Mainframes are ubiquitous. They handle critical applications for top airlines, retailers, banks, and government agencies. In a recent blog post, by Greg Lotko at Broadcom, SHARE offers 5 reasons why the mainframe is more relevant than ever.Those peer-to-peer payments you make from your phone? Mainframe. All those lines you avoided by shopping online this holiday? Mainframe. Those flights you booked for spring break? Mainframe. Even your government services are likely to have mainframes behind the scenes doing the heavy lifting. It's all mainframe.
The mainframe continues to evolve as market dynamics change and new technologies emerge. But much more than the tech, the mainframe story is all about the people.
Mainframers “in the know” know how vibrant, open, and indispensable the platform is for today’s hybrid IT environments.
Here’s why the mainframe is relevant today:
- The mainframe is where the world stores its data. Organizations around the world are preparing to increase their mainframe data storage capacity, for good reason. No other computing platform processes, houses, and secures more digital data than the mainframe. The mainframe is the silent beast in the background: unseen, yet formidable. With 67% of Fortune 500 companies and 90% of banks relying on it, the mainframe is critical to our daily lives. Its importance will only grow as AI continues to evolve.
- The mainframe is a state-of-the-art platform. Modern mainframe hardware is regularly updated with the fastest commercial processors, storage capabilities, and security enhancements. Mainframes excel in software innovation too, utilizing the latest technologies, including virtualization, containers, and open source software, which makes the platform accessible to a broader talent pool. Most recently, mainframes embrace generative AI.
- The mainframe is a perfect partner for cloud and modern development tools. Today's mainframe is open. It integrates seamlessly with the cloud. It supports the latest IDEs, languages, and DevOps workflows. That is why we use the term “hybrid IT” to describe how the mainframe works in concert with other platforms and technologies, such as Gen AI.
- The mainframe is the best defense against cybercrime. As cyberattacks grow more advanced and relentless, the mainframe stands as an unrivaled fortress in the fight against global security threats. Why? Because mainframes are engineered with the right security capabilities and tools at their core. They safeguard data, maintain transaction integrity, and withstand even the most sophisticated breaches. Mainframes are essential for securing your operations, ensuring compliance, and staying ahead in a high-stakes digital world.
- The mainframe provides the most value for your IT buck. No other platform offers greater power, faster processing, stronger security, superior storage capabilities, AND a lower cost of operation per unit of work. Yes, mainframes process most life’s digital transactions while costing less than a tenth of all other platforms combined. The mainframe is also remarkably efficient, using 75% less floor space and consuming 40% less power than distributed servers trying to run the same workloads.
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