For years, the narrative was that cloud-native would consign mainframes to history. To hear about the actual reality, Developer caught up with David Tighe, Area VP – Value and Solution Engineering Asia Pacific and Japan at BMC Software.
“There was a period where mainframes were being reviewed for replacement, but we have seen a complete pivot in this thinking,” says Tighe.
Tighe reports that in BMC’s 2025 yearly mainframe (MF) survey, an astonishing 97 percent of participants confirmed that the mainframe is a long-term platform for them and that it is being expanded for new workloads. One conclusion: The mainframe is here to stay and grow.
The Shift in Mainframe Strategy
The change, however, is about recognising that the mainframe can be part of the same modern software machinery as everything else. Modern developer tools have arrived on the mainframe.
“Today’s mainframe is inclusive in both CI/CD and DevOps, simply folding into existing frameworks and utilising x86 systems tooling as part of the IT ecosystem, and is inclusive of MF.”
In other words, it is not a tug-of-war between old and new; it is a practical integration in which pipelines for mainframe code run on Jenkins or Azure DevOps, and developers work in VS Code or Eclipse rather than wrestling with a green screen.
Mainframe modernisation starts with the developer experience. Tighe explains how an isolation effect held mainframe developers back, even while the hardware pushed forward. The way out has been to meet developers where they are using intuitive Integrated Development Environments (IDEs), intelligent code completion, integrated toolchains, and building a culture that values delivery, speed, and safety.
How BMC AMI Code Insights Helps Developers Understand Legacy Code
BMC AMI Code Insights sits inside the Workbench IDE for VS Code or Eclipse, surfacing diagrammatic and written explanations that make unfamiliar code understandable. It provides a new way to understand legacy code. It’s quite impressive how quickly behaviour can change when the friction falls.
“At one financial services client, when we introduced BMC AMI DevX Workbench with Eclipse and VS Code interfaces, 20-25 percent of developers switched voluntarily within weeks,” Tighe recalls. “The youngest developers jumped in immediately,” according to the systems engineer. “No mandate needed, just better tools.”
Teams report a 33% increase in active coding time and a 50% reduction in onboarding time when an IDE replaces the green screen.
Teams report a 33 percent rise in active coding time and 50 percent reduction in onboarding time when an IDE replaces the green screen. One platform lead captured the cultural shift by saying, The tools are changing developer conversations from, ‘This application is horribly built,’ to ‘Hey, this is cool.’”
However, there is another reality to face. Much of the world’s business logic lives in code that predates most modern engineers. Tighe cites an estimate of roughly 344 billion lines of COBOL in production, touching about 90 percent of the Fortune 500. Those programs can be weighty and intricate.
Learning COBOL is like expecting someone to read Tolstoy’s War and Peace in one setting, understand it, change it, and then test it — without losing any part of the story.
“It is like expecting someone to read Tolstoy’s War and Peace in one sitting and understand it all, then change and test it. Very hard indeed,” explains Tighe.
GenAI and the Future of Mainframe Development
GenAI is changing how teams approach coding. With BMC AMI DevX Code Insights, developers get structured explanations and visual flows that accelerate understanding without sending intellectual property into public models.
The company is careful not to repeat mistakes seen elsewhere. AI can create an “AI Velocity Paradox”, where generated changes outpace the ability to deploy safely. BMC is thinking about the whole path, taking cues from the Model Context Protocol to connect the dots from diagnostics and fixes through testing, documentation, change control, and deployment.
Attracting the Next Generation of Mainframe Talent
The talent picture is improving as well. A few years ago, many worried that mainframe expertise would dwindle as veterans retired. That concern spurred action. Companies partnered with universities, set up graduate programmes and apprenticeships, and brought new developers into the fold.
In BMC’s survey, Millennials and Gen Z accounted for 37 percent of respondents, and the expectation is that they will represent 66 percent in 2025. Those developers are used to VS Code, Git, and CI/CD. When those familiar tools are available on the mainframe, the platform becomes approachable rather than intimidating.
Respecting choice also helps. Tighe shared the story of a colleague who had spent four decades on a green screen, travelling the world to tune COBOL and PL/I applications. He bristled when a modern interface, iStrobe, arrived. A few weeks later, he didn’t want to go back.
There is also a people dimension to attracting new talent while sustaining the pace of change. Suggestions include:
- Help the mainframe feel like an extension of what early-in-career developers already know by offering VS Code, Git, and pipeline integration.
- Remove avoidable frustration by letting Code Insights GenAI explain legacy code in plain language, with visual maps and written context that capture tribal knowledge for the next person.
- Create hybrid teams, so experience and fresh perspectives mix every day.
- Connect the work to business outcomes and track what matters with DORA metrics.
Intuitive navigation, graphic views of performance hotspots, and lower effort make a difference. The broader lesson is that later-career developers often become champions for modern tooling when it helps them share knowledge and work faster. As Tighe summarised, “Choice wins hearts; results keep them.”
Modernizing Processes Without Rewriting Everything
Moving beyond tools, many organisations want a structured way to modernise processes. BMC’s consulting teams start by listening. They use Value Stream Mapping to uncover bottlenecks and align improvements with outcomes: faster deployments, less time spent debugging, fewer incidents; quicker onboarding and retention across hybrid teams; and a posture that integrates mainframes into enterprise DevOps without sacrificing stability. The approach is incremental: start with one application team, prove value, then scale.
Not every path involves keeping all the COBOL. Some choose to modernise specific modules that are costly, risky, or heavy on change, or to take advantage of zIIP processors. The key is not to turn modernisation into a rewrite that recreates technical debt in a new language.
Avoid modernization that merely creates additional technical debt in a new language.
The first step is to identify the right candidates using metrics in BMC AMI Code Insights, then break monoliths into manageable chunks to reduce risk and make testing straightforward. BMC AMI DevX Code Insights generates object-oriented Java code that follows modern design patterns.
“This isn’t ‘JOBOL’ (Java code that mimics COBOL’s structure) – line-by-line translations that just move the maintenance problem Java,” explains Tighe. “BMC produces Java with comprehensive documentation explaining what the code does, thus capturing knowledge for the next person who touches the code. Most importantly, we preserve knowledge. Every conversion includes context-aware documentation generated by our AI, ensuring your logic isn’t lost in translation. The result? Teams inherit maintainable systems they can enhance, not technical debt in a new language.”
Modernisation should improve the developer experience and the system’s future, not simply rehouse complexity.
Treating the Mainframe as an Equal in the DevOps Ecosystem
Underpinning all of this is a mindset shift. Stop treating the mainframe as separate, or as a problem to be replaced, and start bringing it into the same fabric as the rest of your software estate.
Put pipelines on Jenkins or Azure DevOps. Use IDEs like VS Code and Eclipse. Lean on GenAI where it speeds understanding and safeguards intellectual property. When you do, the team’s tone shifts from resignation to curiosity, and you rediscover a platform that earns its keep by doing the hard things dependably.
Stop treating the mainframe as separate, or as a problem to be replaced, and start bringing it into the same fabric as the rest of your software estate.
“Mainframes are evolving platforms for modern innovation,” explains Tighe. “Humans will direct the production line of addressing incidents, but the interaction will be guiding rather than doing.”
Want to learn about cybersecurity from industry leaders?
- Check out Live Demo & Hands On: Navigating the BMC AMI DevX Platform to Understand Code Faster Using AI, taking place virtually on Tuesday, 31 March 2026, 14:30 – 16:00.
- Catch a podcast with Ken Chism, Head of Worldwide Cybersecurity Sales at BMC Software
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