The cost of IBM Mainframe MIPS/GIPS has been steadily dropping for decades. Implicit in this is a drop in cost to execute the applications code base as well. Including volume increases (such as increasing banking transaction volume and rates of occurrence) this concludes that the “digital curve” of Moore’s law extends past the realms of semiconductor chips to the systems they enable.
Anecdotally the same can be viewed of the cost of critical transactions that are ordinary. In the 21st Century, the issuing of tens or hundreds of millions of COVID-19 recovery payments to families is considered ‘delayed’ when days elapse between legislation and direct deposit payments. In the mid to late 20th-century major corporations required buildings full of staff just to make “payroll happen” every week or more. A primary target of applications and automation for decades, payroll is now a function purchased “in the cloud” for literally trivial amounts of money per payment.
The applications’ infrastructure and computing architectures that enable capabilities we take for granted has unexamined facets. Core critical code and data techniques underlying current systems-of-record include literally billions of lines of code in computer programming languages and applications implementations that are now considered arcane and obscure.
The risks that come from this perception emerge from multiple demographic and technological trends.
1) Business, applications, and technical implementors of the “baby boom” generation worldwide are reaching retirement age or dying.
2) Technical implementations are dependent on hardware implementations or emulations that are subject to discrepancies between their original implementations and current instances.
3) Long-term stability in critical applications and business processes have outrun the cost and risk management processes in enterprises.
4) The technical life cycles of code and applications have been extended by the reduced costs of application execution as execution engines reduce costs.
The monetary and regulatory impacts of these increased risks are compelling enterprises to take action:
Apply Leadership with technology, resources, expertise:
Document systems and rules to reduce risk
Continue cost reductions around the mainframe applications
Add capacity to operate and maintain critical systems
Enhance systems to gain agility
If you are looking for ways to reduce your enterprise risk, increase agility and resilience you might find our site interesting - www.ekalore.com/ars
Special thanks to Martin Hingely at ITCandor for the use of their chart - www.itcandor.com
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