Why mainframe migration is more than technology transformation

British writer and novelist L.P. Hartley as soon as mentioned, “The previous is a international nation: They do issues otherwise there.” This sentiment is particularly true within the realm of mainframe migrations, which regularly set off unexpected modifications throughout a corporation.

Processes established in mainframe environments are usually delivered as centralized inner providers with essential capabilities, reminiscent of upkeep, safety, and help. Nevertheless, these centralized processes and supply are additionally certain to remodel when migrating functions and workloads to cloud environments.

Centralized supply has confirmed efficient at decreasing prices via consistency, shared engineering sources, bulk reductions, and specialised understanding of organizational necessities. On the similar time, finite sources additionally hindered scalability, flexibility, and velocity; any initiative that tangentially touched the mainframe needed to be coordinated centrally.

However as cloud migrations close to the end line, many organizations instantly understand they might want to replicate the identical work as soon as carried out by their mainframe groups — they usually have new energy to make modifications. Right here, deep experience from a cloud supplier or accomplice can show invaluable for serving to organizations get essentially the most out of their transformations.

At Google Cloud Consulting, we have helped organizations navigate this advanced journey numerous instances, witnessing firsthand that transformation is not only about know-how but additionally individuals and processes. On this submit, we’ll share three areas the place you’ll be able to anticipate the largest affect and alter when migrating from mainframes to the cloud.

Upkeep: The distinction is within the design

We often advise clients to design away the necessity for processes, so that they don’t turn into a bolt-on exercise that the brand new cloud staff wants to fret about. For instance, choosing a Google Cloud managed database, reminiscent of AlloyDB, CloudSQL or BigQuery, can take away most of the utilities and upkeep duties related to on-premises databases or knowledge shops. As an alternative of worrying about nightly backups or annual database reorganizations, these processes are automated and managed by Google Cloud.

Equally, Google Cloud can robotically carry out OS upgrades and patches by rotating GKE cases frequently (e.g., 30-45 days). Organizations can outline this of their insurance policies and combine rolling out the brand new OS photos into their CI/CD pipelines. On this means, these processes turn into a part of the conventional growth lifecycle quite than a separate exercise that should be monitored and managed.

In fact, groups will nonetheless want to check backup and emergency restore processes recurrently. Nevertheless, testing doesn’t need to be notably onerous. The intrinsic community isolation mixed with on-demand capability means it’s fairly doable to spin up a catastrophe restoration surroundings, restore a database, run the exams, and tear it down once more — all with none disruption to the manufacturing surroundings.

In comparison with the centralized processes they substitute, sustaining and updating cloud-based functions usually takes a fraction of the work and time related to the identical duties for on-premises options.

Safety: Everybody will get a key (effectively perhaps not)

Coping with safety is commonly one other difficult transition throughout migrations. Google Cloud gives encryption at relaxation by default, however in isolation, that’s not at all times sufficient. There are further steps, reminiscent of rotating keys, to contemplate. With the transfer to a cloud surroundings, rotating the keys turns into the accountability of the group.

The place a mainframe could have been grandfathered in with the minimal acceptable resolution, many organizations take the chance to step up their safety controls when migrating to the cloud, which might create new burdens. In mainframes, the identical key is perhaps used for all knowledge. Within the cloud, making use of the identical coverage to every part, in every single place, is illogical.

A standard sample we see for achievement is pushing the accountability of rotating keys down to every product or software proprietor. This enables for various rotation insurance policies based mostly on the information; keys for knowledge that require the best ranges of PCI and PII safety is perhaps rotated each 90 days, whereas public knowledge could also be each 12 months. This sample additionally shrinks the blast radius associated to compromised keys. The aim is to tailor the coverage for the information and any native legal guidelines, enhancing the general safety posture with nominal further effort.

Equally, cloud compliance is a vital concern to handle. Compliance audits are time-consuming, however in addition they play a essential position in serving to organizations guarantee transparency and safeguard their knowledge and cloud belongings. The trick to a profitable audit is supporting insurance policies and documentation with an digital path that exhibits compliance. The fantastic thing about the cloud is that it’s simple to layer organizational insurance policies on prime of current cloud documentation and use logs from services as proof of assembly necessities.

Assist: New duties, higher options

There’s nothing worse than a 2AM name as a result of one thing has failed (unhealthy) or is limping alongside (worse). The tightly built-in nature of the mainframe used to imply that help primarily fell to a core on-call staff with the abilities and safety permissions to troubleshoot mainframe issues from the bottom up.

With a migration to Google Cloud, we’re chargeable for offering the instructure, however we’ve little to no perception into what’s being executed. Subsequently, help will shift to particular person product groups — a brand new accountability, however one which comes with quite a lot of assist.

Whether or not it’s a Single Pane of Glass or a “Single Glass of Ache”, Google Cloud Operations accommodates a totally built-in suite of metrics to help troubleshooting. These metrics might be optimized with plug-ins to mirror a corporation’s explicit know-how stack.

As well as, the cloud additionally gives new choices for resolving points — ones that don’t require debugging on a name in the midst of night time. As an example, it’s now doable to easily isolate the occasion having the issue from the cluster and spin up a substitute in seconds, leaving clients to get on with their lives and groups to unravel issues within the morning with a cup of espresso.

Remaining ideas

Embarking on a mainframe migration journey is each difficult and rewarding. Taking up new roles and duties might be thrilling, but it surely’s prone to be a bumpy transition for current groups which have spent many years honing their expertise in particular roles. Organizations ought to settle for this up entrance and plan accordingly, eliminating as a lot as doable via design and automation.

At Google Cloud Consulting, we perceive the intricacies of this course of. Our staff is devoted to serving to shoppers navigate these modifications, leveraging our deep experience to streamline the transition, automate processes, and empower organizations to embrace the total potential of the cloud.

Learn extra about how Google Cloud approaches mainframe modernization, or drop us a line if you wish to chat with considered one of our specialists. Our invitation is open: join with us at Google Cloud Consulting to discover how we will tailor a migration technique that aligns along with your group’s distinctive wants and objectives. Collectively, we will flip the problem of mainframe migration into a possibility for development and innovation.