1. Whitepaper
Maintec Technologies Inc.
Mainframe Data Center Management Outsourcing
“Mainframe Data Center Management poses business
challenges: Expensive IT Spends, Environment Maintenance
(installation) to operate 24x7, Scarcity of Skilled Mainframe
Professionals, Space and Energy Constraints, and
availability challenge are a few among them. What is the
solution? In this whitepaper, let us analyse the challenges
in managing in-house Mainframe Data Center and how
outsourcing serves as one of the best business solutions for
addressing these challenges.’’

2. Mainframe DCM Outsourcing
Maintec Technologies Inc. Page 2
Mainframe Data Center Management - Outsourcing
Several organizations across the globe
heavily depend on Mainframe systems
for running their mission critical and
large-scale business operations.
Mainframe systems are still the most
reliable & scalable platform for modern
Data Center. The unmatched features
of reliability, availability and
serviceability make Mainframes a hub
for enterprise computing. Small,
medium and large business enterprises
are now utilizing the high-end
functionality of Mainframes for
meeting the day-to-day requirements in
emerging markets. The current reality
is that Mainframe system has become
an active participant in business
services. The relevance of Big Iron in
modern Data Centers is increasing as
IBM introduces new Mainframe models
connecting latest technologies like
virtualization, SOA, cloud computing
etc.
Organizations are looking for new ways
and means to leverage the potential of
changing technological aspects. With
the introduction of these new
technological changes in Data Centers,
the complexities of managing an in-
house Mainframe Data Center are
increasing day by day. In-house
management of a Mainframe Data
Center is becoming a matter of concern
for many enterprises. Various factors
contribute to the challenges in
managing in-house Mainframe Data
Center. Increasing cost concerns, lack
of competent professionals, mounting
energy and cooling costs, space
constraints and availability challenges
are but a few of them. As Data Center
management is the ‘heart and soul’ of
IT operations, let us have a closer look,
to understand what contributes to
these complexities and how to
overcome these challenges.
In-house Mainframe Data Center
Challenges
 Cost
 Skilled Mainframe professionals
 Energy and space
 Availability

3. Budgetary challenges
Business always demands more to do
with less.
Capital expenditures are under stern
scrutiny. Setting up an organization's
in-house Mainframe Data Center
involves huge amount of capital cost.
As Mainframes come with a hefty price
tag, these systems are hard to afford for
SME’s. Other costs for hardware,
power, and cooling equipment also add
to the cost. The day-to-day use of
power and cooling equipment
contributes to the recurring operational
and maintenance expenditure. The
hardware, software, licensing and
resource cost are critical and
unavoidable elements for managing a
Data Center.
Scarcity of Mainframe Professionals
One of the biggest challenges with
Mainframe based Data Centers is the
shortage of qualified and skilled
Mainframe professionals. It has become
extremely difficult to find and replace
Mainframe professionals with deep
experience in handling DB2, CICS,
z/OS and other IMS environments. At a
time when most of the fortune 500
companies have an in-house Mainframe
setup, the Mainframe industry is
expected to face a skill gap after the
retirement of current Mainframe staff.
Scarcity of competent professionals is
posing a serious challenge to the
smooth functioning of a Mainframe
Data Center. Mainframe oriented
training in University curricula’s and
organizations are difficult to find.
Many companies take the best and
brightest Windows and UNIX
professionals and entice them into the
Mainframe. This method probably be a
good idea but there is a big doubt on
this method of developing resources,
for the fact that the whole idea is to
save time and money to focus on the
core business.
Energy and Space Constraints
Energy and space are two major
constraints for enterprises housing
Mainframe Data Centers. The volume
of IT infrastructure has now started to
exceed the available Data Center floor
space of several global enterprises
leading to more power and cooling
requirements. Rising power costs and
availability of uninterrupted power
source are major concerns for the
enterprise executives. Organizations
are forced to introduce green IT
initiatives to reduce the carbon
footprint and to drive down the budget
gaps.
Availability Challenges
Business growth and success largely
depend on continuous availability of IT
services. Mainframe systems support
mission critical businesses like finance,
banking, insurance etc. All these
business sectors demand maximum
availability of services with minimum
down time. In such a scenario, planned
or unplanned Data Center outages can
create serious consequences to these
business sectors. Also, 24/7/365
availability requirements for Data
Centers have become great challenges
for the organizations. An in- house

