Save CPU resources and dramatically reduce mainframe costs

Syncsort has announced the immediate availability of MFX ZPCopy, a new software product designed to seamlessly offload expensive mainframe copy processing to zIIP engines, yielding substantial savings with no effort required. This product is the latest addition to Syncsort’s Big Data arsenal, which also includes DMX-h, Syncsort’s market-leading Hadoop offering, which, among other capabilities, provides secure, high-performance access to mainframe data from within Hadoop.

Copy processing generally consumes hundreds of hours of CPU processing time annually and contributes to batch window bottlenecks, inflating software costs and making it more difficult to meet service level agreements. MFX for z/OS customers already benefit from industry-leading sort, copy, and join performance and efficiency. Now, they can add MFX ZPCopy, which is the only copy solution to shift nearly 100 per cent of copy processing from general processors to zIIP engines, eliminating nearly all mainframe CPU time for copy steps while reducing overall elapsed time to improve batch window performance. In addition, it executes transparently as part of MFX for z/OS, without the need to change JCL or control statements.
“With increasing copy demand fueled by consistently growing data volumes and rapidly developing Big Data analytics initiatives, customers are looking for ways to optimise mainframe processing to save money and meet SLAs, and many of them have invested in zIIP technology to help,” said Harvey Tessler, Founder, Syncsort. “MFX ZPCopy provides a completely new architecture for MFX COPY processing, specifically designed to exploit zIIP engines on IBM System z platforms to meet these goals.

Benefits of MFX ZPCopy include:
· Reducing software costs by cutting copy-related TCB CPU time by up to 99 per cent*
· Achieving up to 25 per cent* faster elapsed times to consistently meet performance SLAs
· Containing software costs in sub-capacity pricing environments by lowering CPU utilisation for copy steps that run during the busiest four-hour window
· Boosting ROI for underutilised zIIP engines by offloading more work to them
· Deferring hardware upgrades by saving CPU time to handle growing data volumes
· Freeing up mainframe capacity to support additional workloads with the same resources
· Processing more data in less time, and at a lower cost, due to more efficient copy processing

“With over 40 years of mainframe experience and our track record of success with our industry-leading mainframe sort technology, Syncsort is uniquely positioned to deliver innovations that make it easier for organisations with mission-critical workloads to accelerate performance and reduce costs,” continued Tessler.

”We have long noted the ‘scope creep’ occurring with system sort. We were using sort to copy, filter, and even to create ad hoc reports until sort operations were consuming hundreds of hours of CPU time,” noted Jon Toigo, mainframe evangelist and managing partner of Toigo Partners International LLC, a consultancy and research firm. “Syncsort has spent the last year developing technology to offload copy processing performed by system sorts in their entirety to zIIPs, returning expensive CPU time to productive business transactions. Put simply, ZPCopy rocks.”

Free ROI Assessments Available
Initial ROI studies with customers have predicted annual savings as high as $336,000. Syncsort is offering free ROI assessments to help customers find out quickly how much money MFX ZPCopy can save them. The free assessment:
· Tracks the number of MFX COPY executions during a given period
· Captures the resources consumed by copy functions
· Identifies the most resource-intensive copy steps
· Creates a detailed chart with hourly copy executions
· Projects monthly and yearly savings with ZPCopy
· Customers can sign up for the free assessment by clicking here. To learn more about ZPCopy, click here.
*Based on performance benchmarks performed by Syncsort