IBM is investing £55m over five years to make its System
z mainframes easier to program, manage and administer.
The supplier plans to develop new technology to help
administrators and programmers use IBM System z mainframes, and to
automate the development and deployment of mainframe
applications.
Mark Lillycrop, chief executive at analyst firm Arcati, said the
investment would be good news for users, as mainframe skills have
been in decline as a result of a generation of mainframe experts
retiring.
"The one concern that remains in the minds of company directors
looking to steer their IT strategy is that the mainframe legacy
environment that has built up over the past 20 years is an
increasingly difficult thing to manage because so many of their
mainframe experts are nearing retirement. It has been difficult to
encourage young people to replace them," he said.
As part of IBM's mainframe modernisation initiative, it will
develop automated configuration checking to make it easier for
administrators and programmers to predict and avoid technical
problems.
It intends to update both the mainframe architecture and its
user interface, which includes network configuration, systems
management and datacentre hardware configuration tools.
IBM will also improve software asset management technologies,
and will introduce visual tools to help mainframe novices.
The company has been trying to boost mainframe adoption,
particularly among small and medium sized businesses, launching
lower-cost mainframes that run Linux. Earlier this year it released
the System z9 Business Class mainframe, priced from about £53,000,
targeted at health care and retail users and other mid-sized
companies.
Jim Stallings, general manager for IBM System z, said, "From a
strategic perspective, a focus on mainframe simplification
increases the attractiveness of the platform to a broader swath of
IT professionals."
More information www-03.ibm.com/systems/z