Rocket Software Partner Webinar Series: First Stage. Late Stage. Any Stage: What Conventional Modernization Is Vs. What it Should Be
March 8, 2023
Rocket Software’s brand new partner webinar series, Disrupting Without Disruption, is officially underway. Rocket Software’s webinar series is bringing together some of the leading minds within our partner network to shed light on the toughest modernization challenges facing our customers and broader community.
To kick off the webinar series this month, Jeff Cherrington, VP of product management at Rocket Software, was joined by Scott Fagen, the senior mainframe evangelist at CDW and president of SHARE. The conversation took a deep look at how companies can start tackling some of the most complex infrastructure challenges with solutions that simplify—rather than disrupt—the modernization journey.
With so much happening in the industry around mainframe modernization and hybrid cloud, Jeff and Scott shed light on what they’re seeing, cutting through the noise and chatter to highlight the state of mainframe modernization and how it intersects with the world of hybrid cloud strategies. Here are just a few of the most important learnings from their conversation:
Perception Isn’t Reality When It Comes to the Mainframe
Talk of the mainframe often conjures up memories of some busy room in the 1960’s, filled with massive computer systems and flashing lights. But reality couldn’t be further from that image— in short, the mainframe is modern. From the underlying chip technology to the broad availability of languages like python that all run right there on the mainframe.
The mainframe can take a business’ applications and keep running them, unchanged, for decades uninterrupted. But its strength at doing this is also its Achilles heel because some companies may leave apps running untouched that were written as long ago as the 1980s. For these organizations, it’s simpler and the urgency to modernize just isn’t there. And that’s where perceptions can arise that the mainframe is not modern, in spite of the technology and potential for innovation that actually exists.
Maximizing the value of the mainframe is vital for every organization. The potential for innovation that comes from today’s mainframe is becoming something that businesses can ignore at their own peril, giving up any edge against the market.
The Mainframe is Essential to Hybrid Cloud Strategy
One thing Jeff and Scott made clear was that going all-in on just cloud, or all-in on just mainframe, is not a strategy for success. With so much floating around on hybrid cloud, it’s important to consider what the term hybrid cloud even means. And simply put, hybrid cloud is about a common sense distribution of workloads across on-premise mainframe systems and cloud environments.
Cloud environments unquestionably do a lot of things great, and far better than the mainframe. For instance, the development of machine learning (ML) algorithms is something often best done in a cloud environment. The cloud is better suited to bring in the vast quantities of data needed to test those algorithms and iterate. But that doesn’t mean mainframe has no role to play. Those same algorithms are often most effective when they’re run on the mainframe itself, generating more impactful results that could help create a competitive advantage for a business.
Ultimately, some things – distributing and aggregating content – are better done in the cloud, while others – executing ML algorithms – are better left to the mainframe. In the end, hybrid cloud strategies are a balancing act and should focus on opportunities for cost savings, without sacrificing efficiency or performance.
When Starting a Hybrid Cloud Journey, Establish a Common Language
So, with all that in mind, how should mainframe-oriented IT professionals begin their journey toward hybrid cloud? The best place to start is by seeking out and starting conversations with the people in an organization who are already using the technology. Then, once they know who to talk to, the next step is to sit down and work out what the terminology you’re going to work with will look like moving forward.
Then once that common language is established, it’s time to look inward and ask questions around what kind of investment they intend to make this year. What does the workload or data storage involved look like, along with the other more intricate facets of the business and its current IT infrastructure.
Sound interesting? Dive into the full conversation between Jeff and Scott and find out more about what it takes to modernize. This webinar is only the beginning. Learn more about Disrupting Without Disruption and make sure you’re registered for our next session featuring Eric Howse, Enterprise Sales Director at Zia Consulting, and William Davit, Senior Account Executive at Rocket Software on March 22, at 1:00 PM EDT!
