Mainframes: On the Revival Path

In the early days of computing, mainframes ruled enterprises. Computing was still in its formative years and Moore's Law in its infancy. In those days, mainframe computers, also called the big iron, were on a pedestal so high that they were a symbol of power. Mainframe programmers commanded great salaries. But come 1990s computing models rapidly changed with the advent of servers that set the stage for distributed computing. During this time mainframes and their applications started becoming legacy as enterprises started migrating to new hardware configurations. The operating systems landscape also changed. As a result enterprises acquired different operating systems, and mainframes simply could not run multiple operating systems.

In the formative years, like in the 1960s, mainframes had one major drawback-there were no user interfaces. But in the 1970s, this flaw was rectified. In the 1980s they also acquired graphical capabilities. The launch of the z series mainframes by IBM created a new premise. No longer were mainframes considered legacy, they became rather an integral part of the IT infrastructure of large enterprises. Today a mainframe can run diverse operating systems.

So, from the mid 1990s computing moved away from centralized to the distributed model and this is precisely the reason for the complexities many of the enterprises are facing today. For instance, many enterprises have acquired many servers distributed across the enterprise running multiple applications and operating systems. Due to this excessive distribution, IT managers are forced to consolidate their hardware in order to create a single view of their IT infrastructure. This move to centralization again is infusing fresh blood into the mainframe market. Consolidation and virtualization are now being actively considered. This augurs well for the mainframes as it is seen as the reliable hardware backbone that can offer a panacea to those companies struggling to manage compute intensive scenarios and have plethora a of distributed servers.

Beyond Legacy
Mainframes are often associated with legacy apps. With the emergence of modern business apps like ERP, what are the issues? How OS neutral and open have they become? Can they run Unix, Linux, etc? Mainframes have traditionally supplied computing needs for CICS/IMS based applications, which are now considered legacy. Sreenath Chary, business unit executive, System z, IBM India, says, "The mainframe today runs Websphere, the most used open platform. This makes the mainframe run Java natively under Websphere. In addition, mainframes also run the latest Linux distributions, which makes it the most open platform that supports multiple operating systems."

ERP applications from various vendors like SAP, PeopleSoft and others are all supported on the mainframe as well. These support the mainframe natively or support running on the mainframe via Linux or Websphere as multiple choices are available.

Need for Mainframes
Chary says, "Mainframes perform extremely well when there are contentions for data amongst a host of applications that need to run simultaneously. Its capability to provide consistent levels of services under such conditions is unparalleled". Vendors like IBM, who dominate the mainframe space are bullish about their resurgence and escalation. This makes mainframes the perfect environment where there is an increasing need for real-time database access and update, exploding transaction volumes and reliability to serve consistently.

The defined value of mainframes can be evaluated by their ability to churn out computing tasks in the most efficient manner. Most distributed servers are utilized to a lowly 15%-20% for Intel boxes and to about 30% for Unix boxes. This is a huge wastage. The cost of managing the complexity with hundreds of distributed servers is being felt especially in the areas of cost of maintenance, hardware failure, upgrades, real estate space occupied, and lastly power consumption. Hence, to manage these complexities the solutions lies in virtualization through mainframes.

Virtualization initiatives to increase the utilization of servers is becoming the preferred option and analysts say this is where the mainframes, true colors come to fore. For instance, mainframes are capable of running at 100% utilization for any length of time, unlike its counterparts. If there are say 100 servers, one can expect about three hardware failures per month compared to none for mainframes that can easily replace around hundreds of servers. Hence, mainframes have a distinct advantage in cost as well as reliability.

What makes mainframes more relevant today is the adoption of Linux and its ability to run on mainframes. For instance, the z9 mainframes from IBM can take up dedicated Linux processors in addition to main processor. IBM calls it Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL). Using IFL one can host around 40 Linux virtual servers and that huge computing power is ready for existing and future computing needs of the company.

Market leader IBM is investing heavily to increase the acceptance of mainframes in the Indian market place. "We are aggressively pushing for the usage of mainframes into accounts in India with proof points of how mainframes could reduce the TCO in most instances," says Chary.

Mainframe Skill Sets
Looking at the way things are evolving more and more companies will at one point of time opt for virtualization through mainframes. And this resurgence is opening up the IT training market for mainframes as there is paucity of well trained mainframe programmers. In India, most SIs generate skills on mainframes and there are also players like Maples ESM who produce a good number of trained manpower every year. N Ram Subramani, founder president, Maple ESM Technologies, says, "There is a huge demand for mainframe professionals. We have trained close to around 9,000 mainframe professionals in the last year alone, and they were placed in top companies."

Meanwhile IBM is also implementing the zAcademic initiative to develop skills around mainframe technologies, starting with universities. Since the mainframe today runs Linux, Websphere, and Java, analysts believe there would be some migrations from these professionals to mainframes. Moreover, these technologies are mainstream development environments today and work the same way on the mainframe as they do on the other platforms. IBM's suite of application development around Rational and others cater to developing applications for the mainframes seamlessly.

Going forward, adoption for the mainframes like any other advanced technology will increase in India, as the reasons to invest in this technology become more compelling day by the day depending on customer situations. The key drivers that would push mainframe adoption would be the need for virtualization, and in the bargain it will usher in better TCO, increased availability, reliability and security.