We are now back for the last part of this series of blogs.
Join our two z/OS system programmers, Josh and Deb, as they continue their discussion. They talk about the benefits of containers from their perspective, using z/OS Connect as an example.
For Josh and Deb’s different experiences of managing an application on IBM zSystems, see part 2. For a summary of why containers have become so significant and the options on IBM zSystems, see part 1.”
As you would think not only IBM solutions are now available and delivered as containers but a lot of Integrated Software Vendors (ISVs) ones as well.
Having the capability to run these workloads as containers on z/OS can provide many benefits as you already know like co-location, scalability, resilience and security. The latest technologies can now be applied to z/OS in order to modernize your most critical applications and address the current client imperatives :
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IT will be decentralized, open and secure: z/OS is a key element of a hybrid cloud strategy as it is today already delivering critical business services.
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Automation will fuel the future of work: as IDC1 stated, “By 2025, 75% of organizations will favor technology partners that can provide a consistent application deployment experience across cloud, edge, and dedicated environments”. Running containers on z/OS can provide this experience.
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Winners will scale the value of data with AI: This is where the hardware layer is making a difference. For instance, you can containerize applications on z/OS to perform fraud detection and leverage the AI2 Inferencing capabilities of the new Telum processor of the IBM z16.
Note1: IDC Reference: https://www.reportlinker.com/p04282965/IDC-FutureScape-Worldwide-Cloud-Predictions.html
Note2: zAIUReference: https://community.ibm.com/HigherLogic/System/DownloadDocumentFile.ashx?DocumentFileKey=e09704e9-3f95-584d-187b-4a72440b432e&forceDialog=0
So let’s continue to discover more values & benefits of containers on IBM zSystems with our key actors : Deb & Josh.
Example with z/OS Connect delivered in containers !
Deb : I am glad we discussed about our different ways of working containers. It would be good, now, to highlight the value and the benefits of containers for our favorite z/OS environment ? Let’s pick-up an example with z/OS Connect. What do you think ?
Josh: Sure Deb ! z/OS connect is a good one. I know it allows you to easily create REST APIs to expose zSystems applications and data to be consumed by hybrid cloud environments. It is running in a WebSphere Liberty runtime installed under the Unix System Services (USS) on z/OS, right ?
Figure 7: z/OS Connect – High level view
Deb : Exactly ! And are you aware of the new options for deploying z/OS connect ? For instance, if you want to use the latest OpenAPI 3 standard, you can, now, use the latest IBM z/OS Connect Offering. The Designer as well as the Server part are delivered as container images. Look the picture here:
Figure 8 : z/OS Connect Server Runtime Options
More agility for integration & more granularity in scalability with containers
Josh: Ok, I see. So how is this affecting my current processes, the architecture in place and the technology I am used to ?
Deb : So regarding the process, using containers allows the application teams to manage the exposure of their own APIs without referring to you or a centralized integration team. This is speeding-up the delivery and providing more agility because each team can make changes without impacting other teams. They can be isolated, addressing their own containers. Changes to individual API flows can be automatically rebuilt and deployed independently of other flows to allow safer changes and maximize speed to production.
Josh: I understand the agility point but, in the traditional way, for scaling, I had to add new z/OS Connect instances in the z/OS UNIX System Services, how is this managed ?
Deb : The scalability part is managed by the underlying platform hosting the containers. Do you remember when I mentioned kubernetes ?
Josh: Hum...Yes the orchestration engine for containers ?
Deb : Exactly ! For IBM zSystems, the containers can run on a Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cluster deployed on Linux zSystems or on z/OS. On z/OS, it uses multiple zCX address spaces. The API flows can be scaled independently, taking advantage of efficient elastic scaling of the cloud infrastructures.
Josh: Ok ! It is now clear that the containers are increasing the agility and the time to value compared to my way of working. Because I see it will required much less skill set requirements. To me all the following aspects will be handled by the containerized platform:
Deb : It is true in terms of simplicity because as you said, it reduces the amount of components to manage specifically. About lowering the skills barriers, it applies if you think about DevOps automation as the z/OS Connect solution is now deployed using OCI containers and industry standard platforms, so non z/OS persons can manage the various components. Containers allow a common way to manage applications across multiple environments including IBM zSystems.
Hybrid: The best of both worlds with containers
Josh: You also mentioned a seamless integration of core business assets on IBM zSystems with hybrid applications across the enterprise. What do you mean ? Does it mean I will have, as a z/OS sysprog, to work with developers , with Linux administrators ?
Deb : No you will not have to do this but it means you may end up with several options of deployments, on your z/OS infrastructure, as represented on figure 8. You will still continue to manage the z/OS Connect instances on z/OS, for OpenAPI 2 while for the latest hybrid cloud applications, some developers will use OpenAPI 3 using containers. These developers will benefit from all the previous elements we discussed. This is a strategic fit for hybrid integration !
Figure 9: Traditional and Containerized deployments for z/OS Connect Server Runtime.
Josh: Ok so it is much clearer now for me. So containers running on z/OS are not there to replace all my traditional activities. I will still have some familiar tasks to perform but the containers and the underlying platform will help to improve the operational efficiency while at the same time providing DevOps efficiencies and an automated maintainability.
Deb: Correct ! While the technology of containers running on IBM zSystems will provide you with innovation, flexibility, scalability , you will also participate to reduce the time to value required for the developers.
Address skills & capture new opportunities with standards !
Josh: You took the example of z/OS Connect but I assume all the value points we discussed can apply to other workloads as well ?
Deb: Absolutely Josh, there is a breadth and diversity of vendors and a lot of modernization patterns on IBM zSystems are now based on containerized solutions. We can lower the risk of changes because each container is isolated while we increase the development flexibility and we gain in agility. There is less need for specific z/OS skills for the management part including provisioning/deprovisiong of instances.
Josh: And you can also create automated DevOps pipelines across multiple environments in a standardize way which addresses some operational cost issues. About this last point, how can you be sure it makes sense to run containers on IBM zSystems from an economic point of view ?
Deb: On z/OS , the workloads running in containers are consuming resources within a zCX address space which is dispatched onto specialized processors, called zIIP processors. This way the applications can benefit from co-location, security, network speed, scalability, resiliency, workload management and others key capabilities of the z/OS LPAR at a competitive cost.
Josh: Oh I see...Each of these non-functional requirements is having an impact on the cost efficiency of the solution. So combining them will improve the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of running containers on zSystems. Ok fine but this is out of my decision as a z/OS sysprog and it is on the architecture side.
Deb: The performance aspects are also important to consider but as a z/OS sysprog you are not involved on the applications running inside the containers. You will not be responsible for the container orchestration platform. In your role, you will continue to monitor and notify the teams, managing the applications, about their performance impact on your system.
Josh: Oh, so for instance, I will have to contact a Red Hat OpenShift cluster administrator !
Deb: Yes; this is where people and processes are involved. A new organisation may be required with new roles ! An existing Red Hat OpenShift administrator may also work on the cluster on z/OS.
I have seen a statement of direction about another alternative solution where z/OS subsystems can be managed like containers. Stay tuned and we will discuss about it in another article !
Yes Deb, you are right, but we will keep this subject of z/OS containers for our next serie of articles. It was really interesting for me to go through this interview with you Deb & Josh ! It is really a passionate discussion and I am sure there will be many questions from our reviewers ! Have all a good day !
Josh: “Bye and thanks Deb for sharing the good chat!”
Deb: “Thanks Josh and talk to you soon about the upcoming innovations on z/OS !”
Thank you for reading and innovate with IBM zSystems !
Additional References :