Latest news with #ZSystems
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
AI makes further inroads into the mainframe ecosystem
This story was originally published on CIO Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily CIO Dive newsletter. Generative AI is helping enterprises breathe new life into legacy infrastructure, as vendors deploy coding assistants and automation tools that target mainframe estates. Capgemini rolled out a code conversion toolkit designed to refactor COBOL applications and update aging databases, the IT consulting and services firm said in a Wednesday announcement. Rocket Software, which marked 35 years of enterprise IT support this year, unveiled a suite of modernization services, including mainframe anomaly detection automation and a plain-language coding assistant, on Tuesday. Large language model technologies have boosted application refactoring capabilities to the point where many companies are opting to re-engineer mainframe applications rather than migrating them to the cloud, according to ISG market research published in March. 'Service providers are using GenAI to open up new possibilities for clients,' John Schick, ISG consulting lead on mainframe computing, said in the report. 'The functions that mainframes have always performed are still essential to many enterprises, and GenAI provides new ways to maximize their value.' The mainframe ecosystem got an AI boost last month when IBM delivered the latest workhorse in its Z Systems lineage, the z17 mainframe. The newest member of IBM's mainframe family comes equipped with Telum II high-capacity AI processors and will reach general availability in June. IBM's previous Z Systems unit, the z16, had a historically successful run in terms of consistent revenue generation, IBM SVP and CFO James Kavanaugh said during a January earnings call. Coding tools built on LLM capabilities have already unlocked value across the financial sector and are poised to deliver more, Michael Abbott, Accenture senior managing director and global banking lead, told CIO Dive in January. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Citigroup tied tangible efficiency gains to coding tools powered by generative AI models. Generative AI-assisted coding is spreading across industries, according to a recent Publicis Sapient report. Executives are confident in the technology's modernization capacity, the digital consulting firm found in a recent survey of 600 IT and business leaders. Four in 5 respondents are eyeing coding assistants to help manage legacy estates, refactor aging applications and automate software testing processes. 'One of the attributes of AI that we like is explainability — the fact that mainframe operations can now be explained in simple English to non-mainframers,' Rocket Software CEO Milan Shetti, told CIO Dive. The software provider is also bullish on generative AI's potential as a training tool for future mainframe talent. Rocket is ramping up efforts to address enterprise mainframe skills gaps and prepare engineers for z17 deployments, the company said. 'One of the most pressing challenges facing enterprise IT teams today is the ability to address the IT skills gap while modernizing core systems and scaling operations,' said IDC Group VP Stephen Elliot in the Rocket announcement. 'AI is a powerful tool that allows IT to effectively align itself to the business by delivering greater insights and efficiency.' Capgemini's efforts center around easing the shift from mainframe to hybrid cloud infrastructure, the company said Wednesday. 'Many organizations have already explored various mainframe migration approaches like rehosting, but none of these lead to a mainframe exit option,' Franck Greverie, Capgemini chief portfolio and technology officer, said in the announcement. As generative AI models matures, the technology can create multiple modernization pathways, Lisa Dyer, SVP at IT services firm Ensono, said in an interview with CIO Dive. 'Clients running mission critical apps on mainframe are not necessarily known historically to be very experimental,' Dyer said. 'Generative AI opens up ways to try out various options safely.' Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
IBM touts software segment gains as infrastructure revenue falls
This story was originally published on CIO Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily CIO Dive newsletter. IBM saw its software segment dominate revenues as the company prepared to deliver its next generation z17 mainframe in eight weeks, executives said during a Q1 2025 earnings call Wednesday. The company reported $14.5 billion in first quarter revenues — up 1% year over year — driven largely by software, which accounted for nearly 45% of IBM's business, up from 40% a year ago. 'Our mix shift towards software is driving growth,' SVP and CFO James Kavanaugh said. IBM's infrastructure revenues declined 6% as the z16 sales cycle wound down, but the company remained bullish on its flagship product line. "Mainframe is an integral part of our business portfolio overall, and it is an enduring platform that we are going to ensure that we prudently but aggressively manage,' said Kavanaugh. Acquisitions fueled IBM's shift to software. The company bought open-source platform provider Red Hat for $34 billion in 2019 and added Apptio and HashiCorp to its software portfolio in the last two years. The pivot didn't slow the pace of mainframe development. The z17, which arrives less than three years after its Z Systems predecessor, was designed with AI workloads in mind. Units are powered by the high-capacity Telum II processor and are equipped for the custom Spyre accelerator chip. 