International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, and welcome, everybody. Thank you for attending today's IBM Community Webcast during the Middleware Community and the Application Infrastructure Group. My name is Jessica, and I'll be moderating today's webcast. Our topic for today is Get modernization rolling with IBM Cloud Pak for Applications: introducing IBM Mono2Micro. [Operator Instructions] Be sure to check out the links under the Resource list for upcoming webinars and all of our on-demand replays. And tomorrow, we'll e-mail everybody a copy of this on-demand recording, along with the slides. And if you have any additional questions, there will be a link to post in the WebSphere Application Server group. With that, I would like to introduce our expert for today. John Buckley is joining us, who is a technical offering manager focused in application modernization, Transformation Advisor and Mono2Micro. Welcome, John.

Thank you, Jessica. Yes -- so yes, as Jessica said, my name is John Buckley, Offering Manager at Cloud Pak for Apps, focusing on modernization tools. So hello to everyone wherever you are today. Glad to be here talking about these capabilities. So I'm just going to get straight into what we're looking at here. And so there are a lot of challenges for organizations today, and there's a pressure to do more with less. So in order to do that, though, you need to be able to leverage what you've already got and unlock the value that's in the applications that you have as you seek to transform your business. So the question is, why do you want to modernize? So there are various reasons here, and I'm going to go through the 3 here from the bottom up because some of the things that you're looking at from an operational perspective to get some quick wins and some operational savings are going to help you get some breathing space to start looking at some of the more longer-term strategic things for your business. So if your applications are expensive to maintain and extend, that's one reason why you want to look at modernizing. The other thing might be that the application architecture is preventing you from doing the things you want to do with the application, and that all feeds into you're not being able to develop features at the pace that your business requires. So how would you get the space to make these changes is some of the reasons why you want to look at modernization. So Cloud Pak for Applications has a lot of aspects, but we're going to focus on the piece here on the bottom left, which helps you unlock the value in your applications that you have for -- using some of our modernization tooling, such as Transformation Advisor and Mono2Micro, the piece that I'm going to talk about today. So when we talk about modernization, there's obviously -- we're looking at a world where hybrid cloud. So you're likely to be looking at some public and private cloud infrastructure on which new apps are going to be developed as well as the applications that you have on the traditional architecture. So you're going to need the flexible licensing that Cloud Pak for Apps has to get you on the journey to modernize and/or migrate the applications that you have to take advantage of the cloud. And there are kind of 3 dimensions to that modernization, which are: modernizing the operations, modernizing the run times and modernizing the architecture. So I'm just going to dive in here a little bit and talk about what I mean by those 3 terms quickly. So what we mean by modernizing operations is adopting a container platform like OpenShift and starting to containerize your applications as a new way for delivering applications to production. So that's this left column here. When we talk about modernizing run times, we're talking about adopting a containerized -- container-optimized run time, such as Liberty, in order to take best advantage of that cloud infrastructure, light footprint, et cetera. And modernizing architecture talks about building on that to adopt a microservices approach to applications that will get the best agile delivery and cloud-native best practices for operating the application. So you can see that -- so that's the kind of definition. And then in terms of the value that, that brings, the value kind of stacks up. So as I mentioned, the flexible license gives you that flexibility for where you want to deploy the application. And then -- and OpenShift gives the -- and containers give you the portability to go along with that. And then to get into modernizing the run time, that starts to give you the cost savings in terms of rightsizing your addition of WebSphere, more density in how many applications you can run in containers and technical debt reduction on adapt -- phasing out APIs, et cetera, that are tending to end of life. And then architectural modernization talks about changing the nature of the application itself to get that agile cloud-native benefits that we look for in application transformation. So the tools that we have to help in that are Transformation Advisor, which is a fully supported tool within Cloud Pak for Applications for helping with containerizing the applications and adopting Liberty as the run time for the application. And also, we have Mono2Micro in beta that addresses changing the application architecture through refactoring. So it's -- it can be a little bit tricky to understand where to start with all this. So even though the value builds, which part of the organization drives the change? So a desire to modernize the application architecture will drive a need for modernizing operations. Modernizing operations will drive a need for adopting a lightweight container run time to run in containers, and then adopting containerized run times and make adoption of modern application architectures like microservices easier. So it's clear that getting this virtuous cycle going requires culture and process change, but getting the technology choice right is a big factor in whether that succeeds or fails. So the combination of OpenShift, Liberty and microservices is where Cloud Pak for Applications will help drive agility through the organization. So how do modernization tools help? Some modernization tools do 2 major things: they help you assess what it will take to do the modernization, and then they help you once you've made the determination to do as to -- to actually do the move. So as we saw before, Transformation Advisor helps with the operations and run time part of it. It'll assess the cost and complexity of adopting containers and Liberty and interdependencies with other apps and services, and then it will generate the artifacts to help you move there when you're ready. And Mono2Micro, similarly, will let you look at the application itself and see some recommendations of how it can be refactored into a set of microservices. And when you are