Agile automation, orchestration and Management BMC Software modernizes Mainframe Tools
28.07.2021 Editor:
Ulrike Ostler
It is difficult for security experts to detect suspicious activity. This does not exclude those on mainframes. BMC has new features for mainframe users in the quiver.
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BMC Software increases the feature diversity in mainframe security and DevOps.
(Image: vinayr16 on Pixabay)
BMC offers more innovations and integrations within the BMC Automated Mainframe Intelligence (BMC AMI) and BMC Compuware portfolios aimed at improving threat detection and response. In addition, access to mainstream DevOps tools will be expanded, which will allow to modernize mainframe applications and increase the productivity of developers.
These updates enable or improve the following features:
- Detect vulnerabilities and malicious activity before it becomes a threat, with automatic detection and response to suspicious or unusual, privileged user activity.
- Accelerate the output of development teams with new integrations that simplify continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) pipelines and orchestrate automated deployments across multiple platforms.
- Increased performance and resiliency of mainframes with a solution that diagnoses potential performance issues of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM); this makes sense given that the number of Java applications running on mainframes is increasing.
- Improve the experience of mainframe developers and system programmers by contributing to the “Zowe” framework of the “Open Mainframe Project”.
Access protection for Privileged Accounts
According to BMC, the fastest way to get mainframe data is through privileged accounts, as well as supervisor and credentialed call activity. These accounts can be compromised by external attackers or malicious internal users by triggering call activities that allow them to access and steal valuable data. Worse, once compromised, they are an effective way for attackers to deploy ransomware, avoid detection, and increase their retention time.
The renewed “Supervisor Call Screener” and the “Unix System Service” (USS) in conjunction with BMC AMI Security detect calls that may indicate malicious activity and quickly show actions by users with superuser rights. They thus provide an additional layer of security to protect against compromised privileged user accounts to stop and prevent threat campaigns, insider theft or unnoticed levels of privilege that may lead to future attacks.
Agility and faster application updates
According to this year’s Forrester Consulting study “Modernizing Mainframe Development Tools Can Help Drive Greater ROI” commissioned by BMC, over three-quarters of developers said that the mainframe is of paramount importance to their business. However, eight out of ten respondents said that their mainframe development tools need to be significantly improved to deliver value. The study concludes that teams with modern tools are further along in building modern mainframe applications and have fewer problems with skill gaps and talent acquisition.
The BMC Compuware ISPW solution now integrates with Github Actions and HCL Launch to further automate the development and deployment process of mainframe applications, reducing cost and complexity. The capabilities extend the existing built-in CI / CD integrations in the BMC Compuware ISPW applications, which include Jenkins, Git, GitLab, Github, VS Code, and REST APIs.
The Github Actions feature allows users to reduce errors and improve application quality by setting up CI / CD pipelines with automated workflows. HCL Launch makes it possible to orchestrate automated deployments across multiple environments with a single click. HCL Launch also extends BMC’s existing CD integrations with “Digital.ai Release” and “Cloudbees Flow” to make deployments faster and easier.
Something has also happened in the database: Customers can now use an HCL Launch plug-in for the “BMC AMI DevOps for Db2″software to automatically capture database changes and propagate them across “Db2” environments, in addition to Jenkins and “IBM Urbancode Deploy”.
For quick identification of Java performance problems
“AMI Ops Monitor for Java Environments” from BMC recognizes all JVMs under “z/OS”. The tool thus makes it possible to quickly find and resolve issues by identifying performance issues caused by JVMs and understanding their impact on other workloads. BMC has granted the tool additional functions to ensure higher availability and better response times. The mainframe is designed to take diagnostic action and display information about the APIs and services used by JVMs.
BMC acquires stake in Zowe
BMC’s new workflow tool “Wizard” has been accepted as part of the Open Mainframe Project’s “Zowe”framework. This is an integrated and extensible open source framework for z/OS. Wizard is designed to simplify the development work, installation, configuration and maintenance of IBM and ISV z/OS software products.
John McKenny, Senior Vice president and general manager, Intelligent Z Optimization and Transformation at BMC, summarizes: “With new and enhanced features for our BMC AMI and BMC Compuware products, organizations can continue to make the mainframe a center of innovation for any autonomous digital enterprise.“
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