Do mainframes have a future in India?

This is one debate that has raged on for years is the mainframe dead, and is client/server king? Events like 9/11, which demonstrated the need for fault-tolerant computing, have re-ignited the relevance of this debate. Stanley Glancy finds out more on the current market trends for these technologies.

The advent of minicomputers in the seventies and desktop PCs in the eighties was expected to ring the death knell for mainframes, which were considered to be large, inflexible, expensive and difficult to use. Desktops were not only inexpensive, but could also be connected through a network to a central server, enabling organisations to store huge amounts of data. But doomsayers were proved wrong when despite stiff competition, the mainframe continued to maintain a steady growth rate. And in the current scenario, where organisations (after 9/11) have increased spend on storage solutions, there is a trend which indicates that mainframes may gain a bigger share in the IT budgets of CIOs.

Kishore Modak feels that Linux has been the main engine for the growth of the mainframe market in India

For instance, other than traditional mainframe users like the banking-financial services sector and manufacturing behemoths, even unlikely candidates like universities and the travel industry have been choosing mainframes over newer technologies. Says V L Mehta, director of IT at Mukand Engineers, “More than 70 percent of the world’s data still resides on mainframes. The market is growing in terms of revamping the older mainframes and adding new features and software to the oldies. Also, the new mainframes are smaller, cheaper, more powerful and e-business ready, so the market is growing steadily.”

Though these are small encouraging trends, the picture is not completely clear. For instance, a Meta Group report states that mainframes won’t be able to match the price and performance improvements (close to 35 percent a year) of Intel-based servers, which are emerging with mainframe-like capabilities. In India too, very few mainframes have been purchased and installed in the past 3-4 years. But this has been due to policy issues rather than technology choices. India missed an era of mainframe and legacy systems due to the absence of global IT majors in the country from the late seventies till the early nineties. Barring large government organisations and public sector companies, mainframes were not seen anywhere else. The mainframe market grew in the late nineties during the Y2K scare, and many companies seized the opportunity. Agrees Kishore Modak, country manager for the zSeries Enterprise Systems Group at IBM India, the only global mainframe vendor to have a presence here, “IBM exited India in the seventies and returned only in the nineties. This gap of close to 20 years put a dampener on the adoption of mainframes here. Awareness about mainframes is only now picking up. The industry is realising the importance of converting mission-critical and large volume applications from distributed processing back to centralised processing for better control and management, disaster recovery, security and business continuity.” According to market sources, IBM’s mainframe business has been growing at a steady 12-15 percent per quarter.

The impact of client/server

One reason for the slow adoption of mainframes has been the advent of client/server architecture. Client/server technology with its myriad attractions was expected to dry up the market for mainframes. Not only was this technology capable of storing macroscopic amounts of data, it was also flexible, extremely easy to handle, and comparatively inexpensive. But while many organisations did adopt client/server systems, very few actually gave up the mainframe. Most companies have managed to achieve a perfect blend of the two technologies to meet their computing needs. However, smaller organisations, due to the huge cost associated with maintaining mainframes, have migrated to client/server systems.

The high cost of owning a mainframe was also expected to influence corporate decisions to opt for client/server technology. Though this has certainly made client/server an attractive proposal to many, companies desirous of using IT for strategic purposes do not mind the added cost of a mainframe. Mainframe loyalists say that there is also a myth about the cost advantage of client/server over mainframes. Explains Modak, “A single mainframe can reduce the cost of maintaining hundreds of servers. The cost difference seems high when you compare the price of a single server with that of a mainframe. But people have to look at it from the point of view of a total data centre. Only then will they realise that the actual cost difference is not much.”

The IBM zSeries, for example, enables server consolidation by handling the workload of hundreds of servers. It not only provides organisations with a lower total cost of ownership—through consolidation of Unix, Windows NT, and Linux applications to Linux on zSeries—but is also an application development platform for large customers. Further, fault tolerance is built into all mainframes, reducing downtime to the bare minimum. Another problem which customers face with client/server systems is that unlike mainframes these systems often come from different suppliers, and the various components may not be integrated or adapted to the user company’s needs. This issue is minimised by a mainframe.

Sectors

Verticals currently using mainframes include stock exchanges and depositories, utilities, airlines, railways, armed forces, e-business portals with heavy traffic, oil-sector PSUs, manufacturing giants, the travel industry, banks and financial institutions. These industries cannot do without mainframes since they run mission-critical applications that require high security and reliability. They also have huge databases, which can be managed only by a mainframe.

The banking segment has traditionally been a heavy mainframe user. But with many banks migrating to client/server, this sector has seen a sharp decline in mainframe usage. Says Modak, “It is true that many of the smaller banks with fewer branches have opted for client/server, but most of the larger banks remain loyal customers. There has actually been increasing demand from banks for mainframe technology—especially after 9/11—for managing their disaster recovery needs; this is because the quality of service offered by mainframes is very mission-critical oriented.” The Reserve Bank of India, one of IBM’s largest customers in the banking segment, is also one of the most intensive mainframe users in India.

