DECEMBER 2017CIOAPPLICATIONS.COM9Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) for increased app uptime and security: A combination of analytics, machine learning and automation adds intelligence to today's monitoring and management tools. They simplify required configuration changes and ongoing operations by monitoring across the enterprise for anomalies and performing automated remediation per pre-defined policies. Today's algorithms teach themselves, continually improving their ability to find anomalies and other indications of intrusion, fighting back against relentless security hacks. The result is increased application uptime and a more secure infrastructure with less effort on IT's part.Is hyperscale computing the new alternative to the mainframe? Hyperscale data centers can rightly claim that their use of off-the-shelf, inexpensive computing equipment enables them to respond rapidly to growth without significant cost or disruption. Inevitable failures or degradation in these large, distributed environments are dealt with by massive redundancy. Hyperscale data centers are needed by companies that may have to respond rapidly to increased demand, such as Netflix, Google and Microsoft, leading some to question whether hyperscale computing is the modern-day alternative to mainframes.But what if the hyperscale data center is built with highly reliable and secure components, such as a next generation mainframe? A hyperscale data center with next-gen mainframes has native security because of the built-in encryption capabilities in the mainframe that exceed any commodity server. In addition, they present a smaller footprint and consume less power than a raft of commodity servers and are easier to manage.Hyperscale computing and mainframes should not be viewed as an either/or choice. The scaling-out capabilities of hyperscale and the scaling-up capabilities of mainframes combined with enhanced security give you the best of both worlds.Are you getting the most out of your mainframe?It's worth evaluating whether you are getting all you can out of your mainframes. How does your current mainframe stack up against the next gen alternatives? Have you integrated your infrastructure to speed up the identification and remediation of infrastructure issues? Are you making the most out of new intelligent monitoring and security software that will enable proactive performance management? Many companies have made a great choice even better by upgrading capabilities.A Finnish IT firm that offers consulting, development and outsourcing services, brought in new mainframe monitoring and automation tools to simplify managing their customers' mainframes. With this consolidated approach, they halved restart times and CPU processing requirements for some customers, realized cost savings on mainframe automation tools and can deliver better service overall. A data services company that offers data center hosting services simplified their mainframe management solution by replacing their multi-vendor management tools with an integrated management solution for both their customers' data centers and their own data center. This has saved them time, effort and money and improved their productivity. As a result, they can offer more competitive solutions to their customers, along with better service. With the improvements in mainframe hardware and software, there is no reason for your infrastructure to get stuck in the past. An up-to-date mainframe deployment can give you: · a unified infrastructure for better management· management tools that cover mobile to mainframe· virtualized environments for faster and easier development and testing· automation and AI for configuration control, anomaly detection, rapid remediation and increased security An optimized mainframe will save you time, resources and money and enable you to meet the challenges of the burgeoning app economy. Moving into the future with the mainframe will give you the available, secure and elastic infrastructure your organization deserves and demands. Bill Talbot
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