With perspectives from more than 1,100 executives and technical professionals, BMC's annual mainframe survey is among the industry's largest of its kind. Building off last year's survey which dispelled common myths about the mainframe, including a perceived lack of modernisation and support from organisations this year's results continue to point toward the growing strength of the platform.
"Digitisation and mobility are placing incredible pressure on both IT and mainframes to manage a greater volume, variety, and velocity of transactions and data, with workloads becoming more volatile and unpredictable," said Bill Miller, president of ZSolutions at BMC. "The 2018 BMC Mainframe Research Report shows a bright future in which the mainframe shines due to its strengths in scalability, availability, and security. At BMC, we are helping our customers evolve their mainframes' capabilities to advance their digital business strategies."
Modernising with New Approaches
Organisations are working more diligently than ever to modernise and optimise their mainframe applications and operations, and they are exploiting automation to help transform the digital enterprise. Application and operations teams report taking advantage of new practices and technologies to modernise their mainframe environments:
· 82% are using Java on the mainframe.
· 48% are using agile/DevOps practices in their mainframe environment.
· 42% ranked application modernisation as one of their top four priorities.
· 20% ranked AIOps and operational analytics as one of their top four priorities.
Millennial Mainframers See Plenty of Upside
Changing demographics contribute to the mainframe's positive future. While staffing and skill shortages are still challenges for organisations as experienced mainframe talent retires, organisations are continuing to hire and invest in the next generation of employees.
· 63% of respondents reported they were under the age of 50, up from 53% in the previous year.
· 95% of millennials are positive about the mainframe's long-term prospects for supporting new and legacy applications.
"Today's digital economy presents complex challenges for the mainframe at a time when operational skills are pivoting to younger staff with less experience. Ongoing research is important to understand the evolving state and direction of the mainframe. Such studies can provide a valuable perspective to help mainframe organisations evaluate customer attitudes and expectations," Tim Grieser, research vice president, Enterprise System Management Software at IDC.
