Big Data requires an even bigger understanding of how your mainframe is performing. Here’s how to pull back the curtain.
Managing the large amounts of data produced each business day is a difficult challenge. However, with the rate of data generated growing at a rapid pace, it is more important than ever to have tools in place to manage effectively these vast stores of information as well as the computing resources that handle it.
Without specialized tools, monitoring a mainframe’s utilization and performance has been expensive and time consuming. Also, mainframe administrators in the past needed special training so to optimize the mainframe’s performance, but were still limited in what they could accomplish with their limited view into the system.
Managing a highly utilized system today requires a deeper and more accurate understanding of your mainframe in order make it operate as efficiently as possible for your organization. Maintaining good encryption practices and ensuring the security of your system are important factors to consider. However, it is equally important to make sure your business is getting as much out of its hardware investments as possible.
Today’s mainframe administrators are responsible for security, back-ups, and user administration. They are also held accountable for system performance, storage availability, and making sure system resources are used efficiently. To achieve those tasks, administrators need a clear view into the systems they manage. They need a…
Porthole to performance
Like a mechanic who looks under the hood to see how the engine is running, mainframe administrators must be able to peruse the system to see how smoothly things are running. Examining the performance of a system can offer vital insight into how well the organization is utilizing the system, and can uncover opportunities for improvement. Seeing trends of past and current performance can make it possible to create models that will accurately forecast future needs. You can’t manage what you can’t measure, and you can’t measure what you can’t see. Looking under the hood of your mainframe to see its CPU performance and storage allocations makes possible accurate…
Capacity Planning
Understanding what resources you are currently using and what resources are still available will let you allocate resources as needed, which will help you run your system as efficiently as possible. Additionally, understanding your system’s utilization rate is important when determining if additional hardware is needed or if existing hardware will do the job. This forecasting of future usage will make more apparent when the time has come to re-allocate system resources or to upgrade. Finally, this view into the system is important to allow for…
Diagnostics and preventative maintenance
Not only is it important so to see how things are going, good reporting software will also make it easier to diagnose and correct any problems that arise. Early detection of problems is critical for maintaining high up time. Running out of storage space or maxing out CPUs during peak hours are not plausible options. In any mission-critical system, downtime can be measured in dollars, so it is important to take all the necessary steps to maintaining up time.
ASPG offers tools to see and gain insight into all your systems: InfoCPU to see CPU performance, InfoDASD for DASD performance, and InfoTape for tape storage performance. Engaging visual as well as traditional SYSOUT reports make it easy to see and interpret current usage and trends. These programs also provide the necessary information to model and forecast future needs. Visit any of the product pages linked above to learn more, to sign up for a free trial, and get started on really understanding how to make your system better.
