IBM Mainframe Turns 50: Is There Still Gold in Them Thar Hills?

This year IBM celebrates the 50th anniversary of the famed System/360 mainframe. And at the same time it officially recognized this historic computing technology that changed the world, the company unveiled new cloud services for businesses.

As ironic as this may seem, it is actually a fair representation of where the market is today and where it is going. The IT industry is a crucial juncture and as I have written about countless times before, the solution provider community is right smack in the middle.

Cloud and mobile technology service opportunities are where the future lies for the solution provider community. There is no argument there. The growth is going to come from managed services, integration and support around mobile devices, virtualization and cloud environments.

Take a look at any job skills or growth reports and the many of the main areas of opportunity are in some kind of technology programming or engineering. Through cloud adoption and mobile app development, tech innovation is moving at light speed and companies need to adapt, which is causing a skills vacuum.

It is no secret that IBM’s hardware sales from mainframes to most servers have been in steep decline and keep recessing. Transforming to new cloud services is the only option for the bellwether company. Specifically, the new service IBM unveiled included the first System z-based integrated system for the cloud, called the Enterprise Cloud System.

However, as you move toward the future, it’s important to remember the events of the past that got you there. So while the hardware technology lifecycle has been replaced, there are still plenty of systems out there that will keep running for quite some time. The skillset for servicing these pieces of hardware are quickly becoming in short supply.

In fact, in one survey brought to my attention by IT solutions provider EvolveWare, two-thirds of CIOs said they believe that retiring mainframe talent will actually hurt business in the form of “increased application risk, lower productivity and more project overruns.” This is a serious problem for enterprises.

Smart solution providers know they have to migrate their customers carefully. They also know that sometimes this happens one department or function at a time and organizations aren’t fully ready to abandon their mainframes—or simply can’t and may never. That will not stop them from developing cloud environments and embracing other applications built on top of that.

As IBM celebrates the 50th anniversary of the mainframe but also tries to make the necessary changes to address today’s current market needs, so must solution providers.

Never forget where you came from and never leave your customers stranded.

Knock ’em alive!