Praveen Kumar, Vice President for Asia Pacific, Rocket Software, makes the case for modernising in place.
Many enterprises with mainframes are opting to modernise their legacy systems.
But as the integration of open-source apps and tools becomes more prevalent, new risks emerge.
Chief among these is the potential exploitation of code within open-source apps, which can serve as an enticing target for hackers.
Organisations must address these vulnerabilities and implement robust security measures to protect their critical business systems.
Aside from the loss of revenue and damage to reputation, security breaches also result in the loss of valuable intellectual property and trade secrets.
Additionally, business leaders will be fully aware of the complex regulatory landscape in the APAC region with its stringent regulatory penalties, highlighting the financial and legal consequences of inadequate data protection.
To balance the need for mainframe security with innovation and modernisation, being proactive is crucial and rests on two major considerations.
Firstly, enterprises must go beyond building defensive capabilities and prepare to respond quickly by isolating workloads and limiting damage in the event of an attack.
According to Rocket Software’s State of the Mainframe 2023 Report, 97% of organisations believe they can isolate workloads – with 58% confident in their capability to do so rapidly.
However, 39% acknowledged that effective workload isolation would require significant resources and time.
As breaches can occur at any time, business leaders must equip their IT staff with the necessary tools to isolate workloads beforehand.
Currently, 80% of respondents reported having well-defined processes for managing and monitoring open-source usage in their mainframe environments – this should serve as a foundation to further bolster defences.
Regarding the management and monitoring of open-source usage, the implementation of continuous monitoring processes is the best way to address the risk of vulnerabilities slipping through via third-party source code. Through this continuous monitoring, gaps can be promptly identified and addressed.
As more enterprises leverage a hybrid cloud approach, securing the mainframe requires lean and nimble measures that extend security infrastructure beyond on-premises systems and well into the cloud.
At the heart of that is adopting a range of monitoring tools, improving data storage capabilities and utilizing intelligent automation solutions.
With these, IT teams can effectively keep track of their data, lighten workloads, and stay ahead of evolving regulatory guidelines.
There’s little doubt that enterprises are sticking with their mainframes due because of the scalability, performance, reliability, availability and cost-effectiveness on offer.
That being the case, it is essential to modernise in place.
In contrast to re-platforming, this augments the impact of mainframe investments.
And a key part of modernising in place is to preserve the gains made by implementing proactive measures that protect their mainframes from new perils.
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