IBM and Computer Associates are tailoring wares for mainframe users that the companies promise will make managing the 40-year-old technology easier for novice systems administrators, and cut budget costs associated with maintaining the Big Iron.
Research shows that loyal mainframe customers aren’t planning to part with their legacy systems any time soon, a fact that has management software makers clamoring to keep their established customers happy by adding ease-of-use features, such as Web interfaces, and offering more attractive pricing options. In fact, Forrester Research reports IBM’s zSeries revenue grew between 22% and 25% in 2004, and the firm expects more modest growth in the coming year.
“There is a lot of data on companies’ mainframes and there aren’t a lot of reasons to migrate it off those systems,” says Jasmine Noel, a principal analyst with Ptak, Noel & Associates. “But making sure mainframes are up and running isn’t really a challenge. Management vendors have to monitor and link the mainframe’s performance to the Java, .Net and Web services systems that interact with the data stored on mainframes.”
For IBM’s part, the company last week at its Share user conference in San Diego unveiled the first suite of products developed from the company’s June 2004 acquisition of Candle Corp . Big Blue unveiled its IBM Tivoli Omegamon XE suite, which takes two parts Candle and one-part Tivoli technology to let customers detect, isolate and repair application performance problems.
IBM says the IBM Tivoli Omegamon XE bundle includes technology to monitor and manage zSeries operating systems and subsystems such as Linux, CICS, DB2, WebSphere, storage and other systems. The software, which runs on a Windows server and uses agents distributed on mainframes to collect data, will be able to show how mission-critical applications use zSeries systems. The software will let experienced zSeries administrators use the standard “green screen,” or IT staff can utilize a Web-based interface to get a view into mainframe performance and how the system affects applications tapping it for data.
Omegamon XE begins at $4,000, depending on capacity.
According to Noel, IBM’s investment in mainframe technology with its Candle purchase spurred other vendors, such as BMC Software and CA, to reevaluate their mainframe products. The added competition could mean lower costs for customers.
“Price and ease-of-use will be how vendors compete. The customers have the advantage with mainframe management products, because these vendors don’t want to lose any of their base,” Noel says.
Meanwhile, CA last week introduced its Unicenter r11 software for output management, which includes three applications that can be purchased separately or as a bundle: CA-Spool, CA-View and CA-Deliver. The software, which runs directly on a zSeries mainframe, will help systems administrators control data output and reports from the mainframe.
According to CA, mainframe systems generate reports when they finish a job, for example, without consideration to how an administrator needs to see the data, when they need it or where they need it to print. CA-Spool offers systems administrators a way to control the print output from a mainframe, and CA-View allows the data to be viewed in different formats. And CA-Deliver can automate the delivery of the data to IT management in the form of a PDF report or e-mail, for example. CA-Spool almost always works in conjunction with one of the other two applications, but is available for purchase separately, CA says.
Much like CA’s December release of performance management software for mainframes, the Unicenter r11 applications for mainframe output management have been reworked to take advantage of what CA dubs Common Services – which includes incorporating standard code, interfaces and standard databases for use across CA management systems. Typically, each CA product has a unique user interface and isolated data repository, but with the new technology users will be able to maintain similar interfaces among products and have the option to use a shared database or maintain a separate database for each CA application.
CA-Spool is available now. CA-View and CA-Deliver are currently in beta pilots with customers and are set to be generally available by the end of the month [march]. Pricing for the product bundle starts at $60,000 for a yearly subscription.
