Presented at workshop by Apalia on buiiding a Private Cloud : our feedback describing the advantages of a private cloud when used to operate a legacy Cobol application migrated from a mainframe to Java & Linux.

1. mainframes to the cloud
Didier Durand
didier.durand@eranea.com

2. eranea : after poetry, the fun way...
What we do
leverage best of 2014
fix customer issues
Do not reinvent the wheel !
just make it better and cheaper !
Mainframe folks are getting old !
(look at my own abundant white
hair...)
2

3. … or the pro style
For legacy migration, cloud computing
better seen as “myriad computing” or
“swarm computing ” :
→ an efficient technology to
manage the restructuring of a legacy
monolithic h/w system into a flexible
large set of s/w single-function
instances
Shall we all end up in the cloud ?
(unless the next infrastructure trend makes
“cloudy for the cloud” ...)
3

4. agenda
➢
market trends
➢
legacy migration :


project rationale

➢
starting point
technology and methodology
mainframe → cloud computing

why

how
4

5. market trends : “winner takes all”
source : Redhat
source : Intel
worldwide server market
(roll-outs, subscriptions, shipments)
Windows = lots
of
office automation
servers
➢
➢
linux grows quickly even in financial industry : London Stock
Exchange, NYSE, Euronext, etc. for its “3S” : Speed, Stability,
Security
x86 also in virtuous circle : more largely used → becomes better
(performance, efficiency) → more largely used
5

6. “big irons” still well alive
Source: IBM 2013
➢
➢
➢
➢
96 of the world’s top 100 banks, 23 of the top 25 US retailers, and 9 out
of 10 of the world’s largest insurance companies run mainframes.
71% of global Fortune 500 companies have mainframes.
9 out of the top 10 global life and health insurance providers process
their high-volume transactions on a mainframe.
Mainframes process roughly 30 billion business transactions per day,
including most major credit card transactions and stock trades, money
transfers, manufacturing processes, and ERP systems.
6

7. so where is the real issue ?
➢
CIOs with legacy proprietary systems know the market trends


➢
they want to follow them
in an integrated manner and NOT as a patchwork
the journey is as critical (even more ?) than the destination:


how to move quickly ?

➢
how to reduce the huge exit costs ?
… without risks for the enterprise ?
issue for customers is ability not willingness
7

8. the starting point
➢
➢
➢
➢
➢
a large mission-critical application
encapsulating all business expertise with bulletproof reliability over decades of operations
representing very large investments (10s to 100s
men-years of software development)
doomed to technological obsolescence
running on a very expensive proprietary system
when compared to standards of 2014
8

9. rationale
➢
➢
massive savings in investments (capex) and operational expenses
(opex) : 80% → 90% from M/F to x86 and OSS = millions per year
on a recurring basis
technological mutation toward current standards:

web technologies, RIA interface

core components: SOA, Java, Linux

productivity: IDE, automated tests, assisted QA, code coverage, etc

agility / efficiency: leverage cloud computing

➢
tactical
objectives
N.B.: old technologies abandoned
value proposition : do both in 1 single shot !
9
strategic
objectives

10. technology: transcoder & runtime
NeaTranscoder
Cobol
pgm
Lexical
Analysis
Cobol
copy
Syntax
Analysis
Semantics
Analysis
Code
Generation
BMS
desc
NeaRuntime
Java
Program
(incl SQL)
DBMS
Internal
Object
implementation
XML
Screen
Online
“Cobol” support
SQL support
SOA
Display support
CICS Emulation
Tracing / logging
Batch
2 main distinctive features : 100% automated + strictly iso-functional
10

11. project infrastructure
legacy application code
Full transcoding
repeated nightly
DB2
(1 million lines / min)
production zone
CI
engine
analyze,
transcode, sources
compile, repository
package
DB
ERIT
JDBC /
DRDA
deploy
run
Integrate
administration zone
provisioned on a single cloud
11

12. (very) progressive migration
security
Java
becomes
reference
activity
tomcat
100%
instantaneous
way back
to old system
progressive
migration
CICS
Java
on AS
DRDA
Cobol
on Cics
DB2
data
migration to new
DB
• 100% of data on DB2
• Cobol remains reference
0%
6-9
months
2-3
months
time
mainframe
switched
off
no big bang + collaborative operations of
Cobol & Java = key success factor !
12

