Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Mainframe Goes Mobile

by Brenda J. Christie with Eloy O. Cruz-Bizet



I recently came across a blog piece on Stack Exchange that was trying to explain (from a non-IBM Mainframe point of view of course) why young programmers aren't attracted to mainframe technologies.  The usual reasons came up: 


  1. Mainframes aren't sexy
  2. I'll never conquer the world working on a mainframe
  3. No simulator like something you could load onto a virtual machine
  4. If you start working on a mainframe that is all you ever will do

Some of these assertions are, of course, made out of ignorance. For example, an Open Source mainframe-like emulator named Hercules, runs under Windows, Linux, Solaris, just to name a few operating platforms.  And it simulates System 370, ESA/390 and the 64-bit zArchitecture.  The Hercules simulator, for example, allows a PC to create code similar to that you would code on an actual mainframe.  PC's are affordable development platforms to consumers and by extension to software developers.  A mainframe on the other hand, whose cost starts just short of millions of dollars is usually only purchased by large organizations.  As a new feature on "IT through the Prism of Time,” I have provided a navigation link, above, to a list of organizations using mainframe computers.  If you would like to see who they are, please click here or click the navigation link above.  For a clear idea of the how a Virtual Machine works, and why it would be used, as well as its history, click here. Other than who owns a mainframe, the prospect of working in a mainframe-like environment using a PC excites me.

It also seems to me that many of the rationale provided above, are based on the dichotomy between working in small groups on small projects, and working on mega-projects with either large teams or integrated groups of teams to create them.  As an analogy, one of these youthful neophytes  may question the need for anything faster than his or her 15 page-per-minute color printer, and question why anyone would spend millions of dollars on a Heidleberg 10-color press  to be able to produce 100,000 pieces per hour. Clearly, the answer is in the lack of exposure.

What also excites me is IBM has committed to leveraging mainframe capabilities with the mobile advent taking the globe.  What that means is that instead of companies going to the Cloud and incurring additional expense, and all its possible exposures, they would use their existing mainframes to reach their customers, who have gotten used to doing banking on their cellphones, or executing trades on their tablets.  For example, most transactional data, that is, customer information, trade confirmations, banking records, trade history records, etc. already exists on the mainframe, as do most of the most stable, tried and 50-year-true performance and security applications. Like the transactional data, the application programs used to process the trades, transfer money, check balances, etc. already reside on the mainframe. So, why build a new platform where you'll need to synchronize all the data?

If a company used a Cloud-based solution to enable mobile capabilities it would need to make sure that synchronization of data on the mainframe with the data in the Cloud were flawless.  Were this the case it would undoubtedly incur an additional cost for using the Cloud.  Additionally, it would need to be able to detect when a server was encountering high traffic as well as attacks on the server. This would mean the types of software for detecting high traffic (performance software) as well as the type of software to detect potential security attacks would also need to reside on the server.  All of this exposes the higher costs of using the Cloud.  Performance software as well as vigorous security software already exists on the mainframe.  So why not use the mainframe?

IT leadership needs to understand that “mobile technology” does not require a reinvention of the infrastructure, but simply an upgrade of the user interface. There is no reason to believe that a classic CICS application could not be upgraded, with a display interface for the mobile device, be it smartphone or tablet.  Another reason to use the mainframe as the platform of choice when "going mobile" has to do with the speed at which new products can be introduced to the market.  If you don't have to build a new platform, and configure and test new applications on them, you can get new products out the door quicker. Additionally, using an existing mainframe platform to go mobile reduces risk by taking advantage of the existing security software inherent in the mainframe environment.



And for those young programmers who create those popular sexy apps for smartphones and other mobile devices, and who just have to code in HTML 5.0 and PHP,  IBM has several answers for that too. This includes solutions starting with Websphere to one of the latest, Worklight!  Many of the other mainframe mobile solutions appear in this month's edition of IBM Systems Magazine.

The technology which enables this mainframe mobile technology is quite involved and I won't attempt to go into great detail here.  But if I were to summarize it somewhat, I would describe it in the following manner:


How Does it Work?


First off, all of the solutions are written in Java which makes it inherently suitable for the web.  IBM had the insight back in the late 1990's to start enabling Java on the mainframe.  What this means is that you could code Java commands from within a COBOL program.  Fast forward a decade or so and the mainframe now uses that same technology to connect to the web and mobile devices.  But Java is still just a programming language.  There is still the data and still the applications to consider along with the delivery system.  How does the data get outside the mainframe onto someone's smart phone?

To address getting data from the mainframe to the web, IBM uses standardized interfaces.  These are somewhat akin to templates meaning, each will have a predefined layout with predefined types of data in a predefined format – something like a form you would fill out at the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) to renew your license or renew your car registration. These templates or standardized interfaces as they are called, include Representational State Transfer API's (REST) and JSON.

JSON is a lightweight data-interchange format. It is a language similar to XML, but easy for humans to read and write. It is easy for computers to understand and generate. In fact, JSON is actually replacing XML because it's quicker to write and easier to understand.  JSON is based on a subset of the JavaScript Programming Language.  JSON would be used on the back-end (mainframe) to extract data from DB2 tables and put it into a JavaScript-ready template which would then be called by a REST API which would transfer it to the web.  On the web-side, a language such as PHP, node.js, Perl, Ruby, C, C++ would then be used to render the web page and deliver the result requested by the user holding a mobile device.

This can really get quite detailed.  For more detailed information, visit the IBM Technical Library.

For now I have created and included below a simplified diagram of components typically found in this type of mainframe mobile architecture.  Many layers such as Websphere and security have been purposely omitted for time considerations.



Illustration 1: Mainframe Mobile Architecture







Summary


To summarize, IBM has recognized the benefits of mainframe owners utilizing the mainframe to reach its customers in a mobile world.  These benefits include cost savings, risk reduction, speed of getting new products out to market using a tool that consumers can't seem to get enough of and many more.  In combining popular languages such as JSON  as well as REST API's that lend themselves to creating apps, it has increased the likelihood of attracting young programmers to explore mainframe computers.  In doing so, it has also provided some answers as to what to do about the dwindling supply of aging mainframe programmers.  It is increasing demand for mainframe computing! You can read all about it in this month's edition of IBM Systems Magazine.  I think you'll be just as excited about the mainframe mobile connection as I am.

Let me know what you think!

You Can Teach an Old Dog New Tricks!

Bye for now,

Brenda J. Christie


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