Extra tags: datakubernetes
With a number of new capabilities geared to modernise apps across hybrid cloud settings, IBM highlighted major developments to assist clients expedite transition. These plans include providing IBM Z as a service for development and testing on IBM Cloud and additional tools for constructing hybrid apps.
According to the IBM Institute for Company Value research "Application Modernisation on the Mainframe," 71% of executives surveyed believe mainframe-based programmes are critical to their business strategy. To be competitive, four out of five respondents said their companies need to transition quickly, which includes modernising mainframe-based software and adopting a more open approach.
"Today's IBM is focused on helping our clients across every industry apply hybrid cloud and AI to transform the way their businesses work. IBM recognises that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to modernisation, said Tarun Chopra, Vice President, IBM Z Hybrid Cloud. "By leveraging both IBM Z and IBM Cloud, clients can benefit from a hybrid cloud approach that allows them to capitalise on the innovations, technical advancements, security, resiliency of each platform. With hybrid cloud, you keep your workloads where they need to be—in the cloud, on premises, and at the edge—to help reduce risk and improve time to market."
z/OS Development and Test as-a-service in the Public Cloud for the First Time
Available as a closed experimental today, IBM plans to deliver IBM Wazi as-a-Service (Wazi aaS), bringing z/OS capabilities to IBM Cloud for the first time, expected to be generally available in 2H 2022, with on-demand access to z/OS, available as needed for development and test. This will provide z/OS developers with the agility of a public cloud development environment with the ability to use a variable amount of resources, and pay-as-you-go, matching burst and business demand. Consistent with the regulated workloads of many IBM Z clients today, IBM Wazi aaS will enable self-provisioning of a z/OS Virtual Server Instance on IBM Z in a logically isolated, highly-secured private space running in IBM Cloud.
With this news, IBM has cut the time it takes to access z/OS development and test environments from days to weeks to 6 minutes or less1. Internal IBM benchmarks show that z/OS development on the IBM Cloud is up to 15 times faster than equivalent x86 development and testing options.
Wazi aaS is being designed to help developers:
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Increase speed and agility with on-demand access to z/OS for development and test
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Accelerate DevOps practices with predictable and flexible consumption-based pricing
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Reduce the need for specialised skills with a consistent cloud-native development experience
IBM is also working with ecosystem partners such as TCS and BMC to help IBM Z clients accelerate the modernisation of their applications, data and processes in an open hybrid cloud architecture.
"We believe that IBM Wazi aaS will be a significant value add to our mainframe applications modernisation solutions and services. It will accelerate speed to market for new and modernised systems and on-demand access to z/OS dev and test. Leveraging TCS' cloud solutions and accelerators along with the security and reliability of IBM Cloud, we are helping clients accelerate their hybrid cloud modernisation journeys and business transformation," said Arun Prabhakar, VP & Global Head, Alliances, TCS.
"IBM's approach to the Hybrid Cloud with Wazi as-a-Service recognises the critical need for organisations to modernise the mainframe developer experience. Research shows that modern mainframe tools can increase developer output and productivity by as much as 175%," said John McKenny, senior vice president and general manager, Intelligent Z Optimization and Transformation at BMC. "BMC is pleased to partner with IBM as we jointly help enterprises accelerate Mainframe DevOps in their digital transformation initiatives."
Modern Tools for Modern Applications
The IBM Z and Cloud Modernization Stack, which will be broadly available on March 15, will help customers kickstart or accelerate application modernisation and take a standardised approach to IT automation across a range of typical use cases. This is the first set of capabilities for the IBM Z and Cloud Modernization Center, which was announced in December and aims to assist clients boost agility and speed their transformation by providing support for popular open source projects.
The IBM Z and Cloud Modernization Stack is designed to help clients:
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Simplify access to applications and data through secure API creation and integration in minutes;
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Leverage agile enterprise DevOps for cloud-native development with open tools and rapid application analysis; and
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Standardise IT automation to empower developers with access to open-source environments such as Kubernetes.