13. mainframe → cloud computing
13

14. Why and how ?
Incentives
➢
possible : x86 is very powerful
➢
costs : x86 is very cheap
➢
flexibility (virtualization) : h/w independence, instance migration,
day <> night configuration, etc.
Efficiency
➢
image management services : while migrating
➢
compute services : large number of instances
➢
identity services : processing must be instance-independent
➢
dashboard services : central control and management
14

15. x86 is powerful (1) - cpu
All processors are know extremely
similar in their architecture !
(various standard becnhmarks
confirm it)
source: Wikipedia
But, each year, are sold 4'000 mainframes <> 220'000 RISC servers
<> 10'000'000 x86 servers !
●
… who is best positioned to become even better as quickly as
possible ?
15

16. x86 is powerful (2) - IOPS
●
●
●
●
mainframe : 92'000 IOPs / sec * N I/O processors (N up to several tenths)
x86 : commonly reaching100'000 IOPs per x86 cpu
→ very identical core I/O performances [ mostly because mainframe FICON
is a derivative of x86 Fiber Channel)
[in addition, underlying storage systems (SANs) are identical]
16

17. x86 is cheap
Source: Gartner Group
Source: Rubin Worldwide
➢
cost per mips : 4'445 $/Mips/ year


(retail)

➢
➢
cost per server : 9'970 $/server/year
1'000 mips (a small config...) can pay
for 450 servers. You don't need that
much by far!

17
1B$ bank → 4.4 M$ mainframe costs
1 B$ insurance → 1.5 M$
(our experience : those ratio work well)
a migration consistently delivers 80%
savings ! (90% in best cases)

18. virtualization : 10% penalty worth it !
➢
➢
metal
-10%
h/w isolation : x86 is a commodity → supplier
switch must remain easy!
mainframes deliver high availability →
virtualization also :

kvm

➢
Source: Redhat
➢
instance migration, workload balancing, horizontal
scalability, etc.
N.B. choice of hypervisor is critical for correct
capabilities
flexibility : daily configuration (transactional
processing) <> nightly configuration (batch
processing) on same h/w
efficiency :


18
better utilization, lower power consumption
quick provisioning

19. image management service : why ?
➢
lots of instances :




➢
➢
N=8;M=3; P >2 → 10 (or more)
+ transcoding instances & services (2 x M
(?) x N (?) x mail + dns + ntp, etc.)
50 → 500 instances !
all instances of same type (distribution,
processing,etc) images must be
identically provisioned
images change daily (at least 1
transcoding / day)

19
N entities x M stages x 2 redundancy x P
power
history is needed

20. compute / dashboard service :
why ?
➢
private cloud is different from ISP cloud :

➢
➢
you get Iaas from CloudStack, OpenStack but you are responsible to deliver full application
stack
core application remains mission-critical → same stringent SLAs (resp time,
availability, etc.)
lots of instances :


➢
cannot be individually managed → consolidation / centralization is a must
“throw away and restart fresh” >> than “try to fix”
2-level centralization is critical

1) cloud single console : monitoring of instances, storage, network, etc.

2) instance single console : processes, resp times, syslogs, etc,
20

21. identity service : why ?
➢
application remains mission-critical → coherent
global security must still be guaranteed

➢
➢
important for both users & ops / dev team
virtualization + instances allow a very fine
granularity → potential to improve security ?
lots of instances → security must be managed
per type of instance rather than per instance
21

22. still out of cloud ...
➢
long-lasting data (“the company memory”) still kept on SAN
and managed “traditionally”:


➢
traditional relational database (DB2) server / cluster shared
across instances
future work :

➢
permanent files shared across instances → NFS, NAS, etc.
evaluate how far distributed / replicated data services (ex: swift
in OpenStack) are applicable to current “regular” files : instance
images, log files, application data
relational data : still an open question ! Do you have an
answer ?....
22

23. conclusion
➢
➢
➢
Moore's law makes it possible today for x86 to handle missioncritical applications at right correct level of SLA (performance,
availability)
private cloud computing delivers today the right tools to manage the
myriad of instances needed at scale of mission-critical applications
for large corporations
When will you enjoy (savings, flexibility, etc.) this new architecture in
your organization ? :

in 12-18 months if you choose 100% automated and iso-functional
transcoding

in 60-90 months if you choose the rewriting path

the decision is yours ! ...
23

24. Thanks ! Questions ?
2014 – 500 MB SoC
(dual-core x86)
1957 – 5 MB hard disk
Consequence : same objectives reached differently !
Didier DURAND
didier.durand@eranea.com
+41 79 944 37 10
eranea | chemin de Mornex | 1001, Lausanne (Switzerland)
24