A Platform in its Prime?

IBM Mainframe continues to defy naysayers by attracting new workload and offering peerless reliability. This year sees its latest incarnation unveiled. What sort of market does it face?

Since Fujitsu announced its exit, the last remaining mainframe computer on the market is the IBM Mainframe. Its incumbent model—the z16—which has been on the market since 2022, will be superseded this year by what promises to be an even more impressive successor, the name of which is not yet announced, but has been unofficially predicted to be the z17 

As Big Blue continues to bet on big iron, let’s look at how the mainframe remains the modern platform big businesses need. 

The Relevance of Mainframes Today

IBM mainframes underpin the business processes of the biggest financial, governmental, healthcare, transportation, and insurance houses. It’s likely that almost any company charged with processing vast amounts of data uses a mainframe as part of its IT ecosystem. (IBM even stands for international business machines, after all.) If you’re online looking for an insurance quote, using an ATM on the high street, checking your bank balance, booking a vacation, or sending a parcel, mainframes are frequently doing the bits and bytes for you. 

IBM produces new mainframes on a 3-or 4-year cycle, so the arrival of the new model, anticipated in “mid-2025,” is timely. IBM’s mainframe life cycle history explains that each generation of hardware remains on sale for just over four years, with a further seven years of support and services. The IBM mainframe is where many of the world’s most critical systems reside, and customers continue to pay handsomely for the value they realize; according to IBM, the z16 has beaten previous mainframe revenue records.

Technological Advancements Over Time

People interact with mainframes on a regular basis (often without knowing) through the multitude of enterprise-scale applications they support. And those who use them remain loyal. According to the 2024 BMC mainframe market survey,94% of all respondents had a positive perception of the mainframe—90% were either increasing or maintaining investment levels in the mainframe. Mainframes have a good reputation. 

Factors that influence customer loyalty and usage include:

• Ecosystem – A buoyant market relies on a ready supply of skilled and enthusiastic practitioners. IBM emphasizes supporting the ‘ecosystem’ through its partnership programs, champion program, vendor relationships, and open source projects like the Open Mainframe Project. The overt encouragement of community groups and events such as Open Mainframe Summit, SHARE, GSE, and MainframerZ is an important aspect of the ecosystem, too.  
• Innovation – IBM introduced several innovations across its mainframe platform in the recent past, covering areas such as Security, AI, Processor Performance, and Cloud Integration. IBM’s patent list is impressive, and the z16 benefits from IBM’s immense Research, Development, and Engineering investment (which in 2022 was over $6.5Bn). 

AI would be an important inclusion on any list of key considerations for IT leaders. Indeed, IBM and other vendors’ recent forays into AI-based offerings suggest they are taking the topic—and the investments in innovation—as seriously as the marketplace. 

I would anticipate a material step forward in supporting AI workload as part of the upcoming announcement. While usually a well-guarded secret, IBM already unveiled AI related chip innovation, and we could reasonably expect further innovations to accompany the launch of the new mainframe.

• Value – The market offers cloud-based alternatives to mainframe computing . This has generated competitive battlefields in areas such as price, performance, capability, and service. Vendors have reviewed their commercial propositions in the recent past, as the market continues to demand value for money. 
• Connectivity –While mainframes focus their energy on the reliable performance that other systems simply cannot match, sharing non-critical activities or workload across a hybrid environment enables organizations to make the best use of their platforms.
  
  Modernizing mainframe applications into hybrid computing environments is an important facet of today’s market, which, ironically, has caused many to favour the mainframe environment with renewed enthusiasm. (The cost of cloud computing is a question for another time.)

The Challenges Ahead

IBM’s mainframe environment has evolved steadily over the past six decades to meet new market demand. And, in 2025, the challenges are no less significant for the latest incarnation. 

The most recent annual BMC Mainframe Survey reports on the benefits and challenges facing mainframe owners today. Of the priority issues reported in the latest report, Compliance and security were top, with 64% of respondents citing these as top issues, followed by cost optimization (49%), operational analytics (45%), and staffing and skills (39%). 

Separate studies reinforce many of these concerns, with issues surrounding cost management, platform flexibility, business risk, time market and the growing importance of sustainability vying for leadership attention. Fundamentally, the mainframe environment must be flexible and cost effective enough to support a greater bandwidth of delivery of business value.

Leading the Charge

I would anticipate a material step forward in supporting AI workload as part of the upcoming announcement. While usually a well-guarded secret, IBM already unveiled AI related chip innovation, and we could reasonably expect further innovations to accompany the launch of the new mainframe.”

IT leaders continue to rely on the most trusted enterprise platforms to meet their business needs continuously. The latest generation is likely to break new ground in terms of the capabilities available to them. 

And, if we dare to presume the new name is going to be z17, does that tell us that the mainframe is entering its prime?