As a result, 51% of CIOs admit their business is exposed to compliance and risk issues, new global study finds

New Delhi, India, March 11 2014: 590 CIOs and IT directors polled from nine countries around the globe estimate it would take an average of $11 million to bring their outdated mainframe applications up to date – an increase of almost a third (29%) from May 2012 when the figure stood at $8.5 million[1]. That’s according to an independent global research study undertaken by Vanson Bourne and commissioned by Micro Focus (LSE: MCRO.L).  Respondents also confirmed the IT debt[2] problem will only get worse, anticipating an increase of 9% over the next five years.

The modernization conundrum

On average, respondents expect their organizations to continue relying on mainframe applications for another ten years, with almost a third (32%) believing it to be longer than this. However, despite the perceived longevity of mainframe applications and mounting IT debt, the majority (81%) find it difficult justifying the expense of maintaining core applications and only 10% confirmed they are always successful in their justification.  As a result, 51% of CIOs admit their business is exposed to compliance and risk issues.

Commenting on the research results, Derek Britton, Director of Product Marketing at Micro Focus said: “Core mainframe applications are often the lifeblood of the organization, yet the burden of IT debt is on the increase. A major factor in this is that many non-IT people think IT innovation only means brand new technology, rather than improving existing, critical applications[3]. The IT leadership challenge is to find smart ways to blend innovation projects with protecting and evolving their critical systems.”

“Mainframes continue to endure a backbone platform for most business organizations globally, despite being legacy. There is momentous attention on delivering mainframe services to organizations by the Indian IT industry as the legacy systems play a core part in the daily operations of large corporations across the banking, finance, health care, insurance, utilities, aviation and government sectors” says Nitin Dang, Country General Manager, Micro Focus India

IT skills gap intensifies the problem

Six out of seven (84%) IT decision makers confirm it is difficult to find staff or new recruits with mainframe application skills and predict that an average of 14% of staff members currently responsible for maintaining mainframe applications will retire in the next five years. That’s an increase from May 2012, when the estimate on retirees stood at 11%. More than half (55%) of CIOs highlight the impact of the problem, confirming that when new legislation or industry regulation requires compliance changes to be made to their mainframe applications, it is highly likely or certain that the original knowledge of the application and supporting data structure is no longer in the organization. To make matters worse, nearly three quarters (73%) say that their organization’s application documentation is incomplete.

CIOs challenge academia to do more

While almost a third of respondents (31%) do not feel the government is doing enough to assist in addressing the general IT skills gap, the majority of CIOs (78%) assign overall responsibility for addressing the issue to academia saying they do not believe academic institutions are doing enough. A massive 83% of IT leaders believe it is valuable for students to learn mainframe programming languages such as COBOL and PL/I and more than nine in ten say these languages should be taught as part of the curriculum, whether core (44%) or elective (46%).  The reality is that only 27% of universities around the globe have COBOL as part of their core (18%) or elective (9%) curriculum.[4]

Additional findings

• On average, 33% of organizations’ mainframe applications are accessible on mobile devices and in two years’ time this number is expected to rise by 39%
• 58% of organizations have users who need access to mainframe applications through a mobile web browser, 49% need access through an Android application, and 36% need access through iPad/iPhone apps
• More than three quarters (76%) of respondents say they find it difficult to develop mainframe applications for mobile devices and 84% say that the mainframe is creating challenges that make it even more difficult to develop mobile apps
• On average, 35% of current mainframe applications are accessible via the cloud.  This figure is expected to rise to 42% in two years’ time.  75% say that it is difficult to develop mainframe applications for the cloud

“Mainframe applications have provided unrivalled value to organizations for decades,” continues Britton. “Providing continuity and enhancement for those systems is an important part of IT strategy. Micro Focus has worked with hundreds of clients to help them modernize their core IT systems, by enabling them to tackle IT debt while providing the flexibility to meet new market demands.”

Note

The independent research survey was undertaken by Vanson Bourne in November 2013.  It covered 590 IT decision makers in nine countries including UK (100), France (100), Germany (100), USA (100), Brazil (100), Australia (35), New Zealand (15), Hong Kong (15) and Singapore (25). The respondents were from mainframe organizations with 501+ employees, covering multiple industry sectors.

