Mainframe Hosting

Service Description

Information Technology Services (ITS) provides managed mainframe hosting solutions for mission-critical z/OS and z/Linux applications for state and local governments, municipalities, and school systems.

ITS Service Support is responsible for making hardware and operating system environments available that enable fast and reliable processing. IBM mainframes coupled with disk drives, robotic and virtual tape units provide a complete system for a customer to execute batch or real-time job streams.

Middleware

ITS Mainframe and Software Services Management (MSSM) provides software installation, upgrade, and monitoring support for the following Middleware products:

• MQSeries (client not monitored)
• CICS Transaction Gateway (CTG)
• DB2 Connect (client not monitored)
• WebSphere Application Server (WAS) (monitored at platform level)
• Nastel Monitoring for MQSeries Servers

Benefits

High-Speed Printing

ITS offers both high-speed, continuous-form laser printing and standard impact printing. A scheduled courier service is provided for delivering the printer output to various customer locations within the capital area.

ITS laser printers are capable of producing continuous-form output at speeds of up to1060 pages per minute. The printers are IBM Advanced Function Printing (AFP) capable and can print duplex and simplex as well as Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) for producing easy to scan documents. Post-processing equipment allows for the continuous form output to be trimmed to various customer designated lengths and widths. Also, the impact printers at ITS provide standard impact printing for pre-printed or multi-part forms.

Storage

ITS offers a wide variety of storage capabilities utilizing tape and disk. These capabilities span the mainframe and open systems environments. ITS offers multiple disk and tape tiers such as high-end disk storage, virtual tape, mid-range disk storage, NAS devices, serial ATA disk systems, SAN attached storage and content addressable storage.

ITS storage offerings also come with standard reporting capabilities that provide utilization, performance and trending information. We routinely collect projection information from our customers in order to provide appropriate capacity planning for all storage offerings.

ITS Customers will realize the following benefits:

• Safe, secure, redundant hardware and operating systems that allow customers to run mission-critical z/OS and z/Linux applications for state and local governments, municipalities, and school systems
• 24/7 monitoring for unusual behavior and error conditions, as well as hardware, applications, and operating systems failures utilizing a variety of tools
• The system capacity is tracked and monitored to ensure the timely provisioning of adequate processing resources

Disaster Recovery

• ITS utilizes GDPS/XRC to perform data mirroring at our Western Data Center (WDC).
  • ITS mirrors mainframe data 24/7 in an asynchronous manner with data current to within 5 minutes or less.
  • Data Mirroring allows ITS to shorten recovery time and minimize both Mainframe Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO).
• ITS provides monthly full pack backups for mainframe systems, applications and data.
  • These backups are secondary and a supplement to the GDPS/XRC process. The ITS backups may be discontinued at some future date. Customers will be notified in advance if the backups are discontinued.

Backups and Tape Vaulting

• Customers may desire to create application backups using software available at ITS.
• It is the responsibility of the customer to do full backups if desired.
• Off-site storage or vaulting is available for application backups if desired.
• Datasets written to virtual tape at the EDC are replicated to the WDC.
• ITS uses Hierarchical Store Manager (HSM) for dataset backups, if requested. Customer requirements define the policy.

Program Products and Security

• ITS supports and maintains a wide range of program products that are used by the system, customers, internal technical support or used to monitor the system and applications.
  • These program products are patched and maintained at a current (N) or recent version /level (N-1).
• Upgrades and patches are put through a test, development, and production sequence to ensure that all changes are implemented in a controlled, error-free manner.
  • ITS utilizes IBM's Resource Access Control Facility (RACF) for security and access control.
  • Time Sharing Option (TSO) logins, batch, and application jobs are controlled and restricted to the authority level required to complete the job.

Customers

• State Agencies
• Local and County Governments

How Do We Charge?

Mainframe Hosting

Product Category	Product Description	Rate	Unit
CPU Batch	Batch CPU Time - Production	$1.5108	CPU Minute
CPU Batch	Batch CPU Time - Test Region	$0.5068	CPU Minute
CPU On-line	On-Line CPU Time - Production	$8.21682	CPU Minute
CPU On-line	On-Line CPU Time - Test Region	$3.68874	CPU Minute
Storage	Virtual Tape Storage	$0.0928	GB/Day
Storage	DASD, Tier 1 - Public, Mainframe	$0.0004	MB/Day
Storage	DASD, Tier 1 - Private, Mainframe	$0.00866	MB/Month
Storage	DASD, Tier 1 - Open & Mainframe	$0.00239	MB/Month
Storage	DASD, Mainframe Replication	$0.0039	MB/Month
Storage	DASD, Tier 2 - High	$0.00139	MB/Month
Storage	DASD, Tier 2 - Mid	$0.00067	MB/Month
Storage	DASD, Tier 3	$0.0013	MB/Month
Storage	DASD, Brocade Port	$68.38	Port/Month
Storage	DASD, In-System Replication	$0.0018	MB/Month
Storage	DASD, System Data Transfer	$2,547.74	Monthly
Storage	Tape Storage	$0.1112	GB/Day
Storage	Tape Mounts	$5.7935	Per/Each
Storage	Open Systems Tape Storage	$0.0543	GB/Day
Storage	Optical On-Line	$0.0581	MB/Mo.
Storage	Optical Off-Line	$0.0013	MB/Mo.
Microfiche	Direct Bill	$1.00	Dollar
Microfiche	Original	$0.90	Copy
Microfiche	Duplicate	$0.115	Copy
Printing	Laser 3900 (at ITS)	$0.052	8.5” page
Printing	Impact printing (at ITS)	$1.25	1000 lines
Client Server	CPU Time	$0.20	CPU Minute
Client Server	Client Server Miscellaneous Charges	$1.00	Dollar
Client Server	Turn Key Application	$3.19 Cu Ft + $3.25 amp	Server/Mo.
Client Server	Full Service - Client Owned	$5.59 Cu Ft + $5.69 amp	Server/Mo.
MaPS	MaPS - Options - Initial Configuration	$1.00	One Time
MaPS	MaPS - Options - Enhancements	$1.00	One Time
MaPS	Servers - Operating System Option	$1.00	One Time
MaPS	x86 Server - Build/Configuration	$1.00	Per Month
MaPS	x86 Server - Hardware/Warranty Configuration	$1.00	Per Month
MaPS	x86 Server - Hosting/Support	$1.00	Per Month

Next Steps

The Hosting Services Implementation group is the designated point of contact responsible for obtaining official customer requirements for Mainframe Hosting services. Architectural and Engineering Services are available to perform a needs assessment based on initial scope determined by the Hosting Services Implementation group.

A Hosting Services Coordinator will put together a project team and create a formal project plan based on the results of the assessment.

The Hosting Services Coordinator is available to assist you to:

• Provide ongoing project management and communication between ITS and the customer organization.
• Manage project plans, help mitigate risks and provide escalation when required.
• Prepare server configurations to meet business requirements and provide cost estimates.
• Manage purchase order requisitions and coordinate with hardware and software vendors for delivery of equipment.

To obtain our services:

1. Send an email to the ITS Service Desk at ITS.Incidents@its.nc.gov requesting consultation from the Hosting Services Implementation group.
2. A Hosting Services Coordinator will respond directly and schedule a discovery meeting to determine your scope and requirements.
3. The Hosting Services Coordinator will review and analyze your request based on the completed customer questionnaire.
4. An initial meeting is set up to review these requirements.

Communications and Status

If you are a customer of this service, please visit the ITS Customer Communications Hub to self-register for communications regarding this service and to view Service Status.