ready to move, it will help you generate the code to have those microservices stay communicating with each other. So there isn't any dependency on running one tool before the other. Mono2Micro lets you focus on your specific prize applications first if you want to tackle the hardest, the most difficult, sort of understand what you can do with them. And Transformation Advisor casts a wider net across all your applications looking for the kind of low-hanging fruit. So you can get started with either one without having OpenShift deployed and just start to do the assessment to see what's feasible for you and what you would like to do. So another thing to consider is, how far do I go? Do I have to do all 3 things for all my applications? And the answer to that is that depends on how valuable the application is. So some of the applications you might want to your prize applications, you might want to invest a lot in. That means you'll probably do the 3 stages, and you might want to do them in this sequence in order to check that each piece is working as you do it. And that might be a good plan for what we call a moderate application as Transformation Advisor would assess it. But for simple applications that don't require code changes, you can do the first 2 steps together. And if you're investing in the application, you can proceed on to do some refactoring and modernizing the architecture. A complex application, you might want to think about, is it really worth it? Is it valuable enough? Do I just want to migrate it to get some CapEx and OpEx savings as I consolidate the infrastructure? Or do I want to just tolerate it where it is today until it reaches end of life, for example? So you can let Transformation Advisor assessment guide you on that decision depending on how important each app is. Okay. So just to talk about -- a little bit about some of the new capabilities in Transformation Advisor. So we've added some support for analyzing WebSphere deployments on zOS, and we've added some additional capabilities to help with modernizing to web's traditional WebSphere application server base running in containers, and I'll quickly show you a few of the highlights of that. So just to mention that there's a statement of direction around bringing OpenShift to the Z platform as well. So you can run the collector today to understand about the applications in preparation for what you might do with those applications. In terms of the capabilities around the different run times, so we can now do an assessment for WebSphere Liberty or Open Liberty, and the reason to choose WebSphere Liberty is to give extra compatibility for some Java EE 6 capabilities that there isn't -- that isn't in Open Liberty, so things like JPA, JAX-RS or CDI. You can continue to use WebSphere Liberty with those features and save some dev effort if you don't want to go all the way as to Open Liberty in one shot. So there's a new collector version. It'll tell you that you can reassess your applications, and you'll get the assessment for both of those options. So there are 3 targets all together if I include WebSphere Base. So WebSphere Base, we've added the ability to generate migration plans for that as well. So in addition to generating the migration artifacts to run the application in Liberty and containers, there's no migration plan to run in TA's Base and containers as well. So everything to build and deploy that application as a container and push those artifacts to get so they can be source-controlled along with the app. Okay. So that brings us on to Mono2Micro. So Mono2Micro is for enterprises seeking full-scale application transformation to fully leverage the cloud. So it enables architects to create microservices from existing applications faster and cheaper and does that by -- that -- the approach minimizes the risks of modernizing -- modernization projects getting bogged down by keeping a series of behavior-preserving transformations. And that makes it simple, economical and nondisruptive to the application so that you minimize the risk of it breaking and you not knowing why. So the -- what it does -- it has 2 major capabilities. So we have -- as I mentioned earlier. So the AI that's built in will help you identify what the recommended microservices are and then allow you to adjust those microservices and then generate the code to -- for those microservices to continue to communicate after you deploy them. So I'll talk a little bit about how it does that. So we start with the application monolith. And Mono2Micro is able to analyze all the source code so it has a deep semantic understanding of the Java programming language. So it takes all that information in as well as some run time information from the application running in order to understand how it behaves at run time and the use cases that the application typically serves as it was run in order to identify cohesive units of functionality that can be kept together as a microservice. So both of these types of analysis feed into the recommendation engine for Mono2Micro. And we get 2 different types of partition recommendations out. One we call natural seams partitioning. So that one takes into account the dependencies within the code itself so as to be as nondisruptive as possible when those classes are broken apart into different partitions for the different microservices. And the business logic partitioning obviously reflects the modular nature of the business use cases that the application does. So the -- a typical approach would be to look at both of these styles and adjust from one end or the other to get a final set of partitions that the architect is happy to proceed with, and then the code can be generated. So yes, the partitions are fully adjustable manually as well, and the code generation will take whatever those selections are into account. So this approach, as I mentioned, is simpler than other approaches to architectural modernization that might look to rewrite a lot of code at once so you can preserve the application behavior, reuse your existing testing, et cetera, as you modernize it and bring it into containers and run time because, obviously, running microservices builds on that foundation. Okay. So that was a quick overview of how it does it. I'll -- if we -- I'll give a shout-out again to the Hursley America Summit in November, where we'll have another dedicated session on Mono2Micro that will go a little bit deeper into how it works and some demos, et cetera. So if you'd like to know more, come join us at that. And we also have -- just, I guess, you can mention some of the other webinars that we have coming up through this link here if you'd like to look at some of those. So that's all I wanted to take you guys through today. Thank you for listening. And if there are any questions, Jessica, I guess, we can -- we have a few minutes for those as well now.

