In an ever-growing matrix of business technology powering day-to-day operations, it is a misconception that mainframe technology has lost out to cloud innovations. For those businesses who still use a mainframe, it can be both a sensible and powerful choice. A well-managed mainframe can offer many companies efficiency and cost savings, provided governance ensures resources are spent properly.
Organizations that use mainframes benefit from greater cost-effectiveness. Initial investments are steep, but relatively low residual costs combined with increases in value and versatility more than make up the difference. However, a new take on an old concept is bringing some attention to mainframes again. Java is becoming popular on mainframes. Outside of its common use of being run on JVMs, like Linux, it’s being deployed as a mainframe-wide platform against big systems on z/OS.
So, what’s the difference between these two implementations? How do you choose one for your organization’s mainframe? Keep reading to learn about Java on the mainframe for your enterprise business.
Linux vs z/OS
As it turns out, z/OS has a long and foundational history with mainframes. That’s because the 64-bit operating system developed by IBM was designed specifically to run on them. The z/OS product was created in 2001, but predecessors of z/OS date back to the 1960s.
It 2018, it’s become evident that naysayers of mainframes, those who thought the product was dead, are mistaken. BMC’s recent Annual Mainframe Research suggests 90% of respondents can see a viable use for mainframes in the future. Further, more than 80% of respondents were projecting their mainframe capacity to grow. And almost half of the respondent could envision mainframes taking on additional workloads that aren’t mapped today.
While Java has been utilized for mainframes for over a decade, the instances of Java on mainframes have increased in recent years. Today, 50% of companies are using Java on z in their production environment. This is compared to 22% who are only using it in non-production areas, like Linux VM. The rest of those surveyed weren’t using Java on the mainframe at all. The numbers suggest a vast majority of mainframe users run Java in some capacity.
So, what do you do? How should you approach using Java on an enterprise mainframe?
Benefits of Linux Virtualization
People who use a Linux VM to run Java on the mainframe, do it because it’s familiar. Pretty much any operation you can do on a Linux virtualization can be done on z, directly. But z/OS has a more antiquated foundation and lacks some of the finesse of Linux.
Because of a lack of momentum for the technology giant in the education space, many computer science programs no longer teach mainframes as a specialty. And with initial investments in technology being substantial, it’s difficult for someone to become self-taught on mainframes unless they do so on the job.
For those reasons, running Java directly on z/OS is not a comfortable position for many developers to be in. That might mean they run several Linux VMs and run java exclusively in these environments. Long story short, the benefits of running Linux breakdown, as follows:
- A familiar and comfortable environment
- Likely to have access to many trained employees who can code in this space
Beyond that, you could perform the same tasks using only Java on z/OS if you understand how to work the system.
