Every few years, IBM releases its newest mainframe computer. Similar to regular iPhone refreshes, these mainframe releases are big news to 95% of financial institutions, 71% of Fortune 500 companies, and the many governments that depend on mainframes every day to process, store, and secure the bulk of society’s most important data and transactions. At this point, it’s no secret that IBM will likely announce their next-generation mainframe any minute now.
But IBM mainframes don’t just maintain the status quo. As the world increasingly turns digital, best-in-class organizations are leaning in on mainframes for their processing might, top-notch security, unheralded uptime, and extreme economic benefits.
Simply put, mainframes are the heavy hitters of computing. Even though many front-facing applications have moved to the cloud in recent years, the mainframe still underpins and handles much of the heavy lifting when it comes to core business applications and data. That’s why mainframes power an astounding 74% of the world’s transactions at only 8% of the total $8.3T spent on global technology. The rising tide of digital is rising all boats, so to speak—mainframe very much included.
A Platform for Growth, Not Just Stability
According to a recent IBM report, 90% percent of business executives view the mainframe as a growth platform, with more than half reporting an increase in transaction volumes over the past 12 months. What’s driving this growth? Sustainability, digital transformation, cybersecurity and compliance requirements, enterprise AI, hybrid cloud, and so much more.
As modern IT departments increasingly adopt a “hybrid” cloud approach to running their enterprise, they must select the best platform for the job, be it the cloud for one application and the mainframe for another. And because today’s mainframes rely on the latest development tools—microservices, open APIs, and DevOps best-practices to name a few—no one technology is displacing another.
Patrick Moorhead, founder and CEO of Moor Insights & Strategy, put it best on The Main Scoop: “To the credit of the mainframe, it is modernized each generation,”—articulating that it’s not about cloud OR mainframe. These technologies work in harmony. That’s what technology almost always does. It constantly evolves to meet tomorrow’s needs.
The Future Is Bigger, Faster, and Smarter
With all of this said, the mainframe leads us forward as it always has with every new generation, to support bigger demands, bigger ambitions, and bigger results—giving the world’s best-in-class businesses a big competitive edge.
And with the next mainframe refresh just around the corner, that edge is about to get even bigger.