Stonebranch Scheduler Integration with AWS Mainframe Modernization Service and AWS Blu Age Runtime

By Praveen Kumar Jeyarajan, Sr. DevOps Architect – AWS
By Chiranjeev Mukherjee, Sr. Mainframe Modernization Specialist SA – AWS
By Huseyin Gomleksizoglu, Sr. Solutions Architect – Stonebranch

Stonebranch

The demand for modernization of mainframe applications has increased as organizations strive to stay competitive and meet the demands of a rapidly evolving business landscape. One key challenge in this process is scheduling the execution of mainframe batch applications on cloud.

AWS Mainframe Modernization service is a set of managed tools providing infrastructure and software for migrating, modernizing, and running mainframe applications on Amazon Web Services (AWS). The Stonebranch Universal Automation Center (UAC) Scheduler allows organizations to integrate, automate, and schedule their modernized mainframe applications in AWS.

The integration between AWS Mainframe Modernization and Stonebranch UAC enables organizations to leverage the same scheduling option across both legacy and modernized mainframe applications.

In this post, we will explore the steps to integrate Stonebranch UAC Scheduler with AWS Mainframe Modernization service, and how this integration helps organizations accelerate their mainframe modernization journey. We’ll also discuss the key features of Stonebranch UAC Scheduler and AWS Mainframe Modernization, and how they work together to provide a comprehensive and efficient solution for mainframe modernization.

Stonebranch is an AWS Partner and leading vendor of workload automation and service orchestration that empowers customers to automate any workload and orchestrate any IT or business process.

AWS Mainframe Modernization Service

AWS Mainframe Modernization service provides migration and modernization capabilities for the two most popular patterns for mainframe application transformation: automated refactoring and replatforming. Each pattern has its own differentiated value proposition within the AWS Mainframe Modernization service.

For both patterns, AWS Mainframe Modernization provides the tools and a resilient managed service with on-demand resources, elastic scalability, high availability, extensive automation, and DevOps best practices for efficient maintenance and operations. You can learn more about nuances between replatforming and refactoring in this blog AWS post.

The automated refactoring pattern, powered by AWS Blu Age, is focused on accelerating modernization by converting the complete legacy application stack and its data layer into a modern Java-based application, while preserving functional equivalence. During this automated transformation, it creates a multi-tier application with an Angular-based frontend, an API-enabled Java backend, and a data layer accessing modern data stores.

The refactoring process provides equivalent functionality to the legacy stack to increase project automation resulting in speed, quality, and lower cost for achieving business benefits quicker. Learn more about automated refactoring powered by AWS Blu Age.

Stonebranch UAC

Stonebranch Universal Automation Center (UAC) is a software platform designed to automate and orchestrate IT and business processes, securely manage file transfers, and centralize the management of disparate IT job scheduling and workload automation solutions.

The Stonebranch solution helps organizations automate, manage, and orchestrate their IT processes. As an evolution from traditional job scheduling, workload automation supports real-time business automation. This modern approach uses event-based automation that’s both intelligent and intuitive.

The Stonebranch UAC goes beyond traditional batch jobs and gives you the ability to manage and control processes in real-time across any on-premises, cloud, or hybrid IT environment.

Business Outcomes

Integrating Stonebranch UAC Scheduler with AWS Mainframe Modernization brings numerous benefits to enterprises looking to optimize their mainframe operations:

Centralized scheduling: Stonebranch UAC Scheduler provides a centralized scheduling platform that allows users to manage all of their mainframe workloads and operations from a single location. This simplifies the management process and ensures tasks are scheduled accurately and efficiently.
Real-time monitoring: Stonebranch UAC Scheduler offers real-time monitoring of mainframe operations, allowing users to track the progress of tasks and identify issues as they arise. This enhances the reliability and efficiency of the scheduling process.
Automatic failover: Stonebranch UAC Scheduler provides automatic failover to backup systems, ensuring mainframe operations continue without interruption in the event of a failure. This eliminates downtime and enhances system availability.
Cost optimization: Stonebranch UAC Scheduler allows users to optimize mainframe operations and reduce costs by scheduling tasks to run during off-peak hours when mainframe resources are less expensive.

