Businesses are finding more ways to use their IBM System z
mainframe platforms, a study from IDC has found. Far from being
killed off, the mainframe is still considered a significant
platform for running applications, according to the analyst
firm.
IDC surveyed a total of 300 mainframe users on the usage
patterns they see in their sites and looked at their future
intentions regarding acquisition of System z and software to run on
the mainframe platform.
The
study identified the emergence of a blended, or hybrid,
approach to computing on the IBM System z platform. "Customers are
finding that new workloads, including Linux-based and Java-based
workloads, can leverage the mainframe's built-in security and high
levels of availability, by running them on mainframe specialty
processors, such as the IFL, zIIP, and zAAP processors," said Jean
Bozman, research vice-president in IDC's Enterprise Platforms
Group.
Many mainframe users reported that they plan another wave of
investments in the System z platform over the next two to five
years, given the system's high availability, reliability, and
security for mission-critical applications.
"Customers continue to collect dividends on their System z
investments, which makes future investments much more palatable,
even in difficult economic times," said Tim Grieser, program
vice-president, Enterprise System Management Software.
Mainframes have been perceived as expensive necessities,
required for business-critical systems. Over time, many systems
have been migrated to PC and Unix servers configured in
mutli-tiered distributed architectures, where serevrs are allocated
specific functions to support the business applications and provide
high availability.
WinterGreen Research has estimated that seven times more IT
administrators are required to run a real-time, 24/7,
high-availability distributed computing environment compared to
running the same application on a mainframe system.