4. Mainframe DCM Outsourcing
Maintec Technologies Inc. Page 4
managed Mainframe Data Center with
minimum downtime requires skilled
resources to work 24/7/365 with an
efficient process in place. Quite a lot of
enterprises are now having difficulty in
sourcing competent resources to work
in graveyard shifts (night and weekend
shifts) for their Mainframe Data Center.
This also brings in additional liability
for the employer in terms of employee
remuneration.
How outsourcing can address Mainframe Data Center challenges effectively?
Outsourcing is gaining more
momentum, among the global business
enterprises, as a viable approach to deal
with the Data Center challenges.
Organisations are becoming more
comfortable with the idea of offloading
their Data Center functions to expert
third parties. Earlier, noncore service
like business processes used to be
outsourced to external service
providers. However, with the advent of
globalization, organizations are now
adopting sourcing models from diverse
geographical locations for their core as
well as non-core services. Mainframe
Data Center service providers offer
outsourcing services in various business
models by way of – (a) hosting client’s
Mainframe environment in the service
provider’s location, (b) managing the
client’s Mainframe environment
remotely and (c) time-sharing option
provided by the vendor. In short,
outsourcing helps organizations largely
in reducing the current Mainframe
costs, obtaining higher levels of
expertise, achieving more
responsiveness and access to more
sophisticated administration and
maintenance procedures. Outsourcing
of Data Center management to a
reliable service provider is thus
considered as one of the most viable
option considering all the technical and
business challenges we discussed
above.

5. Mainframe DCM Outsourcing
Maintec Technologies Inc. Page 5
Benefits of outsourcing Mainframe Data Center Management
Cost
All the talk about costs brought the
question of budget planning to the fore.
IT Budget planning is no more a yearly
exercise.
Per a fresh study done by DmandGen,
today’s CIO’s and CTO’s have learnt to
determine the potential impact through
other adopters and business case made
for early adoption of a new strategy
that demonstrate clear ROI and
approve budgets despite being initially
unbudgeted.
One of the primary benefits from
outsourcing Data Center operations to
an external service provider is the cost
saving on Total Cost of Ownership.
Outsourcing helps SME’s to leverage
the potential of Mainframe systems
without spending heavily, for setting up
and maintaining the hardware
infrastructure. In addition to this, the
client organizations can save costs
largely on software, human resource,
energy etc.
Pay only for what you Use
Outsourcing helps client organizations
to avoid bulk initial investments and
additional cost for maintaining Data
Center operations. They can avail the
benefits of the service via ‘pay as you
go’ model, avoiding additional
overhead costs.
Access to skilled Mainframe
professionals
Outsourcing helps organizations
reduce the overhead of recruiting
skilled Mainframe resources. A right
outsourcing partner brings in qualified
and trained Mainframe professionals
for carrying out the client’s Data Center
operations efficiently.
Access to efficient infrastructure
By outsourcing Data Center
management to a competent service
provider, organizations get access to
best of breed Mainframe infrastructure
without actually owning it. In addition,
up-gradation and maintenance for the
Benefits of Outsourcing
Mainframe Data Center
Management
 Reduction in cast
 Pay for what you use only
 Access to skilled Mainframe
professionals
 Access to superior quality
infrastructure
 Reduce energy and cooling costs
 Save space
 More focus on business
 Business continuity and
disaster recovery
 24*7*365 availability of services

