Syncsort Partners with Compuware to Analyze Mainframe Log Data

Some 50 years after being introduced, the mainframe remains core to enterprise. But managing that venerable platform is still a major challenge. Syncsort today announced it is partnering with Compuware to make log data generated by mainframes more accessible to IT operations teams by normalizing it in a way that makes it simpler to feed into the analytics platform for machine data developed by Splunk.

David Hodgson, chief product officer, says Syncsort developed Ironstream to make it feasible to move massive amounts of data typically associated with Big Data projects across the enterprise.

“Today we have about 100 customers using Ironstream,” says Hodgson. “About 40 of those are paying.”

Rather than having to create a separate product to feed data into Splunk, Hodgson says partnering with Syncsort enables Compuware to move data from its auditing applications for mainframes directly into Splunk. Hodgson says Syncsort expects to form additional alliances to help organizations feed massive amount of Big Data into platforms such as Splunk or Hadoop.

As IT operations continues to evolve, the line between IT operations in mainframe and distributed computing environments has been blurring. Hodgson says being able to normalize mainframe log data within Splunk will accelerate that transition in a way that serves to reduce the total cost of operating both environments.

Whether organizations will completely merge their IT operations teams remains to be seen. But as log analytics platforms continue to mature, the opportunity to achieve that goal has never been better.