Awesome. That was a great presentation. Yes. And those links that you see on the screen right now, we'll be sure to include those in the follow-up so everyone will be able to schedule their free consultation and of course, register for the upcoming summit.

So now we have a couple of minutes for questions. So if you have any questions at all, if you need answers for anything, now is the best time to ask them to John. [Operator Instructions] So let's go ahead and get started. John, as you're going through -- feel free to just go with anyone that you want. So someone is asking if this works with Java -- only with Java and if -- they're wondering if any additional languages will be built in.

Yes. So today, it's targeted at Java. That is what we're focusing on for the next 6 months, at least. The architecture could get extended at some point in the future, but it's not in the short-term plan to expand that immediately to other languages. It's probably more likely that other languages would get addressed through Transformation Advisor first for things like the operational and run time modernization, and then the architecture modernization would get added to -- or to Mono2Micro after that.

Great. We've got another question here. Someone was wondering if they would be able to see a demo for Mono2Micro. Do you have any links that we could share with the audience? Or maybe this is something that they would see at the summit?

Yes. I think the summit is where we will start to do some demos of that. There are some blogs that I can dig out some links for if we want to include those with the materials that we'll send on afterwards.

Yes, absolutely. We can certainly share those blogs in the follow-up so everyone should be able to take a sneak peek there. All right. So it looks -- a couple of technical questions. I think this one is around…

Yes, so as…

Go ahead.

I see one around the prereqs of running Mono2Micro. I'll just address that one quickly. So all it needs is Docker in order to run. So it comes as a collection of Docker containers, and it will run on a laptop or a desktop that will run Docker. Obviously, you need access to the application itself, but Mono2Micro itself will run just with a Docker prereq.

Great. Somebody is asking if there is a demo environment available in which they would be able to try out the tool or the laboratory.

As of today, we don't yet have that, but that's something we're definitely planning to start to build and would like to make that available to people to try. The data today is a download. So you can download it and run it yourself on your own laptop and try it out that way. But we'll also look to build labs. In some of the upcoming summits and things that we will have, you'd be able to try those out there.

Great. These are all great questions from the audience. It looks like maybe we can squeeze in one more question, John.

Okay. I'm looking through -- so a question about which applications in a banking environment. So I guess, like I mentioned, the -- where you start with the various tools would be, if you're really trying to understand what you can do for your prize applications that you really want to do a full suite of application transformation, then starting looking with Mono2Micro at those prize apps is a good place to start. And if you're looking for some low-hanging fruit, then TA is a good place to start to cast the net wider and find the ones that are easy to start migrating and modernizing, and then you can look at refactoring those afterwards if you like.

Awesome.

Yes.

So that brings us right around our time. John, thank you so much for that great presentation. And thank you for everyone who joined us around the globe today. Just a couple of friendly reminders. We'll e-mail everybody a copy of this recording. You can watch the replay. You'll also be able to download the slides. And if you come up with any additional questions from now until then, there'll be a link there to the IBM community, which you'll be able to post directly to John. That concludes today's webinar. We hope everybody has a wonderful day. And thank you so much.

Thanks, everyone.