Three Steps to Maximizing Your Mainframe for DevOps Value Streams

In today’s fast-paced environment, IT leaders are focused on uncovering the best ways to improve and maximize their DevOps value streams while setting up an infrastructure for success.

But when it comes to their DevOps strategy, they’re not usually thinking about their mainframe. In fact, when it comes to their mainframe, they’re not always sure about the right approach, so they put off making any major decisions that change development practices with the mainframe.

By stalling decisions on mainframe development, IT leaders miss out on key opportunities, like unifying their DevOps strategy with what they’ve already implemented with their distributed systems. In the interim, they purchase numerous narrow-focus solutions to solve operational and/or development issues. But patchwork problem-solving creates invisible costs. Some of the biggest costs include training for these new tools and procedures, and the time lost while managing these disjointed processes. And a lack of seamless integrations across applications, a lack of visibility across value streams, security risks, and potential breaches make these stopgaps even more expensive.

Leveraging multiple tools, while ignoring their mainframe, exacerbates challenges for IT leaders. And lulls in DevOps initiatives drag companies behind their competitors, opening the door for customers to leave for more accessible services and products. Moreover, employee morale suffers under too much time spent putting out avoidable fires instead of producing and innovating on behalf of their organization and its goals.

Your IT Leader’s Successful DevOps Strategy Embraces the Mainframe.

An IT leader’s mainframe is both a vital component of infrastructure and a key player in a complete DevOps strategy. Blending the mainframe into the overall plan for success maximizes the value of its critical role.

What Are the First Steps? How Can IT Leaders Improve Their DevOps Strategy to Include the Mainframe?

1. Design and Visualize the Right Connections

 
It’s important to map out the components of your DevOps value streams for a holistic view into your revenue-generating workflows. By doing this, you attain full visibility into your successes, gaps, priorities, and biggest costs.
 

2. Coordinate Approaches Across Teams and Technology

 
After you’ve analyzed the components of each value stream from end to end, identify the critical areas where automation is key for success. Where are the gaps? Which gaps are most crucial to your value streams? But before implementing automation, your teams must be aligned in the overall strategy and approach.
 

3. Automate What Matters So You Can Respond Quickly to Problems and Opportunities

 
Now that you’ve identified what key areas need to be automated and have coordinated your teams, begin the automation process. You may discover that you already have pockets of automation with products like Jenkins, Ansible, and Kubernetes. For the greatest benefits, leverage a DevOps Value Stream Orchestration solution like ASG Enterprise Orchestrator, which can easily plug into your mainframe, integrate across all your key applications, and orchestrate your DevOps value streams end-to-end so that nothing goes unnoticed.
 
ASG Enterprise Orchestrator empowers you to operate faster, cut costs, close gaps, and create efficiency.
 
By Taking These First Steps, You Will:
 

• Deliver so consistently that your customers will seek you out
• Create and support an efficient and smooth workflow
• Attract high-performing employees to your high-performing work environment

 
ASG Enterprise Orchestrator is a DevOps Value Stream Orchestration solution that orchestrates your value streams from end to end — lifting the power of your mainframe. Learn more about how you can optimize business process flows, improve resource and application efficiency, and accelerate the delivery of innovation to end users and customers.