Integration Architecture

The architecture below depicts the hosting of Stonebranch scheduler on AWS and its communication with AWS Mainframe Modernization service.

Stonebranch UAC includes two main components: Universal Controller and Universal Agents. Stonebranch OMS is used as a message bus between the controller and individual agents.
Stonebranch UAC Database is used by Universal Controller. The database can be MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, or Aurora MySQL–Compatible.
AWS Mainframe Modernization service – Blu Age runtime environment with the PlanetsDemo application deployed. The PlanetsDemo application files will be stored in an Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) bucket. This bucket also contains the mainframe JCL files.
The Stonebranch UAC team created a plug-in that invokes application management APIs of AWS Mainframe Modernization service to control application state. It does so by calling APIs StartApplication, StopApplication, GetApplicationStatus, and Fetchlogs.
UAC invokes the APIs of AWS Mainframe Modernization to orchestrate batch jobs within the application. It does so by calling APIs StartBatchJob, RerunBatchJob, CancelBatchjob, GetBatchJobstatus, and Fetchlogs.
For high availability, UAC controller and UAC agent are installed in an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instance of another Availability Zone (AZ). Amazon Aurora replica is used for UAC database availability on the other AZ. When one AZ goes down, the UAC components of the other AZ is made active Amazon Route 53.

Customer Success Story

A well-established fitness equipment manufacturer needed to migrate and modernize its legacy mainframe applications using AWS Mainframe Modernization services, specifically the Automated Refactoring pattern using AWS Blu Age. However, the company also needed a robust scheduling and automation solution that could seamlessly integrate with AWS Modernization Service to ensure the reliable execution of mainframe batch applications on the cloud.

The customer turned to Stonebranch UAC Scheduler, a workflow automation solution that perfectly complemented its mainframe modernization efforts with its ability to manage both on-premises and AWS mainframe workloads seamlessly. The Xpress Conversion Tool from Stonebranch helped convert batch plans from on-premises into Stonebranch UAC Scheduler.

The integration of Stonebranch UAC Scheduler with AWS Mainframe Modernization allowed the customer to streamline its mainframe operations and improve the efficiency of scheduling processes. This, in turn, accelerated the mainframe modernization journey, enabling the business to embrace a more agile and competitive stance in the fitness industry.

The fitness equipment manufacturer successfully leveraged the integration of Stonebranch UAC Scheduler with AWS Mainframe Modernization services achieving automation, efficiency, and reliability in managing critical workloads.

Conclusion

Integrating Stonebranch Universal Automation Center (UAC) Scheduler with AWS Mainframe Modernization service brings benefits to organizations looking to streamline and optimize their scheduling processes.

The combination of these two tools enables seamless scheduling and automation of mainframe workloads, allowing businesses to modernize operations without disrupting critical workflows. By leveraging the features of Stonebranch UAC Scheduler, users can easily create, manage, and monitor complex scheduling tasks within the AWS Mainframe Modernization environment.

Further, the integration of Stonebranch UAC Scheduler with AWS Mainframe Modernization ensures reliable and efficient execution of mainframe workloads. The scheduler’s advanced capabilities, such as event-driven automation and workload balancing, enhances performance and maximizes resource utilization.

To achieve the best results, it’s essential to follow best practices for efficient scheduling in AWS Mainframe Modernization with Stonebranch UAC Scheduler. This includes carefully planning and organizing scheduling tasks, utilizing automation features, and regularly monitoring and optimizing schedules for optimal performance.

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Stonebranch is an AWS Partner and leading vendor of workload automation and service orchestration that empowers customers to automate any workload and orchestrate any IT or business process.

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