Preview of z/OS V1.11

We all know by now that z/OS is released annually in September and that the n-3 rule has become an n-2 rule. The last three-release step you could take was from z/OS 1.5 to z/OS 1.8. From now on you can only skip one release. People on z/OS 1.8 have to order z/OS 1.10 before September 2009. Actually, it should be installed by then as Z/OS 1.8 will be End of Support in September. From then on only z/OS 1.11 will be available. Next to that, we're also used by now on getting a preview of the new release in February. So here it is : 'Preview: z/OS V1.11 - Smart, adaptive, trusted, efficient (ZA09-0006)'.

I'm not going to go into detail as this would lead us way too far. However, I would like to point out one of the Statements of Directions, which makes me curious . . . once again. There once was the Five Year March to Mainframe Simplification project some 2 to 3 years ago and at the time I was rather sceptic about it. With reason, I guess, as I haven't heard anything about it since. Well, here we go again with a new SOD :

"As part of IBM's commitment to simplify the mainframe environment, IBM intends to introduce the z/OS Management Facility, a separate product which will be designed to enable system programmers to more easily manage and administer a mainframe system by simplifying day to day operations and administration of a z/OS system. The initial release of z/OS Management Facility is planned to provide a problem data management capability which is intended to facilitate problem data management tasks for new or less-skilled system programmers and system administrators."

This seems to be somewhat less ambitious than the previous project, but perhaps just because of this, it might have a better chance in succeeding. Let's give it the benefit of the doubt and just wait and see . . .

Five Year March to Simplification ?

Last october IBM announced its Five Year March to Simplification with an investment of $100 million "to enable technology administrators and computer programmers to more easily program, manage and administer a mainframe system (...)".
Yesterday there was a press release that you might very well call the first visible result of this initiative : 'IBM Simplifies the Mainframe With New Consolidation and Security Software'. The subtitle indicates that this is an initiative that's intended to go beyond the scope of current mainframe shops. IBM "Launches "IBM Destination z" to Speed Migration to the Mainframe".

The announcement is twofold. Firstly, there's the 'software simplification' part, mainly focusing on enterprise management and security. It's e.g. the Consul suite announced as the Tivoli zSecure V1.8.1 suite. There's 'IT Value Based Analytics (ITVBA)' which is some kind of charge-back management ("relating IT costs to business services") software. And there's once again the positioning of z/VM as THE virtualization platform. I must admit, at first sight I'm not immediately seeing the benefit of these in terms of simplification towards "managing and administering a mainframe system".

Secondly, there's IBM Destination z. IBM calls it "an online meeting place (available at www.ibm.com/systems/destinationz) for customers, systems integrators, IBM Business Partners, software vendors and academic institutions to connect with each other and with mainframe experts, access development tools and the latest mainframe solutions. IBM Destination z provides links to platform economics -- such as total cost of ownership tools -- and case histories that reveal financial and business benefits (...)".

Again the focus is much more on 'simplifying' your 'IT environment' in terms of consolidating distributed systems to the mainframe platform and offering information to the SMB companies about the assets of using the mainframe platform. It's a valuable initiative, that's for sure. But I personally expected the simplification initiative to cover other grounds. I expected to see some real simplification in terms of mainframe system administration like e.g. the promised new versions of 'msys for setup' and 'msys for operations' - as was announced at first. You can read some quotes of that first announcement over here. I have the impression IBM is starting off with the second step of the process, which would've been lots easier and more attractive if they had first implemented their initial promises. Correct me if I'm wrong !

IBM's Five year march to Mainframe Simplification

z/OS 1.8 has of course lots of new features. When looking at features disappearing from this release there were some features lifted from 'msys for setup' and 'msys for operations' was even withdrawn. Enhancements for 'msys for setup' were planned and a completely new interface and infrastructure were promised for 'msys for operations' . . . for some future release.
Now IBM is shedding some light on this with their 04/10/2006 announcement on this subject. IBM will invest $100 million in the coming years "to enable technology administrators and computer programmers to more easily program, manage and administer a mainframe system -- as well as to increasingly automate the development and deployment of applications for the mainframe environment". Main areas include :
"1) Automated configuration checking -- to make it easier for information technology administrators and computer programmers to predict and avoid technical problems.
2) Modernizing the mainframe user interface -- including network configuration, systems management, and data center hardware configurationdesigned with both existing IT staff and the new generation of IT workers in mind.
3) Improving software asset management technologies -- to make it easier for users to control software costs and, as well, simplify and automate the acquisition of software services.
4) Modernizing the mainframe's development environment with visual tools that enable novices to quickly learn how to program for the mainframe."
For more detail : check out the announcement.