Compuware Corporation, the technology performance company, makes technology make a difference by providing software, experts and best practices to ensure technology works well and delivers value. Compuware solutions make the world s most important technologies perform at their best for leading organizations worldwide, including 46 of the top 50 Fortune 500 companies and 12 of the top 20 most visited U.S. web sites. Learn more at: compuware.com. Compuware Corporation World Headquarters One Campus Martius Detroit, MI Compuware Corporation Compuware products and services listed within are trademarks or registered trademarks of Compuware Corporation. Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners _MF_Survey_WP_rf