Mainframes not fossils yet

MUMBAI, INDIA: Reliability, resilience, and security have come up as the upsides and compelling advantages of the so-tagged out-of-mode mainframes as enterprise platforms. Agree or object, but first here are some survey nuggets claiming mainframe's stay today.

CA has announced the results of a survey highlighting the persistent appeal of the mainframe as a cornerstone platform for multi-tier enterprise computing—as well as the specific attributes of the mainframe platform that IT managers find most compelling.

The survey polled more than 100 IT executives and managers at companies using the IBM System z mainframe from a variety of industries in the United States, Europe and Australia, about their views of mainframe, distributed, and cloud computing models. Respondents repeatedly chose the mainframe as the platform most representative of key positive attributes—especially when it came to reliability, resilience, security, management, and compliance, a press note highlights.

The mainframe also was selected over the other two platforms when it came to cost-effectiveness, “greenness,” and affordability of staff.

The importance of the role the mainframe plays in supporting the delivery of business services in a multi-tier environment was underscored by the fact that 97 per cent of respondents said that at least some of their distributed applications would fail in the event of lack of availability of the mainframe.

About 76 per cent of survey respondents said that managing a large number of distributed servers in their data centers has become a cost issue, with 67 per cent stating that as the distributed infrastructure grows, the ability to run multiple applications on a single mainframe becomes more attractive.

Then 81 per cent of respondents cited limited data center floor space as another challenge faced by their organizations, giving them yet another argument in favor of adding workloads to a single mainframe—rather than adding additional distributed server infrastructure.

Respondents were from companies with $500 million to more than $10 billion in revenue. More than 35 per cent of respondents were from the financial sector.

“The mainframe is uniquely suited to the new challenges that IT organizations are facing as they are tasked with delivering more services to more users without being given proportionally increased resources,” said Vince Re, senior vice president of innovation in CA’s Mainframe Business Unit. “This is why we are seeing an ongoing increase in the number of mainframe MIPS being shipped—and why IT organizations are in greater need than ever for mainframe management solutions that enable them to take full advantage of the mainframe’s differentiated capabilities.”

So do you agree with the results of the survey? Are mainframes obsolete in wake of new technology platforms or are they still robust enough to stay contemporary and agile?