What’s up with IBM? On the one hand, IBM is betting the company on the cloud, yet on the other, they are doubling down on the mainframe – sinking over a billion dollars into their new IBM z13 model in their z Systems mainframe line.
Furthermore, the explosion of mobile traffic is throwing a wrench into the works as digital transformation becomes the driving factor in enterprise technology purchasing decisions. Do these apparently competing forces spell trouble for Big Blue?
On the contrary – there’s method to IBM’s madness. The z13 mainframe is in fact one of the most powerful digital transaction platforms available – and in many ways also supports enterprise cloud efforts.
“It’s a great time – all companies are faced with digital transformation,” explains Ross Mauri, General Manager of z Systems for IBM. “The mainframe plays an essential role to current clients and hopefully some new clients as well.”
In fact, in virtually all industries, “mainframe heavy organizations supported more income per dollar
of infrastructure expense than peers that were commodity server heavy,” according to industry expert Dr. Howard Rubin, Founder and CEO, Rubin Worldwide.
The most pressing digital challenge on the mainframe, however, is the ability to support the influx of new mobile transactions. According to Rubin, there was less than one mobile transaction per day per mobile user, while in 2014, “that number has grown to at least 37 transactions per day per mobile user.”
Read the entire article at http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2015/03/24/digital-cloud-modern-and-cost-effective-surprise-its-the-mainframe/.
Intellyx advises companies on their digital transformation initiatives and helps vendors communicate their agility stories. As of the time of writing, CA and Compuware are Intellyx customers, but provided no compensation to Intellyx for writing this article. None of the other organizations mentioned in this article are Intellyx customers. Image credit: Erik Pitti.
