The Resilient Mainframer – Toolbox

Although much of the press and many non-mainframers see as mainframes as 50-year-old bits of kit running 50-year-old software, nothing could be further from the truth. If you were to take an expert mainframer from the year 2000 and drop them into a 2020 data center, there would be much that they did understand, but lots that would be completely new to them. Yes, there is still CICS, IMS, and Db2, but internally there are lots of differences. People can now access mainframes from their phone using Web services and Representational state transfer (REST). Theres this thing called cloud (which is a bit like the way mainframes have always worked). Theres edge computing. And theres a whole new way of working called Agile and DevOps. And theres a whole lot of new stuff that people talk about including Github, Jenkins, and Maven. What would they make of Docker and containers? And what is Zowe and why does open source software run on a mainframe?

And thats just scratching the surface. Far from being a sleeping giant that one day will disappear when all the applications are finally transferred off of it, the mainframe is a dynamic ultra-modern platform.

Its also the vendors that keep changing. Compuware is now part of BMC, which also recently acquired RSM Partners. Syncsort has changed its name to Precisely. In 2013, Syncsort acquired Circle Computer Group for its DL/2 product, and in 2015, it acquired William Data Systems for its network monitoring and security software. The big acquisition was last year when it bought the software and data business of Pitney Bowes. And, of course, CA became Broadcom. And there have been many other changes in the past 20 years.

After 50 plus years of success, we can say that the mainframe is pretty resilient. What we also find is that, with all these changes plus the Coronavirus outbreak, mainframers themselves need to be fairly resilient.

Resilience, in the psychological sense, is a persons ability to mentally or emotionally cope with a crisis or to return to pre-crisis status quickly. You can think of it as the ability to remain calm during crises/chaos and to move on from the incident without any long-term negative consequences. Resilience doesnt mean that a person isnt affected by whats going on around them, its just that they have developed psychological and behavioral capabilities to cope. People who have suffered major adversity or trauma in their lives commonly experience emotional pain and stress.

It used to be thought that some people had the characteristic or trait of resiliency and they were therefore better able to cope with difficult situations than people who didnt have that particular characteristic. Nowadays, theres a different idea. Resilience is now thought of as a process. So, youre faced with an adverse condition, how do you respond? It seems people generally react in one of three ways:

Erupt with anger Implode with overwhelming negative emotions, go numb, and become unable to react Simply become upset about the disruptive change.

It seems that resilient people choose the third option. The first two options lead to people rejecting coping methods, blaming others, and seeing themselves as victims. Negative emotions such as fear, anger, anxiety, distress, helplessness, and hopelessness decrease a persons ability to solve the problems they face and reduces their resiliency. A resilient person will adapt to the adversity and be able to cope.

So, what characteristics would a resilient mainframer have? Research suggests they would have:

The ability to make realistic plans and be able to take the steps necessary to follow through with them Confidence in their strengths and abilities Communication and problem-solving skills The ability to manage strong impulses and feelings.

There also seems to be a strong link between positive emotions and resilience. Research has found that maintaining positive emotions while facing adversity promotes flexibility in thinking and problem solving. Positive emotions help a person to recover from stressful experiences and encounters.

People who tend to approach problems with cognitive reappraisal, humor, optimism, and goal-directed problem-focused coping seem to strengthen their resistance to stress.

A study found six main predictors of resilience among high achieving professionals. They were: positive and proactive personality, experience and learning, sense of control, flexibility and adaptability, balance and perspective, and perceived social support. These high achievers also engaged in many activities unrelated to their work such as hobbies, exercising, and organizing meet-ups with friends and loved ones.

Lots of studies show that the primary factor for the development of resilience is social support, ie how much access they have to, and use they make of, strong ties to other individuals who are similar to them. Other factors associated with resilience include: the capacity to make realistic plans, having self-confidence and a positive self-image, developing communications skills, and the capacity to manage strong feelings and impulses. Forgiveness also seems to increase resilience.

The American Psychological Association suggests 10 Ways to Build Resilience, which are to:

1. Maintain good relationships with close family members, friends, and others.2. Avoid seeing crises or stressful events as unbearable problems.3. Accept circumstances that cannot be changed.4. Develop realistic goals and move towards them.5. Take decisive actions in adverse situations.6. Look for opportunities of self-discovery after a struggle with loss.7. Develop self-confidence.8. Keep a long-term perspective and consider the stressful event in a broader context.9. Maintain a hopeful outlook, expecting good things and visualizing what is wished.10. Take care of ones mind and body, exercising regularly, paying attention to ones own needs and feelings.

So, you work in an industry that is not known for change, but which is continually updating itself and incorporating the best technologies from other platforms. Then there are continual security issues. Of course, the mainframe is taking great strides to protect data and applications from hackers. Thats data at rest, data in motion, and data in use. Security by obscurity used to work because hackers could get a quicker return by focusing on distributed systems, but these days, mainframes are linked to mobile, cloud, edge, and any other kind of computing there is. Plus, it is also accessible using open source tools (which hackers are very familiar with). In addition to these bad actors, sites need to be aware that data and applications might get corrupted by human error and trusted staff being coerced to perform bad acts. So, something needs to be in place to speedily identify when this happens. Plus, people without mainframe experience are always pushing management to get all the data off mainframes and into the cloud or on distributed systems.

Mainframers need to be resilient at work, and, with Covid-19, they need to be resilient away from work. I hope some of the suggestions here help.

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The Resilient Mainframer - Toolbox