Jon Toigo commented in his guest blog about his May Mainframe Madness 2011 (MMM2011) session on "Hybrid Mainframing." He explained that Hybrid Mainframing is about the evolution of mainframe computing and the necessary strategic responses to the challenges of managing mainframes. 

Jon focuses on four areas:

• 1) Software complexity - he asserts that there is a lot of utility software that can help mainframers do their job, but there is little integration between them. He points out that a common workspace is needed.
• 2) Changing Workloads - he explains that as the zEnterprise architecture is adopted, and the mainframe "goes hybrid", it will bring "foreign" workloads into the conventional data center management mix. He asserts that the mainframe processing and management model needs to evolve to handle them.
• 3) Blurring IT Management Roles - he points out that the lines are blurring where, up until now, there had been clearly defined management responsibilities. He points out that we need to capture the knowledge, skills and task responsibilities in an intelligible and transferable way.
• 4) Aging Workforce - He points out that the aging mainframe workforce is a further complication - how will the next-generation system programmers, DBAs, etc. who have "cut their technology teeth on the internet and iPhones" be prepared to manage mainframes?

I was proud that Jon recognized that CA Technologies is proactively addressing these challenges.  In fact, all four areas fall under 3 business challenges our customers have consistently identified to us.  They are:

• Control Costs and do more with less
• Sustain critical MF workforce skills
• Increase Agility of the platform to meet business needs

These three needs are the drivers behind our Mainframe 2.0 strategy, with the goal of simplifying mainframe management through integration, automation, and modernization.  Mainframe 2.0 has been a huge undertaking, addressing our entire, broad mainframe product portfolio, and Jon mentioned some of the most innovative highlights our mainframe development team has delivered.  First, we built CA Mainframe Software Manager (CA MSM), which is essentially an "install shield for the mainframe" that dramatically simplifies the acquisition, installation, and deployment of mainframe software."  Today we have over 350 customers using CA MSM and they are reporting reductions in installation times by as much as 90% or more.

But to meet their business challenges, our customers need us to simplify more than just installation and deployment.  They need us to simplify their entire day-to-day management tasks. To do this, we created an entirely new paradigm and that is management tasks.  What they were asking for was an entirely new management paradigm - a completely modernized workspace.  It would help them do more with less, make the platform more agile in meeting business needs and solve workforce problems by attracting and enabling the next generation mainframer Jon described, while facilitating collaboration with and improving the productivity of experienced staff.

Before taking on this challenge, we did immersive research with our customers and found they were using multiple tools and toggling back and forth between 6-8 different screens and tools to solve a problems...Integration was needed.  They were importing dumps of data into Excel and graphing them up to understand patterns and root cause analysis....Rich graphics and visualization were in order. The mainframe knowledge management system from some of the largest customers in the world consisted of sharing notebooks with handwritten information...Collaboration and knowledge management were essential. 

Based on this research and the recommendations of an innovative, industry design firm, we built CA Mainframe Chorus.

We also announced that we have installed a zEnterprise mainframe and blade server so we can develop new solutions in the hybrid environment, including integrating management across mainframe and distributed systems to further support cost reduction initiatives.

There's much more to come, but these are some of the highlights of what we've delivered so far to meet the hybrid mainframing challenges Jon Toigo called out, and to continue to deliver on our Mainframe 2.0 strategy.  I invite you to attend May Mainframe Madness 2011 and learn more about everything Jon and I described.