Mainframe Outsourcing Technical Support

Mainframe Outsourcing involves the transitioning of a number of technical support functions that are currently being handled in-house to an outsourcing provider. These services would begin after a contract is in place and a vendor starts managing your mainframe system. The mainframe can be physically located at a vendor’s facility or remain at your data center (see Mainframe Outsourcing Types). The services listed below include the typical types of support that a vendor could provide.

Technical Support

A vendor will provide technical support for the mainframe environment. These services include the following:

1
Operating System: A vendor will install operating system software. A vendor will configure the software, apply upgrades and patches from the manufacturer.
2
Logical Partition (LPAR) Support: A vendor will install, configure and implement LPARs within the managed environment. A vendor will implement LPARs utilizing the hardware management console or a primary partition.

Software Management

A vendor typically provides operating systems and Independent Software Vendor (“ISV”) software management. They provide a number of support services including:

1
Installation, configuration and maintenance support for your operating system and related third party software for the mainframe environment
2
Software upgrades to new releases or versions
3
Investigate, determine, and support resolution of problems related to OS and ISV software products
4
Provide software inventory tracking
5
Application of software authorization codes
6
Support for multiple LPARs, e.g., Production, Development and Test
7
Prepare, install, and certify operating system changes and software upgrades
8
Maintain the latest versions of operating system software
9
Test software updates
10
Analyze and resolve problems
11
Create and publish detailed systems documentation
12
Provide vendor interface for third-party software
13
Provide support to review and install simple system modifications (e.g., standard user exits)
14
Participate in periodic review meetings
15
Participate in outage calls to troubleshoot problems
16
Provide system logon ID support (add, modify, and delete logon IDs)
17
Perform system backups

CICS Management

A hosting vendor typically will provide the installation, configuration and maintenance support for your mainframe CICS environment. These services include:

1
Upgrades for CICS to new releases or versions as required to maintain vendor currency using standard change control procedures
2
CICS system problem determination
3
Application of CICS software maintenance

Technical Database Administration

An outsourcing vendor can provide systems (technical) DBA support for your database (i.e. DB2 and IDMS) environments. These services include installation, configuration and maintenance of the mainframe database software as well as support for the system directories, catalogs and dictionaries. They will monitor, backup and recover the system database resources as well as provide system-level problem determination for the database software and related tools.

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Storage Management

Management of your data storage including mainframe storage and tape as well as the hardware and software used to provide data storage. A vendor will provide:

1
Backup for operating system and third party software and running application backup schedules
2
Storage capacity planning by reporting on historical growth, and in combination with information regarding anticipated business changes, extrapolation of future storage requirements. As resource utilization approaches your specified thresholds, a vendor will notify you and review recommendations.

Capacity and Performance Management

Capacity and Performance Management services include the tuning of the mainframe, monitoring system resources, and forecasting resource needs. Other capacity management functions include:

1
Identifying organizational, service, technology and growth requirements
2
Collecting and organizing performance and capacity measurement data
3
Evaluating current service/usage of CPU, storage, and tape against requirements
4
Initiating corrective actions (i.e. system tuning)
5
Forecasting future resource requirements and recommending alternatives
6
Communicating capacity and performance information to you

Capacity Planning

Capacity Planning is the process of predicting sufficient resource requirements to meet the future needs of the mainframe. A vendor will capture usage from key areas (CPU, Disk I/O, disk utilization, memory, network interface utilization), thus providing the necessary information to perform capacity planning. Specific tasks include:

1
For CPU capacity planning, a vendor will provide graphs showing historical and current usage. A vendor will collaborate with you to discuss anticipated business driver changes, their projected effects on system performance and potential courses of action.
2
A vendor will provide capacity planning services including the analysis of current CPU resource utilization and the projection of future CPU consumption.

A vendor’s capacity planning services include:

1
Collection of capacity metrics and management of the vendor’s repository data base environment
2
Review of CPU capacity reports and mainframe utilization data
3
Determination of impact of your application and business changes have on capacity requirements
4
Monthly and annual capacity planning review
5
Apprising you of capacity related issues

Performance Management

A vendor will identify, analyze and resolve issues related to transient degradation of service levels. Performance management services include:

1
Identifying, analyzing and resolving issues related to transient degradation of service levels
2
Defining performance metrics and setting alert thresholds
3
Automated monitoring of system level performance based on alert threshold triggers
4
Real-time analysis of system level service degradation to determine root cause