As organizations try to remain forward of the curve in at this time’s fast-paced digital panorama, mainframe software modernization has emerged as a important element of any digital transformation technique.
On this weblog, we’ll talk about the instance of a US financial institution which launched into a journey to modernize its mainframe purposes. This strategic mission has helped it to remodel right into a extra trendy, versatile and agile enterprise. In wanting on the methods through which it approached the issue, you’ll acquire insights into the alternatives and challenges offered by mainframe modernization and a few of the methods that may assist your group obtain success.
The financial institution is headquartered within the Midwest, with branches in massive regional cities. It presents a full vary of non-public and business banking providers, together with checking and financial savings accounts, loans, bank cards, mortgages and wealth administration providers. The financial institution has a robust give attention to innovation, utilizing expertise to reinforce the client expertise and streamline banking processes. Just lately, the financial institution has launched a variety of digital instruments, together with cell deposit, on-line account opening and customized monetary administration instruments, and is within the strategy of constructing a market-leading funding and buying and selling platform.
The financial institution’s digital structure is constructed round a strong mainframe system that serves because the central hub for all banking operations. The mainframe is chargeable for processing transactions, managing buyer accounts and offering the core performance that powers the financial institution’s providers. To make sure excessive availability and scalability, the mainframe is supported by a cluster of servers that work collectively to deal with the financial institution’s computing wants. This structure permits the financial institution to course of a excessive quantity of transactions with out sacrificing efficiency or reliability.
Along with its mainframe, the financial institution has a robust relationship with Microsoft and leverages Microsoft Azure cloud platform to increase its IT infrastructure. Azure offers it with a scalable, safe and cost-effective method to deploy new purposes and providers, whereas additionally offering seamless integration with the financial institution’s current methods. By utilizing Azure, the financial institution can rapidly reply to altering market situations and buyer wants, whereas additionally decreasing its IT prices and enhancing its total operational effectivity. The financial institution’s shut relationship with Microsoft additionally offers entry to cutting-edge applied sciences and experience, permitting the financial institution to remain on the forefront of the monetary providers trade.
Bettering the financial institution’s backup technique with Azure
The financial institution depends closely on its mainframe methods to retailer and course of huge quantities of knowledge. Because the storage administrator, Matthew acknowledges that storage prices, notably backup prices, have been rising considerably over latest months. In a latest dialog with the chief data officer (CIO), he understands that there shall be additional calls for for storage because the financial institution develops and releases its new funding and buying and selling platform. He’s turning into more and more involved in regards to the want for extra storage within the financial institution’s information facilities and the price of backup given the elevated regulatory storage and backup necessities that may include the brand new buying and selling platform.
The financial institution has a robust partnership with Microsoft and Matthew has been taking a look at completely different choices for backup. He not too long ago turned conscious of the IBM® Cloud Tape Connector for z/OS® (CTC) which might enable the financial institution to simply switch tape information to Azure Object Storage, profiting from the cloud’s scalability and cost-effectiveness. He notably preferred the truth that the Tape Connector requires no difficult gateway {hardware} units to buy, configure and preserve—reasonably, as a software-delivered service, it seamlessly linked with the financial institution’s Azure atmosphere. Matthew ran a number of assessments and was happy with the outcomes; he was in a position to again up information, restore it, and check out restoration from disasters by utilizing an environment friendly, cross-region, distributed structure for information backup.
With a cheap, scalable and dependable backup technique now in place, the financial institution was prepared to maneuver ahead with its plans to develop and launch the brand new web banking providers.
Bettering developer productiveness on the mainframe
Meet Kate. Kate is a brand new developer on the financial institution and is working with Tom to develop a brand new web banking software. Tom asks Kate to work on the client stability inquiry module and replace it to offer the client with stability data throughout a number of accounts. To start, she needs to start out with the present stability inquiry module that’s a part of the present system however Kate will not be very acquainted with COBOL. Kate can use the IBM watsonx Code Assistant™ for Z (WCA4Z) refactoring assistant to assist visualize the present COBOL code and its dependencies to establish the module the place the stability inquiry resides. WCA4Z can then assist her pull collectively all of the related code artifacts. After the required supply elements are recognized, Kate then makes use of generative AI (gen AI) to transform the COBOL code to object-oriented Java.