'We start testing very early with our clients … in private confidential gatherings,' Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna said Wednesday. 'Given what we showed them around security, around AI and around increased capacity, almost all of them resonated very positively to the mainframe.' Despite massive migrations to cloud and concerns about a falloff in mainframe engineering talent, the platform continues to run more than two-thirds of global business transactions by value, according to IBM research. 'We run 45 of the top 50 banks around the world, 9 of the top 10 retailers, 4 to 5 top 10 airlines of the world,' Kavanaugh said. 'We are going to protect those clients and what the mainframe brings to the table.' The new Z Systems product line arrives at a time of IT budget reassessment by enterprises tracking the impact of President Donald Trump's trade policy on the global economy. Despite a surge in PC shipments during the first three months of the year, Gartner analysts did not see a parallel uptick in end-user purchasing behavior. IBM's consulting segment, which accounted for roughly 35% of quarterly revenue, felt the pinch as some clients delayed decisions on discretionary IT projects, Krishna said. 'Consulting tends to see headwinds before other parts of the business,' he added. Company infrastructure and software supply chains are largely insulated from tariffs, according to Krishna, who said imported goods represent less than 5% of IBM's overall spend. While executives are scrutinizing IT budgets for potential cost reductions, most are reluctant to impede modernization, analysts told CIO Dive earlier this month. The pause on some U.S. tariffs announced April 9 opened a 90-day window for enterprises to reconsider purchasing strategies. 'We have not seen any material change in client-buying behaviors,' Krishna said. 'In the near-term, uncertainty may cause clients to pause and take a wait-and-see approach. However, the value of hybrid cloud automation, data sovereignty and on-premise solutions becomes even more critical in volatile windows.'
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
IBM powers up AI-ready z17 mainframe
This story was originally published on CIO Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily CIO Dive newsletter. IBM rolled out its z17 mainframe, a product line designed for AI computing, in a Tuesday announcement. The units will be generally available on June 18, the company said. The newest member of the Z Systems family was built to run generative and predictive AI workloads and support multi-model applications, Elpida Tzortzatos, IBM fellow and CTO AI on IBM Z and Linux One, said during a virtual briefing last week. Units come equipped with high-capacity Telum II processors and are set up for IBM's Spyre accelerator chips, which the company plans to deliver later this year. As part of the rollout, IBM will introduce a performance management tool called IBM Z Operations Unite in May and release a new version of its mainframe operating system, z/OS 3.2, in Q3 of this year. 'This is a fully engineered stack,' Tina Tarquinio, VP and chief product officer for IBM Z and Linux One, said during the briefing. Mainframes occupy a pivotal position in digital transformation. Organizations have continued to lean on the enterprise workhorse to power core applications despite the impetus to embrace the cloud. The z17 arrives after a solid two-plus year run for its predecessor, the z16, which yielded one of the longest and most consistent periods of revenue growth in the platform's history, IBM SVP and CFO James Kavanaugh said last year. Z systems units run over 70% of global transactions by value, including 90% of credit-card transactions, Tarquinio said, drawing on a survey of more than 2,500 global technology executives conducted last year by Oxford Economics at IBM's behest. 'IBM mainframes hold their value,' John Schick, ISG consulting lead on mainframe computing, told CIO Dive. 'There are z15s that are still in use and being installed as used equipment.' Large language model technologies added another twist to the modernization plot as tech leaders considered the potential cost of running compute-intensive generative AI applications in the cloud. Four in 5 respondents to the Oxford Economics survey said mainframes were a key part of their AI plans. Security and data privacy concerns have also cast a favorable light on mainframe hardware. To bolster Z systems' resilience, IBM built quantum-safe encryption algorithms into the z17, Tarquinio said. In the lead up to the release, the company tapped its customer base for over 2,000 hours of test runs and conducted discovery workshops with over 150 clients, according to Tarquinio. Modernizing legacy applications for deployment on cloud or hybrid infrastructure remains a priority for mainframe users. The z17 will ease this process by leveraging Spyre to power watsonx Code Assistant for Z on-prem, Tarquinio said. In addition to the z17 rollout, IBM acquired data and AI consultancy Hakkoda, the company announced Monday. Financial details of the deal, which closed on April 2, were not disclosed.
