UNC-CH Information Technology Services

ITS mainframe life-cycle win-win for all

Recently, the ITS mainframe computer that runs the University’s legacy business applications got a new lease on life – life-cycling, that is.

With some components more than eight years old, the ITS mainframe and its associated disk drives were ready to be life-cycled. Life-cycling is the replacement of equipment because its lifespan has come to an end. Due to the age of the computer, its response times were slow and it could not serve the needs of the University business community as efficiently as wanted.

“The challenge was to keep the legacy systems running, enhance the user’s experience and replace the equipment at the same cost as the existing mainframe while not disrupting the University business community,” said Ray DeCristofaro, director of Enterprise Systems Automation Services. “It was a set of requirements that seemed impossible to fulfill at first, but we did it with the help of many ITS staff who worked long and hard to accomplish these goals.”

The project took more than a year. Every contract had to be renegotiated with each software vendor who had an application running on the mainframe. The technical requirements, planning and installation had to be determined and then put into action without the loss of any data. First, the new mainframe equipment was installed, followed by the disk drives.

The result?

“We’re seeing a 50 percent or more increase in speed,” said DeCristofaro. “Some programmers have jobs that used to take two hours to run that now take just 30 minutes. Processing payroll went from six or more hours to two hours. It’s a win-win all the way around for everybody.”

According to DeCristofaro, the life-cycled mainframe will assist in the migration to ERP and improve the level of service provided by ITS to the University’s business community.