5 Essential Elements in Building an Agile Data Center As part of a continuing effort to modernize mainframe environments, Compuware today made available an update to a tool that makes it simpler to test logical units of COBOL code while at the same time moving to acquire MVS Solutions, a provider of a tool for […]
5 Essential Elements in Building an Agile Data Center
As part of a continuing effort to modernize mainframe environments, Compuware today made available an update to a tool that makes it simpler to test logical units of COBOL code while at the same time moving to acquire MVS Solutions, a provider of a tool for automating the running of batch jobs on mainframes.
Compuware CEO Chris O’Malley says both initiatives are designed to make mainframes more accessible at a time when enterprise IT organizations are engaged in digital business transformations that inevitably need to include mainframe applications.
“We’re on a quest to mainstream the mainframe,” says O’Malley.
Large enterprises, notes O’Malley, are still heavily dependent on COBOL applications to process trillions of dollars of transactions. The latest release of Topaz for Total Test (TTT) now makes it possible to test logical units of COBOL code in much the same way that developers now test Java code. That capability makes it feasible to include COBOL code within the context of an agile application development methodology, says O’Malley.
MVS Solutions, meanwhile, provides access to a set of ThruPut Manager tools that make it simpler for IT generalists to manage the processing of batch jobs on mainframes.
Overall, O’Malley says a new survey conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Compuware shows that 57 percent of new business initiative always involve mainframes to one degree or another. The digital business issue that IT organizations face, highlighted in that survey, is the fact that 90 percent of the respondents said they are challenged by mainframe application development and delivery.
Obviously, that leaves a lot of room for mainframe improvement. Most organizations can’t afford to eliminate or rewrite legacy mainframe applications on which much of the business still depends. The only alternative for most of them is to modernize mainframe environments to make them at least as accessible as any other platform in the enterprise.
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Michael Vizard is a seasoned IT journalist, with nearly 30 years of experience writing and editing about enterprise IT issues. He is a contributor to publications including Programmableweb, IT Business Edge, CIOinsight and UBM Tech. He formerly was editorial director for Ziff-Davis Enterprise, where he launched the company’s custom content division, and has also served as editor in chief for CRN and InfoWorld. He also has held editorial positions at PC Week, Computerworld and Digital Review.
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