Kate extends the Java code with the brand new performance required by the enterprise and now needs to assist guarantee correct integration with the remainder of her mainframe software atmosphere. Kate can commit her new and up to date code modifications to a Git-based repository, like Azure Repos or GitHub. To keep up consistency and expedited deployments, Kate’s code repository is configured to set off Azure DevOps pipeline builds, which has automation functionality to carry out all deployment operations. The code is checked for high quality, compiled and positioned in an artifact repository for future deployment.
Adopting cloud-native growth
Quick ahead just a few years. Kate is now a cloud-native developer who has been constructing cutting-edge purposes for years. Utilizing the newest instruments and applied sciences, she has helped the financial institution lead the trade in providing new and progressive providers to prospects. From her earlier expertise on the financial institution, she is aware of that mainframes nonetheless host core methods. She and her staff think about this platform to be legacy expertise. In a latest dialog, the subject of migration got here up, and the main focus was on when, not if, her staff could be tasked with transferring key purposes and providers to the cloud.
Just lately, she was requested by the CIO to work on a brand new software, which represented the subsequent step ahead within the financial institution’s funding and buying and selling platform. Although anticipated to be out there on any machine, the CIO outlined a number of key necessities. The applying wanted to simply deal with excessive volumes of transactions and supply quick, nearly real-time processing instances. It might additionally must have extraordinarily low latency and supply customers with detailed insights primarily based on the financial institution’s wealthy data, together with an in depth evaluation of portfolio and particular person inventory efficiency. Her management staff was insistent that point was of the essence if the financial institution was to compete within the new markets the platform would unlock, and that the event staff would want to maneuver rapidly.
Through the planning part, Kate and her staff had been made conscious of a mainframe software that hosted and maintained a lot of the data she wanted for the brand new platform. Initially, the staff thought that migrating this software to the cloud could be the most effective method. Nonetheless, after some preliminary investigations, they realized that migrating the advanced and extremely regulated software would take many months if not years.
Kate and her staff resolve that it might be rather more cost-effective and quicker to go away the mainframe software as it’s. They resolve to work with the mainframe growth staff to construct a set of REST (representational state switch) APIs that may enable the Azure software to interface with the mainframe and to securely request data. Adopting this method which permits her staff to focus effort and time on buyer worth, they observe these steps:
- Kate and her staff establish the data they want and work with the mainframe staff to establish the APIs that may enable them to entry the required information and enterprise logic.
- The mainframe staff create a set of RESTful APIs and use a device—comparable to IBM API Join® and z/OS® Join—to create API definitions and generate API documentation and shopper code.
- They arrange an API Gateway in Azure API Administration to configure an entry level for the Azure software to entry the mainframe APIs. Kate and her staff get began on the Azure software utilizing the generated API documentation and shopper code supplied to make API calls to the mainframe system.
- Because the Safe by Design method is a important a part of the financial institution’s method to growth, the staff helps make sure that an identification answer is put into place in the beginning. This technique is to allow the staff to deal with authentication and authorization accurately and make sure that solely licensed customers and purposes such because the financial institution’s new funding and buying and selling platform can entry the mainframe system by way of the APIs.
After a number of weeks of growth, Kate’s staff completes the combination between the Azure software working on Azure and the mainframe system. They check the Azure software totally to assist make sure that it really works as anticipated, is ready to talk with the mainframe accurately, and that the mainframe system can deal with the elevated load. The result’s a contemporary net software that gives prospects with a seamless person expertise whereas leveraging the ability of the mainframe system. Prospects can work together with the applying with out realizing that they’re accessing assets on the mainframe.
Integrating an Azure software with a mainframe system utilizing APIs requires cautious planning, collaboration between groups, and a strong understanding of each Azure and mainframe applied sciences. By utilizing APIs to bridge the hole between the previous and the brand new, builders like Kate are in a position to create trendy purposes that present the most effective of the brand new, leveraging the ability of the mainframe whereas offering a seamless person expertise.
Utilizing Azure Logic Apps
After her staff had constructed the brand new platform, a staff member informed Kate about Azure Logic Apps and the way it may doubtlessly assist her automate and streamline a few of the workflows within the new platform. Inquisitive about this risk, she determined to present it a attempt. She began by making a logic app that may automate the method of transferring information between the mainframe and a cloud-based storage system. Then, she used the Azure Logic Apps designer to create a visible illustration of the workflow, which made it straightforward to grasp and modify.
