Capgemini and IBM experts reveal strategies for mainframe modernisation, emphasising its ongoing importance in today’s digital ecosystem
In today’s fast-paced tech world, staying competitive means keeping your systems up-to-date. A recent webinar hosted by Bizclik, in partnership with Capgemini and IBM, has shed light on the critical topic of mainframe modernisation, offering valuable insights for organisations looking to optimise their IT infrastructure.
The webinar, titled ‘Future Briefing: Your IT Mainframe Modernization Accelerated by Gen AI, featured two industry experts who provided a roadmap for efficient, risk-mitigated modernisation strategies.
Recognised as an IBM Champion for 2023 and 2024, Nitin Chavan, Senior Director and Cloud Champion at Capgemini, brought his extensive 21-year experience in technology solutions, specialising in hybrid cloud adoption and Z system modernisation. Pete McCaffrey, Principal Product Management GTM lead for IBM Z Software, with over four decades of IT industry experience, provided deep insights into IBM’s mainframe application modernisation strategy.
The session explored various mainframe modernisation patterns, detailing the benefits and challenges associated with each approach. Attendees gained a comprehensive understanding of industry-specific case studies and emerging trends, offering a glimpse into the future of mainframe technology.
Key topics covered included
- The relevance of mainframes in today’s IT environment
- Workflows and applications best suited for mainframe systems
- Primary drivers for mainframe modernisation
- Challenges organisations face during the modernisation process
- Best practices for modernising mainframe applications
- Tools and technologies to accelerate the modernisation journey
- Real-world examples of successful modernisation efforts
The webinar highlighted the importance of a balanced, fit-for-purpose approach to mainframe modernisation. Instead of advocating for a complete migration to the cloud or maintaining everything on mainframes, the experts emphasised the need for identifying workloads suitable for each environment.
“If you look at the applications running on mainframes today, they’re driving 70% of the world’s transactions,” Pete comments. “Imagine that, after 60 years, what other technology can you point to that’s still that relevant? It’s twofold: it’s because of the investments IBM is making to keep the technology at the forefront and optimise it to do what it does well, and equally important, clients and organisations have decades of investments and intellectual capital built into these applications that literally run their business.”
Particularly noteworthy was the discussion on integrating AI, especially generative AI, into mainframe operations. The experts shared how tools like IBM’s watsonx Code Assistant for Z are revolutionising developer productivity, with some clients reporting up to a 2.5x increase in output and an 80% reduction in application comprehension time.
“I support financial services customers, and I see that 80% of my customers are still using mainframes,” Nitin adds. “According to IBM stats, 45 out of the 50 largest banks and nine out of the largest insurance organisations worldwide are still on mainframes. Financial services were pioneers in adopting information technology back in the 70s and 80s, and mainframes were the computing powerhouse then. Critical applications built then are still running their businesses. Mainframes have been reliable, secure and driving business strategies for most of these organisations. Eighty per cent of the world’s transaction data still reside on mainframes, and almost 70 to 90% of credit card transactions still happen on mainframes. So, mainframes are still very much relevant in the current IT landscape.”
