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Db2 for z/OS Availability and Performance Assessment

Db2 for z/OS Availability and Performance Assessment

ZMARS Mainframe Case Study Db2 for z/OS Availability and Performance Assessment

Major Central European Bank – Db2 for z/OS Availability and Performance Assessment

Client Summary

The client is one of the largest and longest-established financial institutions in Central Europe, providing a full range of banking services to both retail and corporate customers. Its portfolio includes personal and savings accounts, lending and mortgage products, investments, insurance, corporate banking, and advanced digital and mobile banking services. The bank operates extensively across Central Europe and maintains international operations through multiple subsidiaries. It is widely recognised for its modern digital banking platform, mobile applications, and support for cashless payments.

 

The Challenge

The bank’s core banking systems are supported by a hybrid cloud architecture built around a centralised enterprise database platform using IBM Db2 for z/OS data sharing within an IBM Parallel Sysplex. Application services run on open systems and connect remotely to the mainframe environment using DRDA and TCP/IP.

Maintaining continuous application availability is critical to the bank’s operations, while optimising infrastructure cost remains a key objective. In 2025, the bank engaged Triton Consulting to carry out an independent assessment of its ability to maintain continuous service availability during component failures, identify opportunities to accelerate recovery, and highlight areas where performance and cost efficiency could be improved.

 

Objectives

The engagement aimed to assess the resilience of the Db2 for z/OS data sharing environment, evaluate recovery capabilities under failure scenarios, and identify practical improvements to availability, performance, and infrastructure efficiency. The assessment also needed to provide clear, actionable recommendations suitable for both technical teams and senior IT management.

 

Technical Context

The bank’s environment is based on Db2 for z/OS data sharing within an IBM z/OS Parallel Sysplex, supporting mission-critical banking workloads. Application servers operate on distributed platforms with remote database connectivity. Given the scale and criticality of the environment, both availability and performance characteristics needed to be examined holistically across Db2, z/OS, and supporting infrastructure components.

 

Our Approach

Triton Consulting used a tailored version of its Z Mainframe Availability and Resilience Service (ZMARS) to structure and drive the engagement. A multi-phase methodology was followed, combining detailed data collection and analysis with in-depth interviews of key technical stakeholders. Findings and recommendations were documented and presented through structured reports delivered to both IT technical staff and senior IT leadership.

 

Outcome and Benefits

The assessment delivered a set of targeted recommendations addressing both continuous availability and performance optimisation. Key outcomes included:

Availability

  • Mitigating the impact of individual LPAR failures through improved workload failover and maintaining service continuity.
  • Enhancing preparedness for mass data recovery following logical data corruption or cyber incidents, enabling fast recovery to a consistent point in time.
  • Improving the resilience of distributed connectivity infrastructure to better route around component failures.

Performance and Cost Optimisation

  • Safely implementing High Performance DBATs to reduce CPU consumption and associated infrastructure costs.
  • Upgrading Workload Manager (WLM) policies to provide more robust workload distribution and prioritise critical online services.

 

Lessons Learned

A structured, independent assessment of availability and performance can uncover significant opportunities to strengthen resilience while simultaneously reducing operational cost. Aligning Db2, z/OS, and distributed connectivity considerations is essential in large hybrid environments supporting continuous banking operations.

 

Follow-Up

The bank is now well positioned to prioritise and implement the recommended improvements, strengthening the resilience of its core banking platform while optimising performance and cost efficiency. Triton Consulting remains available to support implementation, validation, and future resilience planning initiatives.