Subsequent, Kate used Azure Logic Apps connectors to combine the mainframe with different providers, comparable to Azure Capabilities and Azure API Administration. This allowed her to increase the capabilities of the mainframe and create new performance that wasn’t potential earlier than. She was in a position to create an internet API that allowed prospects to entry their account data and carry out transactions in actual time.
In a dialogue with Tom on the mainframe staff, she additionally instructed that Azure Logic Apps might be used to assist automate the testing and deployment of mainframe purposes. Collectively, they helped to create a steady integration and steady deployment (CI/CD) pipeline that mechanically examined and deployed the brand new code every time modifications had been made. This saved Tom’s staff a major period of time and diminished the chance of errors.
On account of these modifications, the person interface was now trendy and intuitive, and the processes had been automated and environment friendly. Prospects had been in a position to entry their account data and carry out transactions in close to real-time, and the financial institution noticed a major improve in buyer satisfaction and effectivity.
Azure Logic Apps present an alternative choice for builders, permitting them to modernize their mainframe purposes with out costly {hardware} and software program upgrades.
Working collectively as a staff
In at this time’s fast-paced world of software program growth, it’s not unusual for a number of groups to work on separate initiatives that depend upon one another. Nonetheless, with out correct coordination, these initiatives can typically undergo from miscommunication, delays, and finally, failure. Mainframe code growth and launch into manufacturing has been traditionally a lot slower than Azure attributable to complexity, regulation and the necessity for formal change management—whereas in an Azure world, issues can and do change on a fast foundation.
Think about this situation. Kate and Tom every have completely different deadlines for the brand new funding and buying and selling platform, with new options and capabilities to be added to the front-end software. Additionally they need to make some corresponding modifications to the back-end information processing and interfaces (APIs) on the mainframe facet to permit the entrance finish to achieve entry to the information. It’s essential that these modifications are aligned as deadlines are tight and there’s a must keep away from pointless testing and rework.
To keep away from the challenges with interdependencies and variations in deployment schedules, Kate and Tom create a shared backlog of labor, which incorporates all of the duties and milestones for the mainframe and the front-end Azure software. They prioritize the duties primarily based on their significance and dependencies and assign particular deadlines to every one. Additionally they set up a system of steady integration and supply, the place they might often share their work and supply suggestions to one another.
In adopting DevOps processes throughout each cloud native and mainframe purposes and viewing the success of the mission as a shared dedication, Kate and Tom had been in a position to:
- Enhance communication: Common conferences and shared milestones helped Kate and Tom keep on the identical web page. They may talk successfully and regulate as wanted.
- Enhance effectivity: By prioritizing duties and aligning their efforts, Kate and Tom had been in a position to full their initiatives extra effectively. They may give attention to essentially the most important duties and keep away from losing time on nonessential work.
- Scale back danger: Steady integration and supply allowed Kate and Tom to establish and repair points early on. They may catch bugs and conflicts earlier than they turned main issues.
- Enhance high quality: By collaborating and sharing their work, Kate and Tom had been in a position to ship high-quality initiatives. They may assessment one another’s work and supply suggestions, which helped them enhance the general high quality of their initiatives.
Kate and Tom’s story highlights the significance of DevOps processes and collaboration in software program growth. It additionally exhibits the significance of utilizing frequent or standardized tooling to “break down silos” between growth groups, particularly with options that cross platforms. By aligning their milestones and efforts, they had been in a position to ship a profitable mission that labored seamlessly. Their expertise exhibits that when builders work collectively and talk successfully, they’ll overcome even essentially the most difficult obstacles and ship high-quality software program that meets the wants of their prospects.
Accelerating mainframe software modernization
IBM Consulting® can assist you design a hybrid cloud technique with a single built-in working mannequin, which incorporates frequent agile practices and interoperability of purposes between IBM® Z®, Microsoft Azure and mainframes. IBM locations purposes and information on the precise platform and helps preserve them secured, encrypted and resilient. It’s an agile, seamlessly built-in hybrid cloud platform with IBM Z on the core. IBM Consulting works to speed up mainframe software modernization, develop Azure purposes, and drive IT automation with IBM Z and Azure. The joint method permits companies to innovate quicker, maximize funding worth, and scale back the necessity for specialised expertise.
Study how one can unlock the total potential of your mainframe and drive enterprise success. Uncover the advantages of mainframe modernization and schedule a dialog with our specialists to discover how IBM can assist you obtain your objectives.
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