Usage of mainframes has also increased in the airline industry with Indian Airlines running mission-critical applications on IBM’s zSeries. Even universities have shown a keen interest in training students on mainframes.

Another vertical that is a heavy user of mainframes is what is popularly known as the computer-related services industry. Elaborates Modak, “The software development industry has been a key focus area for us as we expect to see strong growth in this sector. IT giants like Wipro and Infosys do their development work here in India due to the cost/benefit factor. Since they deal with terabytes of data and also run mission-critical applications, a mainframe is the safest bet. Not only does it offer a favourable cost/benefit ratio, it also provides high reliability and security required in large-scale processing work, which no other currently-available technology can provide.”

More than 70 percent of the world’s data still resides on mainframes, says V l mehta
Benefits Return on investment (RoI) and total cost of ownership (TCO) are the key factors organisations look at before installing something as expensive as a mainframe. But according to Mehta, RoI is a very relative issue and such comparisons cannot give a real picture unless it is case-specific. Says he, “RoI and expensive are relative terms and depend on what one is looking for in terms of mission criticality of a business application. Of course, if one can get the same solution at a cheaper price one should go for it.”

Compared to client/server, mainframes do work out cheaper in the long run. A study conducted by LinuxWorld on the subject states that running one IBM mainframe uses less power than running 750 Sun or PC servers. This would be a real benefit, however trivial, next to the cost of the Linux and VM (virtual machine) licenses, if the mainframe could handle the same load. Another benefit is that the mainframe allows partitioning of resources to run different applications simultaneously. Using partitioning software, a mainframe can be split into several independent computers that share the same hardware. IBM has demonstrated the running of tens of thousands of Linux computers on a single mainframe. Mainframes also offer easy access to open source and Internet-related applications.

Linux

But which catalyst will provide the necessary boost for the growth of the mainframe market in India? Replies Modak, “The main engine for growth has been the adoption of Linux. Customers have discovered that Linux provides a favourable TCO and gives them flexibility in management of costs.” But there are various conflicting reports on whether Linux will actually help IBM grow its mainframe business. A report published by the Meta Group says that though mainframes running Linux have some advantages in the short run, in another 4-5 years these advantages will be irrelevant as Unix and Windows 2000-based systems flesh out increasingly robust, mainframe-like management capabilities—partitioning, workload management, reconfiguration and prioritisation. This will make users think twice about the premium they would have to pay for mainframes.

However, a Giga Group report thinks otherwise. According to Giga, mainframe technology is beyond the first phase of adoption, and has already made deep inroads into the financial services sector. While it’s true that other technologies have been trying to bridge the gap, IBM has not been sitting idle. The company has been making substantial investments in research and development.

IBM’s introduction of the z800 makes it possible to run Linux as a single operating system, ensuring ease-of-use. This, plus its ability to run hundreds of applications together makes it attractive to many organisations. Says Modak, “Earlier there were a lot of applications in the open space but you couldn’t run them on mainframes. We had specific applications available only on the mainframe. But Linux has changed that by offering higher uptime. A whole host of applications are now being made available through Linux.” Companies are under pressure to optimise their existing IT investments. This, plus other factors like availability of lower-cost systems, increasing support for Linux applications, and newer workloads from IBM, are expected to drive the growth of mainframe technology. Giga also predicts that more companies will use zSeries Linux environments for application serving combined with back-end database serving residing in a zSeries z/OS environment.

Conclusion

While it is difficult to predict the general future of mainframes, in India it may be a different scenario altogether. IBM may be able to gain a stronger foothold in the Indian market with its cost-effective Linux-based mainframes. Also, unlike earlier mainframes, the current set of machines are easier to handle and occupy less real estate—which may swing the tide in IBM’s favour.
Most analysts believe that while small organisations will continue to prefer client/server based architectures, sectors like telecom and the government will continue to favour mainframes.

IBM System z10 at a glance

The IBM System z10 EC is a world-class enterprise server designed to meet your business needs. The System z10 EC is built on the inherent strengths of the IBM System z platform and is designed to deliver new technologies and virtualization that provide improvements in price/performance for key new workloads. The System z10 EC further extends System z leadership in key capabilities with the delivery of expanded scalability for growth and large-scale consolidation, improved security and availability to reduce risk, and just-in-time capacity deployment, helping to respond to changing business requirements. The System z10 EC delivers:
# Improved total system capacity in a 64-way server, offering increased levels of performance and scalability to help enable new business growth.

# z10 quad-core 4.4 GHz processor chips that can help improve the execution of CPU-intensive workloads.

# Up to 1.5 terabytes of available real memory per server for growing application needs (with up to 1 TB real memory per LPAR).

