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.