Last February, Compuware and BMC announced a joint initiative to coordinate the use of their respective tools, BMC Cost Analyzer, BMC MainView, and Compuware Strobe, to reduce mainframe software licensing cost. DancingDinosaur wrote about it here. The announcement made this week confirms that the necessary integration between the various tools has been completed and is working as promised. Compuware this month also introduced the latest rev of its Topaz graphical management toolset for the z.
Compuware Topaz visual management screen (click to enlarge)
The tight integration between the BMC and Compuware tools enables mainframe staff to quickly and easily identify tuning opportunities that will have the greatest impact on their monthly software licensing costs. They do this by applying BMC Cost Analyzer’s visual mapping to the detailed batch and transaction information provided by Compuware Strobe. The cost savings result from moving workloads to non-peak periods, running IBM subsystems on fewer LPARs, and capping LPAR utilization.
Driving the need for this is the continuing growth of mainframe workloads, which are being pushed today by mobile workloads and, down the road, by new IoT workloads. These workloads already are driving up the Monthly License Charge (MLC) for IBM mainframe software, which led IBM to initiate z/OS discounts for mobile workloads on the z as well as introduce its new ICAP and country multiplex pricing. Compuware estimates that the integrated tools alone can reduce an organization’s mainframe software licensing costs by 10% or more.
“Mainframe cost conservation is an imperative for public- and private-sector IT organizations attempting to fulfill customers’ escalating digital expectations within ever-limited budget constraints,” said Karen Robinson, a former CIO and now a consultant. “The work BMC and Compuware are doing together is a perfect fit for this universal imperative.”
Besides discounting mobile workloads, IBM also has been actively working to help organizations drive down mainframe costs in other ways. Moving workloads to z assist processors is a top choice. Another is to take advantage of a variety of IBM discounts; DancingDinosaur’s favorite is the Solution Edition program, which offers the deepest discounts if you can live with the constraints it imposes. And, of course using tools like those from Compuware and BMC can save money every month. At a time when mainframe workloads are growing—Did someone say the mainframe was going away?—this is a sure path to relief.
Compuware made a second announcement impacting the mainframe this month. This involved adding capabilities to Topaz, its set of graphical z management tools aimed at millennial workers. The new capabilities address Java on the z, which is a key way to cash in on the savings available by shifting workloads to z assist processors, specifically the zIIP. The announcement is here. Again, DancingDinosaur initially wrote about Topaz earlier this year here.
As Compuware describes it, Topaz for Java Performance delivers comprehensive visibility into the performance and behavior of Java batch programs and WebSphere transactions running on the mainframe—including peak CPU utilization of specific Java methods and classes; garbage collection issues such as memory leaks and excessively long collection intervals; and threads that are blocked or not actually doing useful work.
According to Tonya Robison, VP Legacy Integrations, Conversion, De-commission at Alfa Insurance: “Topaz is enabling us for a multi-channel, multi-platform future. Its functionality will allow us to work with mainframe and non-mainframe data in a common, visual, and intuitive manner, providing our next-gen developers the same agility and speed as our seasoned IT pros.” Robison is convinced that “products like Topaz will protect our current investments and enable the next generation of application developers.” These are the millennials everyone is trying to attract to the mainframe.
The new release of Topaz, the third this year alone, delivers two capabilities that enhance customers’ ability to maximize value from their mainframe:
- Topaz for Program Analysis gives developers intuitive, accurate visibility into the flow of data within their COBOL or PL/l applications—including how data gets into a field; how that field is used to set other fields; and how that field is used in comparisons. This promises to be especially useful for Millennials who may not have a wealth of experience with IBM z Systems.
- Topaz for Enterprise Data brings high-speed, compression-enabled host-to-host data copying that exploits IBM z Systems zIIP processors, thus reducing the burden on its general processors. This fast, efficient copying enables developers to complete their work more quickly and at less cost.
Efforts of Compuware, BMC, and others are rapidly changing the mainframe into an agile platform that can rival distributed platforms. Let’s hope the Millennials notice.
DancingDinosaur is Alan Radding, a veteran IT analyst and writer. Please follow DancingDinosaur on Twitter, @mainframeblog. See more of his IT writing on Technologywriter.com and here.
