Benefits of Parallel Sysplex: Application compatibility

A design goal of Parallel Sysplex® clustering is that no application changes be required to take advantage of the technology. For the most part, this has held true, although some affinities need to be investigated to get the maximum advantage from the configuration.

From the application architects' point of view, three major points might lead to the decision to run an application in a Parallel Sysplex:

Technology benefits: Scalability (even with non-disruptive upgrades), availability, and dynamic workload management are tools that enable an architect to meet customer needs in cases where the application plays a key role in the customer's business process. With the multisystem data sharing technology, all processing nodes in a Parallel Sysplex have full concurrent read/write access to shared data without affecting integrity and performance.
Integration benefits: Because many applications are historically S/390- and z/OS-based, new applications on z/OS® get performance and maintenance benefits, especially if they are connected to existing applications.
Infrastructure benefits: If there is already an existing Parallel Sysplex, it needs very little infrastructure work to integrate a new application. In many cases the installation does not need to integrate new servers. Instead it can leverage the existing infrastructure and make use of the strengths of the existing sysplex. With Geographically Dispersed Parallel Sysplex™ (GDPS®)— connecting multiple sysplexes in different locations— the mainframe IT staff can create a configuration that is enabled for disaster recovery.