For 30 years, vendors with various alternative architectures predicted that the mainframe was on the doorstep of death. While these competitors have chipped away at market share in this venerable system, few of the heavily invested companies have ditched the mainframe in favor of the latest and greatest platform. .
In fact, according to a research report released late last year by an enterprise software maker, there are currently approximately 800 billion lines of active COBOL code running on mainframe platforms, well above vendor expectations. increase. The report further said that many companies fully expect their COBOL applications to remain in use for at least the next decade.
The most important application that helps keep the mainframe alive is the database, which serves as both the application and the application development platform.
“Mainframe databases are one of the main reasons mainframes still exist,” said Jack Gold, president and principal analyst at J. Gold Associates. “However, migrating tightly packed on-premises databases to a cloud environment or other distributed platform requires a lot of effort. It’s easier to upgrade your ware, etc. That can be a big problem.”
The Challenges of Migrating Mainframe Databases to the Cloud and Distributed Databases
One of the more complex challenges of moving your own on-premises databases to the cloud is the loss of corporate control over the reliable access your users have to their data. Businesses must trust cloud providers to avoid costly cloud outages.
“A key problem many users face when migrating databases to the cloud is avoiding outages that can cost the user as well as the vendor millions of dollars,” Gold said. Stated. “If the cloud goes down, they’re out of business.”
Another reason IT operations are reluctant to migrate databases off the mainframe is that IT operations are closely tied to the instruction set of mainframe hardware. IT administrators also have to deal with hundreds of undocumented, in-house developed applications that some companies have created over decades, and these applications contain mission-critical data. It often happens.
“Mainframe instruction sets have been tuned for many years to specifically take advantage of the core capabilities of databases,” says Francis Dzubeck, president of information infrastructure design firm Communications Network Architects. “Database vendors enhance their products primarily based on user requests, which helps maintain user loyalty to their products.”
The Unique Challenge of Managing Mainframe Databases: Lack of Documentation
The lack of available documentation for decades-old database applications can delay mainframe projects by months, and put IT staff under undue pressure from impatient CEOs.
“In today’s environment, good documentation is essential. This shouldn’t be treated as a trivial matter,” said one system architect at a Fortune 100 bank who requested anonymity. “I was on a project to migrate a mainframe database to another project [distributed] A system without proper documentation. It took over a year to complete, but management screamed as to why they bothered to undertake such a project. ”
A few decades ago, migrating a mainframe database to a distributed platform was relatively easy. At the time, databases and their internally developed applications were small and built to perform specific tasks. The process has become increasingly complex over the years as enterprise users attempt to migrate their databases to a variety of other platforms.
“Convert code [of a proprietary database] “Moving to another platform takes time because it needs to be handled properly,” says Zubek, adding, “Applications that sit on top of mainframe databases are like those that exist in a one-person store. It’s not simple, they often turn out to be mission-critical applications that companies use company-wide.”
Best Practices for Mainframe Database Management
In addition to having the discipline to create and store detailed documentation about older database applications, it is important that IT operations teams are aware of modern management and monitoring tools that can enhance database security. Recommended practices for improving security include implementing role-based security, regularly “cleaning up” the security database, and identifying the most important data.
Mainframe databases are one of the main reasons mainframes still exist.
jack goldJ. Gold Associates President and Principal Analyst
Another important practice is automating critical business processes. Chief among the automation tools that analysts see as promising are emerging classes of AI products such as ChatGPT and Bard. Some analysts and consultants have advised that many of these AI-based tools are in early stages of development and will not be safe for use on production platforms for some time.
“Database vendors are making automation and orchestration a priority as they move to the cloud,” Zubek said. “IT shops are moving towards a more tool-centric, AI-centric database environment management, but he is still in the early stages of introducing AI into production platforms.”
What the future holds for mainframe databases
One of the benefits for IT administrators of keeping mainframes and databases on-premises is the emergence of faster, lower-cost mainframes and storage devices. The latest generation of mainframe hardware is equipped to run increasingly large data sets and large language models to extend the lifecycle of existing mainframe databases into the booming era of AI development. is enhanced.
In addition to the successful integration of AI technologies into mainframe software, AI has the potential to further extend the lifespan of mainframes by allowing younger IT workers to replace retired IT veterans. “AI can automate a lot of things, but just as importantly, we don’t have to sweat finding qualified replacements for mainframe veterans,” he says. Judith Hurwitz, chief causality evangelist at AI software startup Geminos. “Though AI-savvy, mainframe experience has allowed him to tap into a large workforce of young people less than 40 years old.”
