IBM Mainframe Storage Management
Storage costs are rising fast for IBM Z customers, and a lot of that spending goes to waste—thanks to storage inefficiencies, mismanaged data, outdated processes, and job failures. Storage management on IBM Z isn’t just an administrative concern. It’s a foundational part of keeping enterprise systems fast, reliable, and secure. In mainframe environments, where massive volumes of data are processed daily and uptime is non-negotiable, managing storage effectively is critical to ensuring everything runs smoothly.
Those responsible for IBM Z storage optimization must keep data accessible, secure, cost effective and compliant. This is no easy task! The problems they are dealing with are critical to overall IBM Z efficiency. Here are some of their major challenges.
Major challenges
Preventing out-of-space conditions
One of the biggest daily concerns is avoiding allocation failures and production delays due to full volumes or improperly managed datasets. An out-of-space condition can halt job streams, impact SLAs, and lead to costly downtime.
Performance and throughput
Admins constantly monitor I/O performance, particularly during peak processing windows like month-end batch cycles. Misplaced or fragmented datasets, overloaded volumes, or inefficient recalls can cause performance slowdowns that ripple across the system.
Automating storage tasks
Manual intervention is time-consuming and error prone. Storage admins want automation tools that help with dataset migration, space recovery, and tape management—without requiring constant oversight or custom scripting.
Resource constraints and skills gaps
With many experienced mainframe staff retiring, there’s pressure to manage increasingly complex environments with fewer experts. This makes intuitive, reliable tools and good documentation even more essential.
Managing dataset lifecycles
Controlling the growth of obsolete or orphaned datasets—especially temporary or unreferenced files—is critical. Admins need visibility into what can be safely deleted, archived, or moved without affecting production.
Modernizing tape and virtual storage
Tape still plays a big role in backup and recovery. Admins are concerned with optimizing virtual tape libraries (VTLs), minimizing physical tape usage, and ensuring that data remains protected yet accessible.
Eliminate job failures due to insufficient disk space
Running out of disk space shouldn’t bring your production to a halt. Any effective IBM Z storage management solution must be able to Identify available space and dynamically match the application requests to free space when the available disk storage can’t meet application needs.
Syncsort™ Space Recovery System (SRS) eliminates production failures caused by insufficient disk space. It uses advanced recovery logic to identify available space and match it to your application needs so your jobs keep moving, even when storage gets tight. Whether you’re working with legacy JCL, dealing with fragmented volumes, or managing ever-growing workloads, Syncsort™ Storage Management helps keep everything on track without you needing to step in.
Learn more about Syncsort™ Space Recovery System
Automate routine storage management
Today’s IBM Z storage professional must find ways to go beyond basic standards enforcement have full control of creation and placement of datasets, dataset naming, device type, volume selection and space usage parameters. Without this level of control, they are unable to make the most effective use of the storage subsystem functions.
Syncsort™ Allocation Control Center (ACC) gives you full control over how datasets are created and where they’re placed whether they are SMS-managed or not. It allows you to define flexible policies to enforce standards for dataset naming, device selection, volume assignment, and space usage, while enhancing DFSMS ACS routines.
When enforcing standards, Syncsort ACC lets you apply consistent naming conventions and characteristics, even during transitions to new standards. With detailed SMF recording, logging, and simulation, it’s easy to track violations and adjust JCL automatically. Additionally, you can control placement by directing datasets where you want them—send small tape files to DASD, build disk pools, migrate to new devices, or choose volumes based on performance or available space. This is all done without requiring changes to JCL or applications. Syncsort™ Allocation Control Center also includes tools to simplify system-managed storage for storage administrators and DBAs.
Learn more about Syncsort™ Allocation Control Center
50 years of innovation
Predicting the future of mainframes can be tricky, especially since the tech world is always looking for the next “big thing.” Even with pundits questioning the longevity of the mainframe, it is still very much alive and growing as a system for running mission-critical, transaction-intensive workloads. Although the role of mainframes has certainly changed somewhat over time, they remain essential in many major industries. It seems a safe bet, then, that mainframes will continue to thrive.
Even as the marketplace explores new hybrid applications, cloud deployments and open source solutions, you can be confident that the mainframe will continue to play a critical role in your enterprise. Evaluating ways to improve the efficiency of a critical function like storage management can help you uncover additional value form your IBM Z investments.
The mainframe has survived the ebb and flow of technology innovations over the past 50 years, and it’s likely to remain a centerpiece of IT shops for the next 50.
Find out more about Precisely IBM mainframe storage management solutions