About Micro Focus

Micro Focus, a member of the FTSE 250, provides innovative software that allows companies to dramatically improve the business value of their enterprise applications. Micro Focus Enterprise Application Modernization, Testing and Management software enables customers’ business applications to respond rapidly to market changes and embrace modern architectures with reduced cost and risk. For additional information please visit www.microfocus.com

The post CIOs Estimate 29% Rise in Mainframe Application IT Debt over Last 18 Months appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

New virtual currency helps organizations to cut the cost and complexity of application performance testing

Mumbai, India, 12December 2013: Online Shopping Festivals and Christmas-themed marketing campaigns have given a major boost to online shopping in India in recent times. With website traffic peaks expected during this season,businesses need to guarantee their mobile and web applications will perform well under pressure and handle the upcoming onslaught of  online shoppers.According to comScore, among the BRIC Nations, India has been the fastest growing market adding over 18 million internet users and growing at an annual rate of 41%. Riding on a 31% year-on-year increase, India’s online population grew to 73.9 million. With an extended online universe in excess of 145 million the market is at a tipping point for online businesses. The study says about 60% Internet users in India visit online retail websites – and to retain them, businesses need to ensure they have a smooth experience.

In response, Borland, a Micro Focus company (LSE: MCRO.L), has launched Borland Credits – a new virtual currency that can be used to purchase Silk Performer CloudBurst testing services. The pre-paid model delivers application performance testing without the need for hardware assets, helping users to significantly reduce testing costs and complexity, quickly and efficiently.

A testing situation    

According to global research, conducted by Vanson Bourne and commissioned by Borland,44% of CIOs are aware of the events that drive peak-traffic loads, but do not simulate website performance with heavy load testing to see if they can handle the increased pressure on their websites.  That’s despite knowing that even minor delays to website response times can have a sizable impact on customer satisfaction, page views, conversion rates and site abandonment.

Commenting on the challenge, Nitin Dang, Country General Manager, India at Micro Focus, said: “There is no denying the significance and prominance of a business’ online presence, especially in today’s economic environment.Even the most usable website or mobile application can be rendered useless if the backend infrastructure can’t handle the volume of traffic during peak times. Borland Credits is a wonderful initiative to tap the potential of the cloud and offer businesses a flexible way to future proof their websites”

 “With the on going online shopping festivals as well as Christmas holidays being just around the corner, businesses need absolute confidence that their high-quality applications will perform well under pressure and handle peak loads.  However, managing and emulating hundreds of thousands of realistic end-users, from multiple regions, in order to load testan application can be time-consuming, complex and costly.  It’s enough to deter many businesses from testing in the first instanceadded Nitin Dang.

“We’ve created Borland Credits to offer businesses a forward-thinking and flexible way in which to get more from the cloud,” continued Nitin Dang. “Users will have easy access to our Silk Performer CloudBurst testing services – from anywhere in the world – without the need for unnecessary,costly infrastructure, which often sits around collecting virtual dust until it is needed.  We’re givingour customers better control over their testing expenditure, with the ability to ensure their applications run at optimum levels, wherever they may be.”

Users can choose between several packages, depending on how many Borland Credits are purchased in one go, without being locked into to a specific subscription plan or paying any service fees:

• Cloud infrastructure: Rent unlimited cloud infrastructure by the hour, to execute a load test.

Unlimited virtual end-user licenses: Users can pay per virtual end-user within a 24-hour period, depending on the application type under test.

• Spanning test periods:Purchase a 24-hour testing period model, which enables a load test to be tailored, run, analyzed and re-run multiple times without an additional charge.

Before any load test is conducted, Silk Performer CloudBurstwill display an estimate of how many Borland Credits will be used and on completion of a test, will calculate the number of Borland Credits to debit from the account to help users budget accordingly.

Through the new billing model and Borland Credit system users will also be notified by email, 24-hours in advance of when a load test agent is about to automatically close and will receive Virtual User Price Protection, so that if an application doesn’t scale to meet the loads anticipated, they will only pay for what they have used.

Borland Credits can be purchased via the Silk Performer Cloud Portal or a Borland sales representative.

For further information on Borland Credits, please visit:www.borland.com/cloudburst.

About Borland

Originating in 1983, Borland Software Corporation is a world-class provider of requirements, test and change management solutions. As part of Micro Focus Ltd, a member of the FTSE 250, Borland offers tools that are open, agile and work across the entire Application Development Lifecycle to enable customers to build better software, faster. Visit www.borland.com.

The post Borland Launches Pre-Paid Load Testing in the Cloud to Take the Pressure Off Online Shopping FestivalPeaks appeared first on Core Sector Communique.