By JC Reindl
Far from obsolete
The mainframe software business has traditionally enjoyed high profit margins, although it was once thought to have limited growth potential amid the growth in cloud computing.
Yet mainframe technology has evolved and industries such as finance, airlines and credit cards often use mainframes in tandem with cloud-computing platforms because of mainframes’ security benefits and high dependability, among other reasons, according to Jason Bloomberg, president of Intellyx, an IT analyst firm in Suffolk, Virginia.
So there is demand for new mainframe software and tools — not just tweaks to old software.
“Now the mainframe is really a fully modern, cloud-centric platform,” Bloomberg said. “I remember back in the mid-2000s, you talked to mainframe vendors and they were sort of embarrassed that they were still working in this space because everybody sort of thought that the platform was on its way out and was obsolete and was all legacy.”
