Kyndryl (NYSE: KD), the world’s largest IT infrastructure services provider, has published the findings of its second annual State of Mainframe Modernization Survey, stating that 2024 is expected to be the year of AI adoption on the mainframe. The survey also validated that while modernization projects are yielding significant financial benefits, many organizations are still grappling with skills shortages, which hinders the transformation of complex, mission-critical systems.
In the face of economic, competitive, technological, and regulatory challenges, business leaders are increasingly looking to transform and extract new value from their IT estate, including the mainframe. According to Kyndryl’s survey of 500 business and IT leaders, 86% of respondents are rapidly embracing AI and generative AI to expedite their mainframe modernization efforts. One-third of respondents indicated that the platform has become a cornerstone for running AI-enabled workloads. Additionally, nearly half aim to leverage generative AI to unlock and transform vital mainframe data into actionable insights.
“Mainframes continue to occupy a central role in the hybrid world and are evolving to serve new use cases, with AI and security increasingly influencing modernization plans. Kyndryl is at the forefront of this trend, providing mission-critical expertise to help customers achieve their goals,” said Petra Goude, Global Practice Leader for Core Enterprise & zCloud at Kyndryl. “By working with partners on their mainframe modernization and AI journey, businesses can unlock new opportunities, enhance resiliency, mitigate skills challenges and drive better outcomes. This way, mainframes can continue to thrive and provide strong business value in hybrid environments.”
A recent survey found that IT modernization projects are delivering substantial business results, with triple-digit one-year return on investment (ROI) ranging from 114% to 225% and overall savings of $11.9 billion annually. The majority of organizations are following a hybrid IT strategy, which involves modernizing on the mainframe, integrating with public or private cloud, and moving applications and data off the platform. Additionally, 96% of respondents are migrating some workloads to the cloud, with an average of 36%.
According to the survey, enterprise-wide observability is crucial for effectively utilizing data across a hybrid IT environment. Many respondents indicated that having a single dashboard for monitoring operations is important, but they find it difficult to achieve. Kyndryl Bridge offers an AI-powered open integration platform to help organizations improve observability, orchestration, and efficiency in their entire technology environments.
The survey also revealed that many respondents are facing a shortage of skills, particularly in emerging areas such as generative AI for mainframe transformation and security skills due to increasing regulatory compliance requirements. Security was identified as the key factor driving modernization decisions, with 77% of organizations using external providers for mainframe modernization projects.
This survey, which gathered insights from senior business and IT leaders, provides valuable information about the current and future role of the mainframe in hybrid IT and how it continues to evolve. To learn more about respondents’ views on mainframe transformation and application modernization, as well as the related challenges, risks, and benefits, you can read Kyndryl’s 2024 State of Mainframe Modernization Survey Report.