Planet Mainframe on LinkedIn
Planet Mainframe on LinkedIn
Planet Mainframe
Db2 Workload Performance on Fire

Sustainable IT and the Role of Mainframes in a Greener Future

Apr 23, 2025

Trivia

Sustainable IT and the Role of Mainframes in a Greener Future

Sonja Soderlund

Sonja Soderlund is an Oregon-based B2B freelance writer. Whether writing about mainframe computers, educational technology, or sustainable retail, she strives to bring clarity to complex issues. Connect with her or LinkedIn.

As organizations face increasing pressure to reduce their environmental impact, sustainable IT practices have become a strategic priority. While mainframes have long been known as the workhorse of enterprise computing, quietly powering critical applications behind the scenes, it’s probably less well-known that they have evolved to support high-performance computing with reduced power consumption and environmental footprint. 

Our quiz this week is based on the themes that Planet Mainframe’s editor, Amanda Hendley, writes about in her article, “Sustainable IT and the Role of Mainframes in a Greener Future.” It covers the principles of sustainable IT, some misconceptions surrounding common technologies, and the innovations in mainframe computing that are helping companies meet both their operational and environmental goals.

Try our quiz to see how much you know, then check out the article!

1. Why are mainframes considered more energy-efficient than x86 server farms?

 
 
 
 

2. What key technology in IBM’s upcoming z17 mainframe reduces AI-related energy consumption?

 
 
 
 

3. What benefit does iterative scaling in AI model development provide?

 
 
 
 

4. What initiative helps IBM reduce the need for manually curated datasets in AI training?

 
 
 
 

5. How much of IBM’s electricity consumption comes from renewable sources, according to the article?

 
 
 
 

6. What is one key advantage of hybrid cloud strategies in terms of sustainability?

 
 
 
 

7. What role does VMware virtualization play in green IT?

 
 
 
 

8. What technology allows developers to create and delete mainframe test environments on demand?

 
 
 
 

9. Which IBM zSystems component helps lower energy use by reducing data transfer overhead?

 
 
 
 

10. What percentage of workload do retail banks reportedly run on mainframes using under 10% of power and footprint?

 
 
 
 

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Sign up to receive the latest mainframe information

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Recently Published

Read More

What 2025 Taught Us About Mainframes: A Trivia Quiz

What 2025 Taught Us About Mainframes: A Trivia Quiz

by

As the year closes, and the year-end reflections roll in, we’re taking a closer look at key findings from the latest BMC, Kyndryl, and Planet Mainframe Arcati surveys. The results point to a platform that is evolving in response to cost pressures, skills gaps,...

Mainframe Miscellaneous Trivia!

Mainframe Miscellaneous Trivia!

by

As the year draws to a close (whether your days are growing shorter and darker or longer and brighter), December tends to invite a little reflection. Over the past year, Planet Mainframe Trivia has dished out a veritable smorgasbord of topics, from the early days of...

More Mainframe Lingo Trivia

More Mainframe Lingo Trivia

by

Mainframe environments come with their own vocabulary, much of it precise, legacy-rich, and completely opaque to anyone who hasn’t spent time in the ecosystem. And there really is no end to the alphabet soup. Even seasoned professionals pick up new terms over the...

❓ History of Artificial Intelligence Trivia

❓ History of Artificial Intelligence Trivia

by

November at Planet Mainframe is all about AI, and you don’t need us to tell you that artificial intelligence has now been integrated into many of our daily routines. But long before AI became a household term, IBM was shaping the foundations of this increasingly...