Elevate the value of your mainframe investments: say hello to HCL Workload Automation for Z

“Mainframe essentially keeps the world running."
It may sound bold but it’s true. The quote above, which is from an IBM executive , Philip MacLochlainn, is indeed supported by stunning figures: “85% of all credit cards, 29 billion ATM transactions per year, 92 of the top 100 banks ... 12 billion passenger flights are booked” thanks to mainframe. And it makes no wonder to whom is familiar with mainframe’s history and the story of workload scheduling and management, which we contributed to write.

If indeed the path of workload automation on the mainframe dates back to the 70s, it never stopped running towards the future, without leaving beyond the characteristics which made the mainframe the choice of thousands of customers worldwide: reliability, stability and high performances. And now, inheriting a long-time development tradition with IBM Workload Scheduler for z/OS, and marrying it with modern technology, we are proud to announce the launch of HCL Workload Automation for z/OS aka HWAz.

#MAINFRAMEMATTERS, and with HWAz, full control on workload meet the advantages of a reliable technology  
​With its focus on evolution and modernization, HWAz is the ultimate meta-orchestrator for continuous automation. It is easy, smart and open. 

HWAz IS EASY
Ask people using the mainframe from years how they work with it, and most of them will answer that they are ISPF (Interactive System Productivity Facility) panels’ fans. While there is nothing bad with it, a new interaction path is rising, opening the mainframe to accessible and intuitive interfaces, which significantly reduce the adoption curve for new users.
HCL Software is a champion in Design Thinking, that we apply to create better client experiences with for instance its graphical interfaces, enabling customers to model, monitor and optimize their applications at a glance. 
We bring the mainframe in everybody’s hands, making your daily tasks easy.

​The user interface of HWAz – a free of charge component by the way – includes reporting and auditing, fundamentals elements to feed your business compliance, and customizable dashboards for operators, administrators and business users : the dashboards can be personalized with many types of widgets which interact with data sources that can be any plan query, REST API calls or webpages, making your first HWAz page a consolidated view of your business.

HWAz IS SMART
SMART for us means a flexible, yet secure and reliable platform. HWAz indeed makes the most out of z/OS capabilities, including security management. Advanced auditability features, monitoring with IBM OMEGAMON and unique disaster recovery procedures cover all the users’ needs in this field. We guarantee no data loss if, for example, a mainframe goes down in an area. In few minutes you can have the same content on another mainframe on the other side of the ocean, while none of your data got lost in transition. Plus, auditability features allow users to fully trackback and review who-did-what.
Control is in your hands.
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SMART means also optimization of batch windows and optimization of mainframe consumption. From its automatic critical path management capabilities and embedded “what-if” analysis to simulate changes and impact on the workload execution, HWAz offers a complete solution for customers looking for true governance.
Costs and SLA controls in your hands. 

HWAz IS OPEN
HWAz can control agents on any type of platform from *nix, windows, iSeries to RedHat OpenShift, allowing customers to use a single point of control and monitoring of complex workflows on hybrid environments, while making the most out of predictive capabilities, automatic resolution of interdependencies and out-of-the-box integrations such as SAP, Oracle, DataStage, Hadoop and more.

Although many applications today are moving to cloud environments, core data is kept on the mainframe: customers then need end-to-end scheduling, capable of managing at best legacy applications and could native workloads and HWAz is the perfect solution to connect and manage from mainframe to cloud and kubernates hosted-applications.
 
Last, but not least, HWAz offers all its capabilities and data through REST APIs, thus customers do not have to move their critical data and point of control out of the mainframe. Users can make the most out of our self-service catalogue, easily interact with the mainframe remotely and integrate it with other type of environments.
 
HWAz CAPABILITIES IN A NUTSHELL
Safeguard mission critical workloads with the right Workload Automation solution!

Want to know more? 
Download Brochure, get in touch with us to learn more about the product, and join the conversation on Twitter on why #MainframeMatters. 
 
Do not put at risk your business on an aging scheduling product. Let our migration experts show you how you can elevate your automation safely and for better outcomes!

For more information Download Brochure | Schedule Demo

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Alexandra Thurel
Director of Product Management, HCL Workload Automation and Innovative Solutions

Ideating and leading products strategies and Go To Market initiatives to bring innovations that will serve customers’ successes. 25 years’ experience in Software Industry at Lotus, IBM and now HCL Software, I’m passionate about leveraging new technologies to deliver better Automation and Client Experiences to customers.