Close the mainframe skills gap, if you want to optimise IT operations, says CA
1 min read
Manufacturers need to boost their IT departments' mainframe skills, if they are to remain competitive. But they have the opportunity to make optimum use of their technology investments in doing so.
So says James O'Malley, senior director, mainframes, with CA. "The plain fact is that Britain's manufacturing and other sectors are facing an emerging skills crisis within their IT departments – but this often misunderstood computing platform offers remarkable opportunities for companies to enhance their IT capabilities," he insists.
CA commissioned a European survey of 180 businesses' use of mainframes in a range of sectors, and found 82% saying they operated mainframe computers. Of the 49 manufacturing sector companies polled, 86% said they were mainframe users.
"Mainframe remains one of the lynchpins of large organisations' ability to transact business," says O'Malley. "A survey average of 46% say their mainframe computer handles between 50 and 100% of their critical data – with four out of 10 of manufacturing respondents holding this view."
O'Malley makes the point that mainframe architectures have been expanded to address developments such as SOA (service orientated architecture), "which knit together IT resources in the Web 2.0 age". Nearly half of CA's survey respondents (48%), he says, state that the mainframe is a fully connected computing resource handling the growing burden of processing tasks.
Additionally, nearly two thirds of interviewees (63%) said applications can run reliably on the mainframe for years without unscheduled stops. "Mainframe offers remarkable value for money for a 45-year-old technology: some 52% of the manufacturing firms questioned said they spent 20% or less of their annual IT budget on mainframe operations," comments O'Malley.
All good stuff, but raising the question, 'what should be done about the emerging mainframe skills gap?'.
"The answer seems to be to provide the mainframe management tools that less skilled or younger age groups use to manage the platform. More than a third of all survey respondents said that a web-orientated user interface would boost the appeal of mainframe for less experienced staff," suggests O'Malley.
"CIOs are clearly taking mainframe's ability to provide the business with optimum computing performance capabilities very seriously. However, to help address the challenges of the next few years, many organisations will have to plan and manage a dedicated mainframe skills programme in their workforce planning," he declares.
