Sponsored by Broadcom.

Here’s something business leaders already know: Companies struggling to keep pace with the market and customers need speed and quality with respect to software. Which is why, to prosper in this brave new digital world, winning companies regularly update their applications — mainframe apps very much included. 

Connecting with and listening to mainframers at SHARE conferences is always of utmost importance to us at Broadcom. The recent event in Orlando was no different. The energy and excitement around the platform were at an all-time high. But despite all the opportunities for businesses to grow and innovate, the overall sentiment was that complexity is a major challenge. Uncertainty looms large. Leaders are challenged with everything from digital bottlenecks and cybersecurity threats to aging infrastructure and human error — any of which can bring entire companies to their knees.

Risk aside, I was excited to update folks on how we’re partnering with organizations to cut through the uncertainties that come with modernizing. How with the right planning and the right partnerships, you can be effective in dealing with the unexpected. I left Orlando reassured that we as an industry are making it easier for companies to advance their business — and no one is as committed as Broadcom.

The stakes are incredibly high. Innovate too slowly, and you’ll lose competitive ground. Innovate too quickly, and you run the risk of harming operational stability. What’s the best way to conquer this chaos, while balancing the demands of new applications, massive data sets, and greater operational efficiency?

Our customers take various paths to modernization, depending on their business goals. So, we value five things above all else:

• Operational efficiency (a.k.a. getting the most out of your hardware, software, and people),
• Optimized data value (managing and monetizing your information),
• Trust and privacy (securing your IT), 
• End-to-end observability (gleaning insights from complex operations), and 
• Application vitality (or speeding delivery of winning software).

We’re investing in the platform, as well as the people that drive it, to bring the platform to life for business and society, to create new value. At SHARE, we revealed our recent advancements in automating testing, the long-neglected part of the app dev lifecycle and our how we’re enabling you to be more aware, ready, and visible to your enterprise operations. Most importantly, we’re investing in partnering with customers to move forward. Nothing static on our watch.

Our investments in partnerships take on many forms. They’re enabling customers to have “eyes on everything” and to have end-to-end observability within their mainframe operations as part of their enterprise ops. I’m talking about the WatchTower Platform™. At SHARE, we introduced this innovative, open observability platform that can automatically detect and resolve high-priority incidents in mainframe environments. WatchTower alerts organizations to potential problems early on before they become serious headaches. It integrates and correlates events, data flows, signals, and key metrics, allowing your team to zero in on the most mission-critical issues, and it uses OpenTelemetry to make mainframes more visible to system reliability engineers across the entire IT landscape.

In the simplest terms, the customers we partnered with to develop WatchTower are shifting mainframe operations from reactive recovery to proactive operations. That improved awareness is a huge advantage for their teams who are constantly pressed to make their problem identification and resolution more efficient. We’re thrilled to release this new Mainframe AIOps platform, and you can get started with it today. 

I said we’re investing in many places. We’re also investing in the ability to make changes to applications with far greater confidence. Our new unit testing tool, Test4z, reduces the risk of making changes while improving developer speed and productivity. Far too often, ineffective unit testing results in code changes that are too slow, too costly, and too risky. With Test4z, however, your teams get unit testing right with the six core testing principles they know and love, which results in better application vitality. 

For example, one financial industry Test4z customer recently partnered with us to achieve greater uniformity, consistency, and repeatability in their testing, while rolling code to over 7.5 million clients and 58,000 employees. Other early adopters have achieved similar results. We hope you’ll consider this exciting new automation program as you reevaluate your mainframe capabilities this year. It’s available as part of our DevOps suite. This means if you have the DevOps suite, all you need to do is download the new Test4z capability to get started.

Want to enable more agile mainframe applications or get started on your next move to manage risk? That's where the deep investment in our industry-leading Beyond Code programs comes in. These programs redefine what it means to be a partner. Their sole purpose is to maximize the value of our customers' mainframe technology investments, often at no additional cost. We work with customers to source and develop the next generation of mainframers on their behalf, offer no cost expert change planning, and optimize everything you do with the mainframe. That includes (but is not limited to) no-cost online education, mainframe executive insights program, design thinking workshops, rationalization and conversion with no additional labor costs, custom MRI assessments, and many other essential tools.

Simply put, our Beyond Code programs set a new bar in the mainframe industry. There is tremendous value in what they offer to customers. We are consistently expanding our investment to amplify the value of your mainframe environment. We’re incredibly proud of the growth and value it provides our customers. 

If history has taught us anything, it’s that risks are everywhere. While it was certainly a hot topic in Orlando, we’re excited about how we, with our customers, are overcoming the chaos with true partnerships. That’s our approach. Technology and people coming together to manage the risk and pressures associated with digital innovation, while maintaining operational stability and ongoing security. Together we can amplify the value of the mainframe in supporting a more innovative, powerful, and resilient world. 

Greg Lotko is the senior vice president and general manager for the Broadcom Mainframe Software Division.