Mainframe

What is Mainframe?

Mainframe refers to a specific type of technology that allows for high levels of data processing with a high volume of input and output operations, including its storage and other attached systems across geographically dispersed networks.

Objective

To consolidate holdings to common scalable solutions and lower the ongoing cost of mainframe services across government, reducing the Commonwealth’s mainframe footprint while increasing the service availability for mainframe services.

Policy Elements

Policy:

POL27

Mainframe policy (Position) Mandate:

Unendorsed

Status:

Consulting

Avoid investment in new or standalone mainframe solutions

Where mainframe capabilities are required, move to onboarded consolidated mainframe holdings and services that already exist across government

Domains

This capability is part of the following domain.

DOM2

Technology Reference

Policies

The following policies have requirements that impact this capability.

Mainframe policy (Position)

POL27

Mandate: Unendorsed

Status: Consulting

Designs

The following designs include examples of how digital solutions in this capability can be delivered.

Bureau of Meteorology High Performance Computing (HPC) Facility

DES28

Lead Agency: Bureau of Meteorology

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) has a custom HPC facility (also known as supercomputing) that is available for reuse by other agencies. It is best suited to bespoke or batch computing workloads of significant size.

Whole-of-government arrangement for IBM products and services

DES113

Lead Agency: Digital Transformation Agency

Technology Type: IBM products

The DTA has established a whole-of-government arrangement with IBM to simplify procurement of IBM products and services