By Rich Ptak
BMC rightly
identified the need for enterprises of all sizes to focus on transformation
with Digital Enterprise Management (DEM)[1].
This can take on many different forms including a focus on automating tasks for
managing and controlling licensing costs. Here is one example of how this plays
out to the benefit of a mid-sized insurance firm.
Mainframe software
license charges (MLC), for both system and applications, have been tied
directly to consumption, measured in peak MSUs[2]
or MIPS[3]
since the early days. MSU (or MIPs) consumption ties to workloads and
performance, which determine the ability to meet service level agreements
(SLAs). MSUs are also used to calculate software licensing charges as a measure
of the level of mainframe usage or computing consumed.
Associating the
actual MSU usage by individual workloads has been a very difficult task. Managing
mainframe software MLC costs, let alone predicting them, has never been easy.
Even in the days of disciplined workloads, calculating the total number of MSUs
consumed by any particular combination of workloads at any particular time was
the source of Sys Admin nightmares. Even the best efforts by both vendors and
customers, end up relying on manual efforts that are time-consuming,
frustrating and typically unreliable. In today’s world of mobile computing,
with unpredictable workload volumes, where some 90% of transactions end up involving
mainframes, the variation is
even less predictable. Even relatively small mainframe operations experience
dramatic swings in MIPS consumption, driving up costs.
The efforts of one
mainframe vendor are changing all that. BMC’s MLC cost management solutions provide
the first real opportunity to automatically manage and control MSU peaks. They
also provide tools to identify jobs and tasks to tune.
We interviewed the
Technical Services Manager of a mid-sized insurance holding company. Using BMC
products, Intelligent Capping for zEnterprise® (iCap) and Cost Analyzer for
zEnterprise (Cost Analyzer), he can now control MSU peaks, eliminate peak
surprises and identify where to concentrate tuning efforts. He reduced peaks
from 90 to 75 MSUs, eliminated an annual ‘true-up’ bill in 6 months and plans
to further reduce peaks to 63 MSUs.
The Corporate Data Center
The insurance
company’s mainframe is the responsibility of a centralized corporate IT group with
SLA commitments to support delivery of shared corporate services (e.g. Human
Resource management, networking, billing, invoicing, etc.) to owned companies. Local
IT groups within the various entities’ handle all other applications.
The company runs a
variety of BMC’s DB2, IMS and MainView products to manage and control a
relatively small z/OS-based 90 MSU (728 MIPS) mainframe. Other vendor products
are also installed. Billing usage is determined using a 4-hour rolling average of
MSU peaks. They pay a fixed z/ monthly charge based on usage by z/OS components.
Usage of other IBM® software (IMS™, DB2®, CICS®, MQ®), is covered by a fixed monthly
amount defined in an Enterprise Licensing agreement (ELA) based on an estimated
peak MSU. They true-up the difference
between the actual and estimated MSU usage once per year. This charge has
historically ranged between $30K and $50K. Annual MLC charges run in the
neighborhood of $1.6M. Changes in workloads prevented more accurate forecasting,
making budgeting for the true-up charge and cost management very difficult.
Efforts at manual tracking and using other products to control peaks were
unsatisfactory.
Our manager was
convinced that intelligent capping of peak load MSUs would reduce MLC costs. He
also suspected more could be done to further reduce 4-hour rolling average MSU
peaks. Better cost control and operations management was possible with more
data and detailed insights to identify specific workloads, jobs and tasks for
tuning efforts.
One Insurance Company’s Experience
BMC’s MLC Cost
Management products changed all that. Our Technical Services Manager learned
about BMC’s MLC cost control solutions for the mainframe at a BMC seminar.
Within four months, they had purchased and installed Cost Analyzer and iCap. The
results were everything expected.
Cost Analyzer
allowed LOB managers to identify workloads driving up peak consumption. These
could be managed to reduce peak overruns. An update provides even more insight
and control. We’ll discuss later.
For iCap, the goal
was to reduce the average peak from 90 to 75 MSUs. There are three operational
modes for iCap:
- 1. Observe – a learning mode that monitors and collects operational data on workloads.
- 2. Message – extends Observe to analyze data and send alerts to recommend changes (using customer specified parameters) to control MSUs and manage costs.
- 3. Manage – monitors, analyzes and automatically implements recommended changes.
For the first two
weeks after installation, adjustments were made manually based on automatic
alerts from iCap. After that, they switched to automatic Manage Mode. The product
ran for the second ½ of the fiscal year. At the first post-installation
true-up, the charge was zero. With iCap running, they NEVER exceeded the 75 MSU
cap. Cap management allowed them to compensate for the first six months (pre-MSU
capping) of consumption over-runs. This was a major advance in cost control and
savings.
As a result, plans
are to progressively lower the cap from current 75 MSU to 62 or 63 MSUs within
4 years. With the latest installed version of Cost Analyzer software, the
manager can drill-down for additional detail on the workloads driving MIPs
consumption. This allows identification of the specific jobs and tasks to tune
to further reduce the load.
Capping
consumption and insight into workload group operations will provide even more
significant savings in the future. With the knowledge already gained, along
with the control available with iCap, they can negotiate better multi-year peak
and sub-capacity licensing and billing terms with vendors. The more detailed data
and control works with virtually any mainframe software (BMC, CA Technologies, IBM,
etc.). They
anticipate savings from controlling the cap to exceed $140,000 over 48 months, an
estimated 8.75% of their MLC costs.
Advice
Our manager
strongly advises potential users to leverage BMC’s expertise in the
implementation process. Not because the process is particularly complex, it
isn’t. But because they found the BMC support was excellent beyond
expectations. Time spent with them before, during and post-installation reduced
the time to learn and benefit from the products. His team rapidly acquired
useful insights into reports and data in formal and informal sessions with BMC
staff. As a result, they quickly developed expertise at using the products to
get optimum results.
Conclusion
In this manager’s
experience, BMC products and support more than met his expectations and needs
with these products. He expects to see additional benefits well into the future
even as his workloads shift and change over time. He found working with BMC
support staff accelerated time-to-value, while dramatically increasing team
expertise and ability to use the new products. He recommends the combination of
Intelligent Capping and Cost Analyzer along with use of BMC’s support services.
[1]
See our blogs on DEM at: http://tinyurl.com/hurfzxq,
and http://tinyurl.com/ptakassociates-bmcmfmlcmgt
[2]
A million service units (MSU) is a measurement of the amount of processing work
a computer can perform in one hour – typically used for mainframes.
[3]
Million instructions per second, a measure of a computer's central processing
unit performance.
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