DevOps for Mainframes: Essential Processes for Evolution

How can a dinosaur adapt to the modern world? Well, if your 'dinosaur' happens to be a mainframe environment, then we suggest you take a good long at DevOps.

The next generation of application delivery and agile methodologies are illuminating the challenges and solutions mainframe engineers face on a daily basis. As Continuous Delivery and DevOps evolve, so too should your mainframe and its processes.

DevOps and The Mainframe

At its core, DevOps is all about automation. As the adoption of DevOps methodologies and culture continues to expand, so do the levels at which it is being implemented. Going beyond configuration and provisioning, beyond build and deployment, even beyond testing, DevOps is now penetrating the mainframe. A common rule of thumb developers might hear is “anything you do twice, should be automated.” Legacy systems fall into this category and mainframe processes are often times in need of automation the most.And like every system, mainframes need to be maintained and improved. We are here to tell you that reinforcing a bridge with modern engineering is a lot easier and cost effective than repairing one that has collapsed. Perhaps even more than other systems, mainframes will benefit from DevOps principles that help teams accelerate software delivery while reducing risk.  

Snapchatasaurus

DevOps automation has been fueling the IT revolution since the growth of Agile in the early 2000’s. Sadly, mainframes and legacy environments have been slower to adopt DevOps principles. But mainframes do a lot of the heavy lifting and run many of the mission critical applications that are currently becoming more interconnected with the user experience. Your sweet modern smartphone app may well be powered by mainframes! Today’s digital enterprises need to apply the same Continuous Delivery management practices to mainframe environments as they use for their distributed, web, and cloud platforms.    Whether you are extending the life of your mainframes, migrating your applications to more modern environments, or some combination, XebiaLabs provides the tooling foundation for a successful DevOps initiative. With our repeated innovations in release orchestration and deployment automation, XebiaLabs software bring automation, visibility and control to your mainframes processes. We let you apply the same repeatable, auditable process to all of your releases, whether they be on mainframes, containers, or cloud. For example, XebiaLabs recently partnered with Compuware to provide cross-platform Continuous Delivery for mainframes and help reinvent mainframe agility. By integrating our tools, we are giving large enterprises the tools and visibility they need to implement modern DevOps practices, no matter what the infrastructure may be.

Some Key Advantages Enterprises See with Mainframe DevOps, XebiaLabs and Compuware:

• Faster, more reliable upgrades of applications that span multiple platforms—including the mainframe
• Clear and complete visibility into upgrade rollout timelines—enabling DevOps managers to discover and remediate bottlenecks in the end-to-end continuous delivery process
• Simplified one-click rollback and re-start for all application components
• Reduced dependence on idiosyncratic mainframe expertise

  Modernizing the way organizations deploy applications to the mainframe is becoming increasingly imperative to their future success. It is time for organizations to embrace change at all levels of its IT infrastructure and begin automating their processes today. By applying DevOps processes and XebiaLabs tools to your mainframes, you will help your dinosaurs evolve and survive under the pressures of modern software delivery.