Today, enterprises collaborate with system integrators and technology enablers to help them migrate their mainframe systems to modern technologies, including cloud platforms. The move is seen as a way to integrate advanced technologies that could help businesses support their product development process and accelerate service delivery.
The CIOs are at the helm of all the digital changes that are taking place in today’s world and they are on the driving seat in the organizations seeking to achieve mainframe modernization.
However, mainframe modernization is a complex journey that can take the wrong turn when executed unprepared. For a successful modernization journey, CIOs need to understand that it is a transformative project that requires serious thought investment.
So if you are a CIO and you believe mainframe modernization is a necessity in your organization, then we bring here some crucial considerations you must pay attention before jumping on the modernization bandwagon:
Create the Buy-In
Any major change in an organization has to be first embraced by its stakeholders since they see it from a high-level perspective. They have to see it through the monetary and operational lens and evaluate its organization-wide impact. Therefore, it is essential to make a comprehensive business case of the project, demonstrating the specific outcomes and benefits and how they will impact the bottom line. You’ll need the support of the stakeholders from the onset to get the ball rolling and you’ll want them to invest in it financially and emotionally.
As a CIO, a good starting point would be a meeting with the stakeholders where you can give a breakdown of the entire modernization project – impact, challenges and benefits – along with the tentative budget, timelines and resources. Make sure that you’ve determined established KPIs and metrics that you can apply to benchmark and prove the financial viability of the project.
Make an assertive pitch that convincingly builds a strong narrative while being transparent. The goal is to make it as clear and honest as possible so that the stakeholders can hook with your idea and see the tangible benefits the modernization is likely to produce.
People at the helm of an organization are more interested in the ROI which means they will be more interested in the financial aspects and how they will impact the bottom line. To add more weight in your pitch, you can augment it with cost-related data as well as an in-depth benefit-cost ratio analysis of the entire project. The more meticulous you are with your pitch, the higher will be your chances of getting the buy-in.
A Holistic Strategy is the Recipe for Success
Mainframe modernization doesn’t happen in a day or two. It is a long process that may take up to several months. The modernization journey is often rife with various obstacles and the project can get hampered due to technical, financial or other unforeseen reasons. It could be technical and financial roadblocks that can jeopardize the project during critical phases.
So unless you’ve worked out a strategy in the first place, things could fall apart sooner or later. To create a workable strategy, you need to first set project goals and milestones based on the tangible and nontangible value drivers. This should first define the one or several biggest modernization goals that you intend to achieve and how they will benefit your internal and external clients and the workings of your business.
Next, you need to single out specific components that you intend to modernize. This is essential to foresee the outcomes of changes likely to occur during and after the modernization and the accompanying challenges and issues that are likely to spring up. All in all, you should be clear about the expected modernization changes and how they will impact your business in terms of cost and efficiency.
Perform a Comprehensive Assessment
Any digital transformation in an organization should be led by a holistic assessment of an organization’s existing IT inventory. To get deeper insights, you need to get a complete picture of your current mainframe environment and its working components.
You need to analyze and understand the deeper realities of your mainframe environment and why and how you intend to change those realities with modernization. The first thing you should do is conduct an in-depth analysis of your application portfolio and determine their interdependencies. You need to map relationships between applications and supporting components, including data servers and network devices.
In addition, you need to go through the documented history of critical issues to analyze the existing complexities and whether they could play up during and after the execution. This is essential to avoid challenges snowballing during critical stages and will save your business from costly disruptions.
Choosing the Right Modernization Approach is Critical
And lastly, you need to choose a modernization approach that matches your specific requirements. You need to understand that modernizing legacy applications requires substantial code modifications to make them compatible with target platforms. Essentially, there are seven major modernization approaches that organizations pursue when they migrate mainframe systems. Each of the modernization approaches has its upsides and downsides in terms of risks, impact and costs.
Among the seven modernization approaches, the majority of organizations prefer re-architecting, rebuilding and replacing as more viable options since mainframe applications are architecturally and structurally monolithic and they require intensive code changes to leverage cloud-native benefits. These modernization approaches seek to enable functional and interface changes in mainframe applications so that they are compatible with cloud-native audiences.
However, the choice of a modernization approach should be solely based on the current state of your applications and the specific goals you want to achieve with the modernization of your mainframe applications. Most importantly, you need to take into consideration the roadblocks that you are likely to experience during the modernization course and equip yourself with the right resources – people, technologies and tools – to resolve the impending issues, risks and challenges. A comprehensive analysis of the complete application portfolio will help decide on the best modernization approach that will work for your specific needs.
Conclusion…
Mainframe modernization is a transformative project that seeks to enable fundamental changes to your technology stack. As a CIO, you need to understand the predictable project outcomes, benefits, opportunities along with risks and challenges. Being the brain behind all digital changes, you are the first and last person to take into account all the foreseeable outcomes of this initiative.
You must align your vision with the company’s goals and proceed with the execution of onboarding a competent team with the right skill set, experience and professional acumen.