A survey of 2,551 technology leaders finds business criticality (51%) followed closely by cost savings (45%) and the age and obsolescence of an application as the primary drivers of mainframe application modernization.
Conducted by The IBM Institute for Business Value in collaboration with the market research firm Oxford Economics, the survey also finds the median percentage of modernized applications stands at 28%, with more than 90% reporting their efforts met or exceeded their expectations in terms of budget (93%), timeline (95%), and scope (96%). A total of 85% reported being satisfied with modernization outcomes.
A full 88% of executives also noted that modernizing mainframe applications in a hybrid-by-design environment is a crucial step in their digital transformation journey, with 81% noting it is important for mainframes to easily integrate with other technologies. A total of 95% also noted that connecting mainframe workloads has become easier in recent years and 75% noted mainframes are equal to or better than cloud computing in terms of total cost of ownership.
Tina Tarquinio, vice president of product management for IBM Z and Linux One at IBM, said efforts to make mainframes more accessible to application developers are now paying dividends in a way that still enables organizations to take advantage of the unique attributes of the mainframe platform. In fact, 63% of executives cite the recruitment of skilled mainframe personnel in contributing to closing mainframe skills gaps in their organization. As a result, more organizations than ever are deciding to deploy workloads on platforms based on requirements rather than any particular bias, she added. A full 91% said their organization promotes the adoption of hybrid IT architectures, the survey finds.
The availability of mainframe expertise is also apparently sparking interest in embedding artificial intelligence (AI) models into mainframe applications. The survey finds more than three quarters (78%) also noted their organization is either piloting, implementing or operationalizing and optimizing initiatives that incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities into mainframe applications and transactions.
Organizations are specifically looking to apply AI in real-time to high volumes of transactions, a capability that will be further advanced next year when IBM delivers a mainframe that incorporates a 5.5 GHz IBM Telum II Processor with eight cores that are optimized to run AI inference engines and an IBM Spyre Accelerator chip that makes it simpler to invoke multiple AI models, noted Tarquinio.
Overall, 78% of respondents said they expect mainframe-based applications will continue to have an important role in digital transformation.
Additionally, the survey notes that nearly three-quarters (74%) of respondents also expect that integrating AI into mainframe operations and transforming system management and maintenance will be important for their organization. A total of 82% also cited the importance of using mainframes for monitoring, analyzing, and responding to cyber threats, with 90% acknowledging their organization is piloting, implementing, operationalizing, or optimizing AI-enabled cybersecurity initiatives.
IBM claims that mainframes handle 70% of transaction workloads, while still only accounting for 8% of total spend on IT, which is less than one-tenth of all other technologies and platforms combined. As such, the case for modernizing mainframe applications rather than replacing or migrating them remains compelling. The challenge now is given the available resources determining which ones to modernize first.