6. Mainframe DCM Outsourcing
Maintec Technologies Inc. Page 6
infrastructure will be the service
provider responsibility.
Energy and space savings
Outsourcing brings in great energy and
space savings for the client
organizations. Vendors setup the
infrastructure, power and cooling
facilities according to the client’s Data
Center requirements. In the age of
green initiatives, outsourcing in-house
Mainframe Data Center operations to
an external service provider makes real
business sense.
Focus
By Outsourcing Data Center operations
to a reliable external service provider,
organizations can shift their core focus
to other innovative and growth
oriented aspects of the business.
Outsourcing avoids overhead tensions
of setting up and maintaining a Data
Center in-house.
Business continuity
When the world is going through
various environmental disasters like
hurricanes, Flash floods, Storms and
Tornadoes, some of which are
predicted and many unpredicted, Data
Center outsourcing has become a part
of business continuity and disaster
recovery plans of global enterprises.
Disaster recovery plans set by reliable
Data Center service providers offer
business continuity, for the client’s
Mainframe environment, at the time of
any unpredictable disasters.
24*7*365 availability
Outsourcing helps to achieve 24/7/365
‘follow the sun’ availability of services
for client organizations. Graveyard shift
support for Data Center helps to attain
minimum downtime for organizations
with in-house Mainframe systems.
What Maintec offers in Mainframe Data
Center Management Outsourcing?
Maintec, an offshore outsourcing
service provider headquartered in
Raleigh N.C, with state-of-the-art
development center in Bangalore,
brings reliable Data Center
management services for global
organizations. Maintec brings on to the
table, secure Data Center facilities
staffed with experienced application
and system engineers and operations
staff for businesses of different sizes.
Maintec’s technical expertise along
Maintec Service Highlights
 In-house z/OS infrastructure
 Skilled and experienced
Mainframe professionals
 On-site and Offshore delivery
Centers
 State of the art command Center
 Completely secure - with RACF
Security Administration
 Offshore outsourcing ensuring
reduction in TCO
 In house trained resources with
HTD program
 Graveyard shift operations
support

7. Mainframe DCM Outsourcing
Maintec Technologies Inc. Page 7
with large pool of trained Mainframe
professionals effectively addresses the
challenges associated with in-house
Mainframe Data Center management.
With several years of experience in
Mainframe business arena, Maintec
offers Remote System Software Support
and Remote Operations Support
services for their global clientele.
Recently, we received an overwhelming
response to our innovative service
launch ‘Graveyard shift operations
support’ for global enterprises
supporting their night and weekend
shift Mainframe operations. We
expected an initial inhibitions by most
Mainframe shops to go for piecemeal
outsourcing, but on the contrary it
worked for us as single shift (Night
and/or Weekend) outsourcing service
gives enterprises to understand the
vendors’ expertise in handling business
critical Mainframe operations, develop
relationship and over a period work on
a smooth transition of handling their
complete Data Center operations for all
shifts.
As the IT business world has become
more and more competitive,
organizations look forward to find
alternatives other than conventional
business solutions. Global economic
circumstances are demanding IT to do
more with less cost. In this scenario,
outsourcing of Mainframe Data Center
management is an intelligent move and
is proven by rising demands of
outsourcing Mainframe Data Center
operations. However, the success of
outsourcing lies in finding a service
provider who understands the client’s
requirements, preferences and
willingness to work collaboratively to
bring in efficiency and cost
effectiveness. A good outsourcing
solution is like a partnership offering
flexibility and scalability for client’s
Data Center. Outsourcing Mainframe
Data Center operations not only helps
organizations to lower down their
TCO’s but also make them stay ahead
in their respective competitive business
environments.

8. Mainframe DCM Outsourcing
Maintec Technologies Inc. Page 8
Figure 1 Maintec Data Center Management Outsourcing Services
About Maintec:
Maintec Technologies offers globally compliant IT solutions that empower businesses to
become more competitive by leveraging offshore capabilities and highly skilled resources.
Based in Raleigh, N.C., Maintec Technologies operates a software development center in
Bangalore, India, to provide clients comprehensive Data Center Management, Application
Development, Support & Maintenance Services. Write to us: info@maintec.com
Connect with Maintec: