IBM Z report archives are valuable assets that represent years of business reporting history. This highly valued data must be maintained and readily available for access based on legal, audit, regulatory, and customer needs.
There are many business requirements where Z report archives must be migrated off the mainframe to distributed or cloud environments and still be accessible, including:
- Decommissioning old mainframe systems while retaining report archives
- Providing universal Z report archive access
- Regrouping reports into logical segments for advanced query, relocation, and retrieval
- Reducing IBM Z storage usage and costs
- Enabling IBM Z report data for mobile and cloud applications
- Using Z report data for AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Big Data processing and analysis
There are several ways to rehost and manage IBM Z report archives to distributed environments including Windows, Linux, and Unix servers or to rehost them to cloud object storage, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
Here are several important opportunities and considerations when migrating IBM Z report archives to a distributed environment or cloud object storage. Consider implementing these items for universal access, AI capabilities, security considerations, legal and audit requirements, expanded capabilities, and more. Detailed descriptions of each item are listed below.
Catalog IBM Z Reports for Expanded Indexing, Sort, and Query Capabilities
Consider using a migration solution such as TRMS View that allows you to group migrated reports into logical catalogs for relocation and retrieval in a distributed/cloud environment. This capability allows Web users to filter, sort and view IBM Z reports according to their own specific needs.
Enable Universal Archived Report Access Via Web UI (User Interface) and RESTful APIs
You can enable universal access by selecting a migration solution that allows any user to view archived Z reports through a Web UI. Web access allows any user on any device (including laptops, desktops, mobile, tablets, etc.) to instantly view archived reports without any additional plugins. Some IBM Z report archive migration solutions such as TRMS View also provide lightweight RESTful APIs that allow organizations to quickly execute customized retrieval requirements regardless of the DBMS used, including Windows, Linux, and cloud DBMS.
Enforce Existing Z Report Retention Policies Off-Mainframe
The same retention policies that are used for IBM Z-based report archives must also be enforced when those archives are migrated to Windows, Linux, or cloud storage. One of the main reasons for migrating Z reports to off-mainframe storage is to maintain access if your mainframe server is decommissioned. Migrated reports must still be retained according to their retention schedule, even if their original host server is no longer available.
Explore Storage Cost Savings and Opportunities
IBM Z storage has always been expensive to use and maintain. Migrating IBM Z report archive data allows you to use lower cost distributed or cloud environment storage that can be automatically replicated worldwide for regional access, backup, disaster recovery, and more.
Interface IBM Z Report Data with Generative AI
Once IBM Z report archives are migrated to a distributed server or cloud storage, they can be integrated with off-mainframe AI functions such as Amazon Textract, Microsoft Azure AI Document Intelligence, or other generative AI offerings. There is a real opportunity to combine IBM Z report data with enterprise AI tools to extract new insights from archived reports.
Maintain original creation dates for IBM Z reports
When migrating Z reports off-server, it is important to maintain the original creation dates for searching, collating, historical, and auditing purposes. You will need to locate, search, group, and view reports by original creation date. Make sure the migration solution you choose retains the original creation date for each report.
Secure Archive Report Access with Enterprise Security
Consider using migration solutions that allow you to secure IBM Z report archive access using enterprise security instead of IBM Z security. Many Z report hosting solutions secure access using non-mainframe security functions such as Windows Active Directory (AD) domain, AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), or Google IAM. Using enterprise security for off-mainframe Z report access stops you from creating IBM Z user profiles for every enterprise user who needs to access an IBM Z report.
Use Object Storage Versioning for Migrated Reports
Consider activating object storage versioning—including bucket versioning, S3 versioning, shadow copy, or another versioning variant–for archived Z reports residing off the mainframe. Versioning creates an updated version of an object every time the object is uploaded, overwritten, or deleted. This allows your organization to track different versions of Z report archives (if any) and to recover specific versions of an archive if it is deleted or changed.
Not Just IBM Z Report Data
It is worth mentioning that these considerations and opportunities not only apply to IBM Z report data. They can also be realized when migrating IBM Z Syslog, JES log archives, and other job output to distributed servers or to cloud object storage using solutions such as SEA’s SAVRS View. There is real value in migrating all IBM Z outputs (reports and job output) off the mainframe for enterprise integration, cost savings, AI, big data capabilities, and more.
Please Contact SEA for more information on the opportunities and technologies available for IBM Z output migration.
