Welcome to B & M Bulletin, produced specifically for users of IT technical services. In this issue:
• Managing a legacy
• Tech View: Perceptions of the mainframe
• 10 best practices to get better results from IT
• Real Skills. Real People - B & M's Tracey George-Jones
• B & M ProLegacy
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Managing a legacy
Amanda Dunn, B & M's Sales Director, considers the threat to business continuity that can be posed by poorly-managed legacy systems
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"Many organisations outsource maintenance"
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When you talk about 'legacy systems', it is wise to define exactly what is meant at the outset, as the term has very different meanings, depending where in ICT you work. In this article, I am using Gartner's definition of legacy systems, namely that they are bespoke applications used to process large or complex data; are hard to modify or update and are typically mission-critical to the business process.
According to Forrester's Reference Guide for Effective Management of Legacy Applications, legacy systems account for more than half the processing volume of the world's largest organisations. Contrary to popular belief, legacy applications can in fact be new to the company - usually having been delivered by an external service provider, or inherited through a merger or acquisition.
The key concern with legacy systems relates not to the applications themselves but to sourcing the skills necessary to continue to maintain and operate them. It has long been acknowledged that there is a scarcity of skills to support systems built on older programming models such as CICS and CORBA, but the skills supply issues that relate to supporting the technical infrastructure of legacy systems are often given lower visibility than they merit. The diminishing skills base in this area poses an unavoidable challenge for management because if they fail to ensure that their legacy systems continue to operate effectively, there will be a significant threat to a company's effective operations and ongoing profitability (noted in Gartner: Legacy systems - a new approach, by Dr Toby Sucharov).
To avoid the risk of downtime in mission-critical core business processes, and to ensure that critical business applications and platforms continue to work effectively, many organisations choose to outsource the technical support and maintenance of their systems software environments. This option can deliver improved IT efficiency and productivity and help to reduce organisational complexity, headcount and risk.
To find out about sourcing specialists with scarce skills contact sales@bmeurope.com
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Tech View: Perceptions of the mainframe
Paul Smith, B & M's Technical Manager looks at some of the differences between the perception and reality of today's mainframe
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The mainframe and its operating system have always had an image problem: type 'if operating systems were airlines' into your search engine and you will see an amusing summary of the perceptions of many people working in mainframe environments today!
However, the rumours of the demise of the mainframe continue to be grossly exaggerated - particularly when you start to examine the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of mainframes, compared with other server environments. Industry watchers The Robert Francis Group and authority Wayne Kernochan of Illuminata Inc. have each looked at IBM's own TCO figures and put together studies from which we can conclude that:
- The purchase cost of an IBM mainframe used to be higher than a server based on technology from the likes of Intel, AMD or Sun, but today there is very little difference between these and a low-end zSeries machine. With a rise in workload (and ensuing capacity) the increase in administrative and infrastructure costs for distributed systems is pretty much linear. The incremental cost for adding workload to a mainframe, on the other hand, is minimal.
- The administrative costs of software applications for a database infrastructure, for example, are about the same on either platform.
- Software for security and file serving is generally considered better on mainframes.
It is hard to put accurate numbers on these claims. IBM says that a System z10 running 26 IFLs generates about $24,600 in electricity charges per year, compared with $133,000 for the 760 blade-type servers. Hewlett Packard, on the other hand, claims that compared with a z9 system, Blade servers will deliver lower TCO. However, other reports suggest that a mainframe will typically be around four times more efficient in throughput and resource utilisation.
In its 2008 yearbook, mainframe watcher Arcati concludes that the mainframe seems to offer a more 'cost effective, secure and powerful solution' compared with distributed systems, and says that the market for mid to large-end systems is seeing healthy growth, whilst the bottom end (sub-500 MIPS) is beginning to decline.
Whatever the truth about mainframes, one fact is clear: the TCO of large, complex computer platforms can be reduced by the timely application of professional technical support to ensure that systems are kept up to date - and thus fully supported, and that overheads such as licence costs are properly contained.
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10 best practices for better results from IT
Best Practice is sometimes seen as a 'nice to have' in the IT world, but as Jerry Smart, MD of B & M explains, adopting best practices such as those listed below can help drive down costs and improve productivity:
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- Implement server virtualisation to lower hardware costs and reduce administration
- Adopt ITIL to bring discipline and efficiency to IT operations
- Undertake asset management initiatives to optimise usage of hardware and software
- Use IT systems performance management audits and software to increase throughput and manage costs
- Select outsourcing options that lower costs and improve IT
- Consolidate servers to cut hardware and software costs
- Implement software change and configuration management tools and processes to reduce outages
- Install the current generation of service-desk tools keep IT support costs down
- Use datacentre automation software to reduce operating costs
- Employ enterprise systems architecture to drive standardisation
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Real skills, real people: B & M's Tracey George-Jones
This month we profile Account Manager, Tracey George-Jones
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Tracey joined B & M in April 2008 as an Account Manager having spent nine years as a senior account manager at Black Box, a worldwide network services company. After studying Biology at Manchester University, followed by a spell working as a chalet girl in a Swiss ski resort, Tracey began her career at 3M as a sales administrator.
Tracey enjoyed working in a sales environment, and moved into her first sales role in 1987 working for a small IBM and Compaq reseller called Combro, which by 1992 had become part of the ICL Fujitsu group. This was an exciting time in the IT industry as technology was moving rapidly and networks were just starting to be implemented in many organisations, leading to a growing demand for computer resellers to provide more specialised services.
Tracey later worked for Computacenter and SCC before moving away from the IT industry to join Sub-Contract UK, a business services company, as contract renewals and customer services manager. After five years in this role Tracey missed the challenges and pace of the IT industry and moved to Black Box.
In her spare time Tracey enjoys family life, cycling, tennis and working on a major family project to design and construct a garden from what was a large bare patch of earth.
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B & M ProLegacy
Enduring support for legacy systems
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B & M ProLegacy is an enduring legacy support service which ensures that critical business applications and platforms continue to work effectively. The service enables organisations to improve the efficiency and productivity of their IT function by outsourcing the support and maintenance of systems software environments whilst reducing organisational complexity, headcount, cost and risk. B & M ProLegacy is designed to provide support for any stabilised production system where further development is not anticipated.
B & M will manage the customer's software infrastructure to ensure that legacy systems offer optimum levels of availability. The service allows organisations to outsource the maintenance of their legacy systems, freeing up in-house IT staff to focus on development of future IT infrastructure. For information about how ProLegacy could benefit your organisation, contact sales@bmeurope.com.
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