# Increased scalability with 36 available subcapacity settings.

# Just-in-time deployment of capacity resources which can improve flexibility when making temporary or permanent changes. Activation can be further simplified and automated using z/OS® Capacity Provisioning (available on z/OS V1.9 with PTF and on z/OS V1.10, when available).

# New temporary capacity offering Capacity for Planned Event (CPE), a variation of Capacity Back Up (CBU). CPE can be used when capacity is unallocated, but available, and is needed for a short-term event.

# A new 16 GB fixed Hardware System Area (HSA) which is managed separately from customer memory. This fixed HSA is designed to improve availability by avoiding outages.

# Memory and books that are interconnected with a point-to-point symmetric multi processor (SMP) network running with an InfiniBand host bus bandwidth at 6 GBps designed to deliver improved performance.

# The new InfiniBand Coupling Links (planned to be available second quarter 2008) with a link data rate of 6 GBps, designed to provide a high-speed solution and increased distance (150 meters) compared to ICB-4 (10 meters).

# The new OSA-Express3 10 GbE LR (planned to be available second quarter 2008) with double the port density, increased throughput, and reduced latency.

# HiperSockets improvements with Multiple Write Facility for increased performance and Layer 2 support to host IP and non-IP workloads.

# Encryption accelerator provided on quad-core chip, which is designed to provide high-speed cryptography for protecting data in storage. CP Assist for Cryptographic Function (CPACF) offers more protection and security options with Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 192 and 256 and stronger hash algorithm with Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA-512 and SHA-384).

# HiperDispatch for improved efficiencies between hardware and the z/OS operating system (z/OS 1.7 and above).

# Hardware decimal floating point unit on each core on the Processor Unit (PU), which can aid in decimal floating point calculations and is designed to deliver performance improvements and precision in execution.

# Large page support (1 megabyte pages).

# Up to 336 FICON™ Express4 channels.

# Fiber Quick Connect (FQC), a fiber harness integrated in the System z10 EC frame for a 'quick' connect to ESCON® and FICON LX channels.

# Support for IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager (AEM) for Linux™ on System z for a single view of actual energy usage across multiple heterogeneous IBM platforms within the infrastructure. AEM V3.1 is a key component of IBM's Cool Blue portfolio within Project Big Green.1

# The IBM System z9 Enterprise Class (z9 EC) and System z9 Business Class (z9 BC) servers are the last servers to support participation in the same Parallel Sysplex with IBM eServer zSeries 900 (z90), IBM eServer zSeries 800 (z800), and older System/390 Parallel Enterprise Server systems.

Overview

The System z10 EC is a marriage of evolution and revolution, building on the inherent strengths of the System z™ platform, delivering new technologies and virtualization that are designed to offer improvements in price / performance for key workloads as well as enabling a new range of solutions. The z10 EC further extends the leadership of System z in key capabilities with the delivery of expanded scalability for growth and large-scale consolidation, availability to help reduce risk and improve flexibility to respond to changing business requirements, and improved security. The z10 EC is at the core of the enhanced System z platform that is designed to deliver technologies that business needs today along with a foundation to drive future business growth.
With a modular book design, the z10 EC E64 is designed to provide up to 1.7 times the total system capacity of the z9 EC Model S54 and up to three times the available memory of the z9 EC. Significant steps have been taken in the area of server availability in the z10 EC design. Preplanning requirements are minimized by delivering a fixed, reserved Hardware System Area (HSA) and new capabilities intended to allow you to seamlessly create logical partitions (LPARs), include logical subsystems, change logical processor definitions in an LPAR, and add cryptographic capabilities for an LPAR without a power-on reset.

z10 EC introduces just-in-time deployment of capacity resources designed to provide more flexibility to dynamically change capacity when business requirements change. You are no longer limited by one offering configuration; instead you can define one or more flexible configurations that can be used to solve multiple temporary situations. You can now have multiple configurations active at once and the configurations themselves are flexible so you can activate only what is needed from your defined configuration. As long as your total z10 EC infrastructure can support the maximums that are defined, they can be delivered. A significant change is the ability to add permanent capacity to the server when you are in a temporary state. The combination of these updates can change the way you think about on demand capacity.
New integrated clear-key encryption security features on z10 EC include support for a higher advanced encryption standard and more secure hashing algorithms. Performing these functions in hardware is designed to contribute to improved performance.

Integrated on the z10 EC processor unit is a Hardware Decimal Floating Point unit to accelerate decimal floating point transactions. This function is designed to markedly improve performance for decimal floating point operations which offer increased precision compared to binary floating point operations. This is expected to be particularly useful for the calculations involved in many financial transactions.

New innovations on the z10 EC are designed to give needed capacity and memory along with the just-in-time management of resources. Advanced virtualization technologies aid in server consolidation, satisfying high I/O requests and dynamic provisioning of new servers.

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