Despite hype to the contrary, the mainframe ecosystem remains a key technology for organizations embracing digital transformation. The mainframe modernization space is experiencing a significant transformation, influenced by the entry of hyperscale cloud providers. These providers are keen to capture a portion of this market by offering “lift and shift” strategies, which involve migrating legacy systems to the cloud with minimal changes, and “refactoring” approaches, which entail re-architecting or rewriting applications to fully leverage cloud-native features. This shift represents a fundamental change in the traditional mainframe environment, traditionally dominated by on-premises infrastructure.
Despite this disruption, established mainframe players such as IBM, Broadcom, and BMC are not standing still. These companies continue to drive innovation in the mainframe sector, focusing on enhancing its capabilities and relevance as the technology nears its 60th anniversary, thereby maintaining its critical role in large-scale enterprise computing.
Mainframes still play a crucial role in running critical applications for many organizations almost 60 years after their introduction. Financial institutions and government agencies commonly lean on mainframes for their reliability, availability and security, even as open computing and public clouds have become prevalent across the IT landscape. Mainframes have gained a place in the modern hybrid IT world through support of clouds, open source tools, and a variety of programming languages.
Mainframe modernization is a key theme in the IT world today. As a result of this modernization, the mainframe remains a pillar of data center technology for the most critical and demanding applications. This report looks at the transformative world of the mainframe ecosystem, shedding light on its significance for businesses in the current landscape. It will include a mainframe market overview, trends and major product launches, competitive strategies from the major players such as IBM, Broadcom, BMC Software, Kyndryl, and Rocket Software, and recommendations for businesses that want to get the most from their mainframe ecosystem.
In our latest Market Insight Report: Mainframe Ecosystem Q4 2023, we analyze how the influence of hyperscalers brings fundamental shift to mainframe market and other mainframe trends.
This brief provides details about:
- Mainframe market overview
- Mainframe modernization strategies
- Market trends, major product launches, and opportunities
- Competitive landscape: mainframe vendor strategies
- Recommendations
- Conclusion: Future trends
The mainframe is undergoing a renaissance, its modernization defined by a synergistic relationship with distributed cloud architectures. The narrative has shifted from viewing mainframe and cloud computing as rivals to recognizing them as complementary forces. This paradigm shift mirrors the diverse options in transportation for journeys; just as trains, planes, and automobiles each serve unique purposes based on the journey’s demands, mainframe, and cloud technologies offer distinct advantages tailored to specific business needs. If you are interested in learning more, download your copy of our Market Insight Report: Mainframe Ecosystem Q4 2023 today.
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Author Information
Regarded as a luminary at the intersection of technology and business transformation, Steven Dickens is the Vice President and Practice Leader for Hybrid Cloud, Infrastructure, and Operations at The Futurum Group. With a distinguished track record as a Forbes contributor and a ranking among the Top 10 Analysts by ARInsights, Steven's unique vantage point enables him to chart the nexus between emergent technologies and disruptive innovation, offering unparalleled insights for global enterprises.
Steven's expertise spans a broad spectrum of technologies that drive modern enterprises. Notable among these are open source, hybrid cloud, mission-critical infrastructure, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and FinTech innovation. His work is foundational in aligning the strategic imperatives of C-suite executives with the practical needs of end users and technology practitioners, serving as a catalyst for optimizing the return on technology investments.
Over the years, Steven has been an integral part of industry behemoths including Broadcom, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), and IBM. His exceptional ability to pioneer multi-hundred-million-dollar products and to lead global sales teams with revenues in the same echelon has consistently demonstrated his capability for high-impact leadership.
Steven serves as a thought leader in various technology consortiums. He was a founding board member and former Chairperson of the Open Mainframe Project, under the aegis of the Linux Foundation. His role as a Board Advisor continues to shape the advocacy for open source implementations of mainframe technologies.
Dave’s focus within The Futurum Group is concentrated in the rapidly evolving integrated infrastructure and cloud storage markets. Before joining the Evaluator Group, Dave spent 25 years as a technology journalist and covered enterprise storage for more than 15 years. He most recently worked for 13 years at TechTarget as Editorial Director and Executive News Editor for storage, data protection and converged infrastructure. In 2020, Dave won an American Society of Business Professional Editors (ASBPE) national award for column writing.
His previous jobs covering technology include news editor at Byte and Switch, managing editor of EdTech Magazine, and features and new products editor at Windows Magazine. Before turning to technology, he was an editor and sports reporter for United Press International in New York for 12 years. A New Jersey native, Dave currently lives in northern Virginia.
Dave holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Journalism from William Patterson University.
