In this inaugural episode of the new BMC AMI Z Talk podcast, BMC’s John McKenny, SVP of Strategy & Innovation for ZSolutions, discusses the journey that is mainframe modernization, the Autonomous Digital Enterprise, and who BMC AMI is and what it means for customers. Below is a condensed transcript of our conversation.
Jill Perez: We hear a lot about modernizing the mainframe. Can you explain for our listeners what that means, and why it’s important?
John McKenny: Sure. As we talk about modernizing the mainframe, and we talk with a lot of clients, it’s really about the concept that, anything that’s important in your business and your business environment you always have to be modernizing it. You always need to be keeping current. You should always be focusing in how you can continue to improve and take advantage of the latest technologies. The latest processes.
And so, when we talk about modernizing the mainframe, it’s really important that you don’t forget about the mainframe and leave it out of your modernization efforts. And we really think about modernizing as a journey, right? It’s something – it’s not a destination, it’s a mindset. And what we’re really excited about is we see more and more clients recognizing that they need to continue modernizing how they develop on the platform. How they manage and operate the platform. And how they the secure a platform. So, that’s really what we’re talking about when we say ‘modernizing the mainframe.’
Jill: Okay. Well, that makes sense. That’s great. So, having said that then what would be some of the common barriers in the journey of modernizing the mainframe? And how do customers overcome them?
John: Probably the biggest barrier frankly is the mindset and – the object overall. And we run into customers, again, that have been modernizing and recognize that they need to have a growth mindset. They need to have a mindset that is adaptive and about being adaptive and trying to improve all facets of their business. And that includes how they run and manage and monitor and develop on the platform.
So, I think attitude and the mindset that this is something that’s important, that this is something that can help them impact and help them achieve their business objectives is probably the biggest barrier when we see that organizations have been modernizing. And when they haven’t been modernizing that’s where we run into organizations that are having different types of challenges. They’re unable to meet some of their business demands that might want them to move faster. That might want them to try to improve delivery, right. Want them to improve service levels.
And if they’ve not been modernizing and they don’t have that mindset to modernize and stay current and stay abreast and leveraging the latest and greatest technologies, that’s what we run into.
Jill: Mm-hmm, great. So – so our topic today talks about BMC AMI, so can you explain for our listeners what does ‘AMI’ stand for? And I know she’s referred to as a she, so who is she?
John: So, BMC AMI really represents our strategy and vision for helping organizations continue to modernize the platform. So, it stands for Automated Mainframe Intelligence. So, BMC AMI really represents that mindset that we have within BMC to be leveraging the latest technology for our customers’ advantage. So, that’s all about driving more automation, more intelligence, and more seamless and easy ways to get work done. So, BMC AMI is, as we think about it, we have some fun with it, we say, you know, BMC AMI is like the doctor that we all wish we had, right. That helps you identify potential problems and – and keeps you healthy all the time, right.
We say that BMC AMI is like the security professional who’s constantly scanning your parameter to keep you and your – your assets safe. We have fun with it and say, BMC AMI is a little bit like the modern librarian or data scientist who ensures that your data is always available and accessible, but only to the folks that really should have access to it. And we think of BMC AMI as being like the financial advisor. So, we recognize that organizations have to make difficult decisions around how they balance business requirements and budget requirements, and that BMC AMI helps them make the the best decisions for their business.
Jill: That’s fantastic. So, BMC AMI really is all inclusive of all the different facets that folks need to really optimize their mainframe, so that’s fantastic. So, what makes a product BMC AMI?
John: Well, there’s several things that as we think about these as some of our design tenets, if you will, right, so probably first and foremost about it that BMC AMI has to provide real value and power to an organization. So, we want to make sure that BMC AMI is very easy to use. BMC AMI is leveraging the latest technology so you’ll see increasingly more artificial intelligence and machine learning, helping BMC AMI provide value to the organization, right. So, that also means that we want to be able to provide value in a very quick timeframe.
So, as you’re using BMC AMI products, we expect you’re going to get rapid time to value whether it’s improving your security, reducing main time to diagnose or repair, or automating some of your processes.
One of the other key tenets is that we’re embedding a tremendous amount of domain expertise into the products, right. So, with many artificial intelligence machine learning solutions out there you almost need your – your own data scientist with your own domain experts really kind of building and assembling the capabilities that you’re trying to achieve. And with BMC AMI because we’re embedding domain experts into the product with our AI machine learning, that’s what’s enabling us to get rapid time to value.
The other thing I’d say is that BMC AMI has an open borders approach. So, BMC AMI is all about integrating and making sure that your mainframe and your processes are connected, right. Open and connected with the variety of different kind of frameworks and technologies that you want. We hear that from customers every day. The mainframe’s not an island, it’s just part of our infrastructure. So, BMC AMI will help you connect that to the different parts of your business that you want.
Jill: That’s fantastic. Wow. So that really is truly the mainframe intelligence for sure. Okay, so circling back to the modern mainframe we discussed just a minute ago, what value does BMC AMI specifically provide then in achieving that modern mainframe?
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