Industry leaders have their say
The mainframe market has witnessed significant advancements over the years, with companies constantly seeking innovative solutions to maximize their investments and enhance operational efficiency. One such groundbreaking technology is PopUp Mainframe, which has received positive recommendations from industry experts.
Here, we summarise insights provided by key analysts and thought leaders in the mainframe market.
Innovation in the LinuxOne and IFL/KVM Environments
Paul Knight, IBM z Innovation & Business Development at TES Enterprise Solutions, lauds PopUp Mainframe as a breakthrough technology that adds tremendous value to the LinuxOne and IFL/KVM environments. He emphasizes that as clients strive to optimize their IBM z investments, PopUp Mainframe emerges as a powerful tool that accelerates mainframe innovation and drives measurable business value with unparalleled efficiency.
Paul states in our recent product release announcement, “The PopUp Mainframe capability is another breakthrough technology that adds even greater value to the LinuxOne and IFL/KVM environments. As our clients continue to seek ways to maximise their IBM z investments, PopUp Mainframe stands out as a powerful tool—enabling them to accelerate mainframe innovation and drive measurable business value more efficiently than ever before.”
Addressing Mainframe Change Management Challenges
Guy Currier, an analyst at The Futurum Group, highlights the critical role of mainframes in hosting time-sensitive and availability-sensitive business functionalities across enterprises and the public sector. However, he notes that change management on mainframes can be slow and inefficient due to increasing business complexity and regulatory pressures. Currier asserts that innovative technologies like PopUp Mainframe offer mainframe teams the opportunity to accelerate the delivery velocity of business-critical systems, thus maintaining a competitive edge.
Guy explained in a recent article, “Hosting critical time- and availability-sensitive business functionality on the mainframe remains a vital part of IT in the enterprise and much of the public sector. But change management on the mainframe can be slow and inefficient, especially as business complexity and regulatory pressures increase. Innovative technologies such as PopUp Mainframe offer mainframe teams opportunities to accelerate the delivery velocity of their business-critical systems.”
Enhancing Dev /Test Agility with Linux on Z
Steven Dickens, CEO and Principal Analyst at HyperFRAME Research, praises PopUp Mainframe for unlocking new possibilities in mainframe agility and workload testing through its tools on Linux on Z. This strategic move empowers organizations to leverage Linux environments directly on the mainframe, facilitating the deployment of modern DevOps processes while ensuring operational efficiency for mainframe teams.
“The introduction of PopUp Mainframe’s tools on Linux on Z unlocks new possibilities for mainframe agility and workload testing. This strategic move enables organizations to harness Linux environments directly on the mainframe to allow for the deployment of modern DevOps processes while ensuring operational efficiency for mainframe teams.”
A further comment, from a Senior Operations Architect at one of PopUp Mainframe’s customers, explained, “The biggest pain point for our labs was not having a reliable, predictable environment…That’s where PopUp Mainframe came in.”
Revolutionizing Mainframe Delivery Processes
Gary Thornhill, CEO and Founder of PopUp Mainframe, envisions a transformation in the mainframe delivery process with the introduction of PopUp Mainframe. He acknowledges that, despite the mainframe’s robustness as a production environment, there are inherent struggles and bottlenecks in delivering changes swiftly, leading to high costs of change. Thornhill’s vision is to revolutionize this process by offering a ready-to-use mainframe environment whenever needed.
“As fantastic as the mainframe is as a production environment, there remain struggles and bottlenecks in how quickly change can be delivered, which brings a high cost of change. Our vision with PopUp Mainframe is to revolutionize the mainframe delivery process by offering a ready-to-use mainframe environment whenever you need it.” Gary Thornhill, CEO and Founder, PopUp Mainframe.
This capability significantly reduces the time and effort required to implement changes, thereby enhancing overall productivity and cost-efficiency. As one PopUp Mainframe customer explained, “Our release cadence was monthly, now it is weekly. We used to deliver 10 times per year. With PopUp Mainframe, it is now 50.”
Overcoming Constraints in Testing and Development
Steven Dickensat HYPERFrame Research further explored the issues surrounding constraints in the mainframe dev and test process, and how PopUp Mainframe helps tackle this.
He explained, “Testing and development on the mainframe have long been constrained by access to test environments, and while solutions have existed, they have been cumbersome and time-consuming to implement. The team at PopUp Mainframe have put their efforts into this problem and has been rewarded by engagements with some household name clients.”
Conclusion
The recommendations and insights provided by these experts underscore the transformative potential of PopUp Mainframe in the mainframe market. By addressing critical challenges such as change management inefficiencies, testing and development constraints, and the need for enhanced agility, PopUp Mainframe positions itself as a catalyst for innovation and operational excellence. As organizations continue to seek ways to maximize their mainframe investments and drive business value, embracing PopUp Mainframe promises to unlock new levels of efficiency, responsiveness, and competitiveness.
A PopUp Mainframe Business Partner had this to say, “PopUp Mainframe is one of the most innovative software start-ups to have emerged in the last decade. Their unique blend of software and skills is catalysing mainframe transformation.” This is echoed by Dickens at HyperFRAME, who concluded, “PopUp Mainframe’s is a game-changer for enterprises seeking enhanced mainframe development”.