As technological and business environments become more complex, executives are under increasing pressure to transform and drive more value from their IT estate, including the mainframe. Kyndryl commissioned its second annual Mainframe Modernization Survey to better understand the mainframe's role in modernization efforts and hybrid IT.

The survey of 500 senior leaders from enterprises across industries and governments highlights surging interest in using generative artificial intelligence (AI) in mainframe environments, with 86% of respondents revealing they are either deploying or planning to deploy such technologies. The trend toward hybrid IT strategies is also evident, with 96% of organizations moving an average of 36% of their workloads off the mainframe to cloud platforms. In addition, security is a primary concern driving mainframe modernization investments, with two-thirds of respondents valuing it as the most crucial mainframe feature.

Despite significant progress in modernizing mainframes, the skills gap remains a barrier for more than a quarter of organizations, especially in areas such as AI and security. What's more, while enterprise-wide observability is deemed essential by 92% of respondents, many organizations struggle with achieving it in their hybrid IT environments. However, the immediate business benefits are also impressive, with organizations reaping triple-digit returns in just one year of their mainframe modernization initiatives.

Regardless of the modernization strategy, the mainframe plays a central role in hybrid IT thanks to its high security, reliability and performance. And it continues to evolve, serving the changing needs of the professionals and organizations that rely on it every day.

Read the report, the press release and Kyndryl’s perspective on the findings. 

Learn more about Kyndryl’s mainframe modernization offerings.