Running a mainframe in your data center? If so…are your mainframe priorities similar to your peers?

[#1]

So…what improvements are mainframe operations most focused on for 2012?  Well…according to the 6th Annual BMC Mainframe Survey, this doesn't seem to have changed much since last year.  The majority of the 1300+ respondents agreed that…

• “Reducing the cost of IT” still remains number one out of 20 priorities identified.
• “Disaster Recovery” came in as the second highest priority this year and last year.
• “Applications modernization” rounds out the top three for the second year in a row – falling from a 1st place finish in 2009.
  
  Tied for 4th place were “MIPS Utilization/Reduction” and “Reduce Impact Outages”…which are obviously closely tied to #1 ranked “Cost Reduction” and #2 ranked “Disaster Recovery” priorities on the list.

As for the aging mainframe workforce concerns that I expected to see as a top concern for IT shops… it was ranked #14 in the list of priorities for 2012…with only 15% of respondents ranking this as a top issue.  Despite this being a very real issue for many organizations…it seems that dealing with more immediate cost pressures, IT modernization and business continuity are of greater concern at this time.

Download the complete report.  It provides some interesting (and hard to come by) perspective on what mainframe operations are experiencing, planning and doing.

If this list reflects the top challenges and priorities for your mainframe operation, it is probably worth your time to investigate HP's Managed Mainframe Services, Mainframe Disaster Recovery Services, and Mainframe Applications Modernization Services. We manage mainframe environments for nearly 200 HP clients (which typically includes DR) - making up nearly 350,000 installed MIPS under management -and we've modernized mainframe applications for hundreds of HP clients. 

[#2]

Hi Shawna.

Very interesting.  It reinforces some of the client research findings I see elsewhere, where progress against these issues always seems to take far longer than clients would like, usually because they find it challenging to get the projects underway.

We saw this in some research we commissioned with Forrester Research late last calendar year. 

You can find this research written up in the thought leadership paper "Application Modernization: Procrastinate At Your Peril! A Comprehensive Survey On Modernization In The Age Of Mobile And Cloud", December 2011. 

Respondants were asked how the failure to modernize their applications would impact their firm (Page 6), and the answers were broad and quite distressing.

Our classic advice is to build the business case for applications modernization and transformation.  The reality is that applications modernization and transformation are essential steps in the paths to mobility, cloud, and converged infrastructures. 

It isn't just about costs.  It isn't just about aging infrastructure.  It's about how clients will well serve the needs and strategies of their enterprise going forward.