IBM this week unveiled a program, tools and services the company hopes will make the mainframe easier to manage, program and administer.

The company is introducing a five-year, $100 million project to simplify System Z mainframe operations and adoption. The program and tools include an IBM Health Checker for z/OS, which monitors and recommends configuration tune-ups intended to improve system performance and availability, a new management console that looks less like IBM’s customary green screens and improved software asset-management technologies that makes it easier for users to control software costs and automate software acquisition.

“It takes a lot of time for systems programmers and administrators to get up to speed overall in terms of implementing the mainframe,” says John Burg, System Z product marketing manager for IBM. We are trying to simplify it, make the interfaces less complicated and make it easier to administer and view.”

Earlier this year, a Williams Data Systems survey, pointed out that individuals with mainframe skills are in short supply. Almost half of the 135 companies surveyed, indicated that they are hiring IT administrators with one to five years of experience.

The mainframe simplification program makes use of the OMEGAMON z/OS management console from Tivoli Systems. This management console accepts results from the Health Checker and automates and simplifies management tasks.

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