IBM offers one-stop-shop for mainframe hybrid cloud initiatives

While cloud companies such as AWS are offering enterprise customers new ways to get applications off the mainframe and into the cloud, IBM moved this week to keep them on the Big Iron.

IBM rolled out a portal  it calls the IBM Z and Cloud Modernization Center which offers an assortment of tools, training, resources and ecosystem partners to help IBM Z clients accelerate the modernization of mainframe applications, data and processes to work with hybrid-cloud architectures

“The rise of hyperscalers has led many organizations to consider an application migration approach to public cloud alone, but in many cases it can be a one-way street and lock-in to one public cloud, which may have implications on cost, governance and security,” wrote Ross Mauri General Manager for IBM Z in a blog about the announcement. “The IBM Z and Cloud Modernization Center helps clients leverage existing investments, rather than committing to a costly one-size-fits-all migration strategy.”

The center is a digital front door to tools, resources, training, ecosystem partners, and real client examples, Mauri stated.  

“The center is the result of collaboration with IBM Consulting and broad ecosystem participation, including global services and technology partners. The ecosystem brings deep expertise in modernization, whether clients are modernizing existing apps and data or integrating cloud-native apps and data,” Mauri stated.

The center features ties to big IBM systems integrators such as Capgemini and Deloitte Consulting as well as software vendors and managed service partners including: Episode Six; Fiorano Software; Fujitsu Limited, Software Business Unit; HEXANIKA; Illumio; Luxoft, a DXC Technology Company; MuleSoft; Pennant Technologies; Software AG; Suntec Business Solutions; and Zafin.

IBM Consulting will run workshops, and informational and consulting services designed to help customers accelerate Big Iron- and application-modernization plans.

“Overall, these new services and offerings should help IBM’s enterprise customers develop reliable new solutions and replicable processes for modernizing applications and utilizing hybrid-cloud infrastructures,” wrote Charles King, president and principal analyst of Pund-IT in a blog about the IBM announcement. 

“Just as importantly, the company and its partners will provide customers the means to adapt IBM Z for new forward-thinking business processes and use cases. That will aid customers in extending their often-substantial mainframe investments in both the short and long terms,” King wrote.

Most recently AWS said it was offering a mainframe migration service to help IBM mainframe customers interested in moving apps to the cloud cut that migration time by two-thirds.

The goal of AWS Migration Acceleration Program for Mainframe is to get those customers off of the Big Iron “as fast as they possibly can” in order to take better advantage of the cloud, according to Adam Selipsky, CEO of AWS, speaking at Amazon’s recent AWS re:Invent conference.

Google and other large cloud providers such as Microsoft Azure offer mainframe-to-cloud migration services as well.