IBM: Mainframes and AI are a match made in heaven

There are few enterprise technologies more current than artificial intelligence. There are few technologies with a more obsolete ring to them than mainframes. Yet, according to new research, they’re still a match made in heaven.

Research from IBM, perhaps unsurprisingly, found that the relationship between AI and mainframes is a symbiotic one: mainframes are supporting AI strategies and vice versa.

79% of IT execs who responded to IBM’s survey believe that mainframes are “essential for enabling AI-driven innovation and value creation”. At the same time, IT heads are increasingly using AI to supercharge their existing mainframe estates. 

A vast majority of IT chiefs said that their businesses are looking at how AI can be put to work with mainframes: 79% are either piloting or using AI as part of mainframe applications and transactions.

Infrastructure modernisation using AI is also on tech bosses’ agendas: IBM’s research found 61% of those surveyed are using generative AI-powered tools to modernise their mainframes.

Generative AI could also have a growing role to play in helping developers code for mainframes in future, the company added – an area where skills gaps are notoriously common. 

“By leveraging AI, organizations can enhance transactional workloads, accelerate modernization and development, and improve mainframe operations,” IBM wrote in the report.

Mainframe market set to grow thanks to AI

While the mainframe itself is over 60 years old, the mainframe market is about to enjoy a period of explosive growth, according to analysts. Allied Market Research said the mainframe market was worth around $3 billion in 2022 and is set to reach $5.6 billion by 2030.

Mainframes account for around 8% of IT budgets, Broadcom research found last year, but handle 72% of transaction workloads worldwide.

Three-quarters of the execs surveyed by IBM agreed that mainframes’ total cost of ownership is “equal or better” than that of cloud computing (though there’s no further detail on whether the statement is intended as a compliment to mainframes or to throw shade on cloud rollouts).

The research was conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value in conjunction with Oxford Economics. It surveyed over 2,550 IT executives across the globe.

Related IBM news:

• IBM and UN team up on green, equitable AI models
• IBM pushes for EU to make AI open and collaborative
• AWS and IBM each partner with Nvidia in AI push