Mainframe Application Modernization in the hybrid cloud era

Accelerate digital transformation by modernizing your mainframe applications

For decades enterprises have leveraged the power of the mainframe, securely and efficiently powering the heart of the business. This estate represents a treasure trove of data and business logic that enables them to serve their customers and power their business. These decades of investment represent an unmatched reservoir of business value and differentiation. IBM’s mainframe application modernization solutions represent a comprehensive suite of capabilities that integrate mainframe workloads seamlessly into the digital fabric of the enterprise. From enablement and acceleration of development to automated AI-enabled workload and data transformation, IBM has proven solutions designed to modernize rapidly and reliably.

IBM Consulting accelerates your automation and digital transformation with hybrid cloud, utilizing the best mainframe and public cloud to gain over 2.5 times the value of public cloud alone. We employ modern practices for mainframe modernization through our IBM Garage™ methodology to unify mainframe investments for faster innovation and help you acquire new skills for sustained growth and success. Our tools and accelerators help untangle complexity to deliver value rapidly and iteratively, while reducing risks. Leveraging IBM’s comprehensive capabilities, we center the demands of your business to architect a solution that places applications and data on the platform that fits your requirements, all without constraining you to a single cloud architecture. The result is an agile and seamlessly integrated hybrid cloud platform with mainframe at the core.

Our approach focuses on the incremental modernization and optimization of the mainframe landscape, realizing business value early and accelerating helping you unleash the full potential of the mainframe by:

Modernizing existing mainframe apps and mainframe data and extending them to the cloud
Developing new cloud-native apps on the mainframe and integrating them with existing data and apps already on the mainframe
Migrating distributed apps to cloud-native apps on Linux on the mainframe
Enabling your workforce to understand how applications and data interact, for accelerated and de-risked enhancement
Leveraging the power of modern devops to increase release speeds, demystify the application estate and maintain currency
Reducing technical debt and licensing costs

It is called enterprise mainframe application modernization, and IBM can help.

IBM Advances Application Modernization Capabilities

IBM announces its intent to acquire Application Modernization Capabilities to accelerate clients' Mainframe modernization agendas.

Application modernization is essential to accelerating digital transformation and unlocking and enhancing the business value of your organization's mainframe.

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Capabilities

In-place modernization

Optimize and understand your current application environment by integration with developer enablement, integrating APIs, accelerating and stabilizing DevOps and risk reducing automated language conversion.

Cloud native on Z

Build container-based cloud native applications which access and integrate with existing applications and data on IBM Z.

Hybrid cloud modernization

Reduce technical and business risk by rewriting or refactoring mainframe applications for hybrid cloud.

Data Services Modernization

Create a flexible, efficient information flow between multiple existing systems of record and cloud environments or replicate data in real time by capturing change log activity to drive changes in the target environement.

Co-create with IBM Garage™

Ideate, build, measure, iterate and scale solutions seamlessly with our end-to-end framework of design thinking, agile and DevOps practices. Achieve speed-to-value and adopt breakthrough technologies through the partnership created with your team and a diverse set of IBM experts in business, design and technology.

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Talk to an IBM Garage expert

Strategic partnerships

Modernize mainframe applications on AWS cloud

Accelerate mainframe application modernization, develop cloud native applications and drive IT automation with IBM and AWS.

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Modernize mainframe applications on Microsoft cloud

Maximize your mainframe investments and improve agility on Microsoft Cloud.

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Modernize applications on Google cloud platform

Seize the full potential of Google Cloud Platform with artificial intelligence and improved resiliency.

Discover IBM Consulting services for Google Cloud

Modernize applications on IBM Cloud

Modernize applications to IBM Cloud. With IBM Cloud Satellite, you can extend IBM Cloud to deploy and run apps consistently across on-premise, edge computing and public cloud environments.

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Case study

BNP Parabas puts everything in one place

Learn how the global bank worked with IBM to deploy an integrated development environment backed by open source tools, helping them save money and create an efficient, agile, autonomous and user-friendly development environment on the IBM Z platform.

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Industries

Banks reshape customer experiences and meet modern transactional demands

Insurance providers use mainframes for core processes, including assessing risks, setting prices and investing in the right markets. However, declining profit margins and increasing competition from nimble enterprises and digitally native startups have created the need to embrace new business models and channels. At the same time, insurance companies face increasing regulations, privacy requirements and security threats. IBM helps insurance companies effectively compete in the new digital ecosystem by providing modernization solutions, quickly transforming digital operations and leveraging new operating models and technologies. By pragmatically and incrementally modernizing mainframe application estates while optimizing for cloud native technologies, insurance firms can deliver highly personalized products and services with speed, agility and security.

Insurers embrace new business models

Healthcare companies tackle complexities

Healthcare IT departments are wrestling with changing business models, mergers and a complex regulatory environment. Further, the explosion of healthcare-related data and the changing demands of the digitally empowered consumer have created further complexities. Because healthcare data requires the highest levels of security, speed and control, healthcare organizations need modern, optimized computing environments. IBM can help healthcare firms use the power and security of the mainframe as they run workloads in both traditional and multicloud environments. As they look to access AI and specialized resources to help with diagnoses, treatment plans and other decisions, IBM experts can help to ensure their systems are reliable, available and protected—all while future-proofing their application estates.

Governments protect data no matter where it is

Data is being consumed at a voracious pace—and being created at an even faster one. Government agencies struggle to keep up with growing data center workloads. They also face the threat of security breaches and disruptions from weather events, natural disasters, social unrest and policy change. They need the right technology, people and processes to serve constituents and protect data while having flexibility to adapt. The IBM approach to modernizing existing mainframe environments helps governments strengthen traditional core workloads, increasing resiliency and reducing risk. By working with IBM, government agencies can keep critical infrastructure and applications updated without compromising efficiency or security. Agencies can be confident that data across clouds is protected at rest, in flight and during processing across agencies.

Retailers transform for high-paced business

Proliferating digital touchpoints, changing consumer expectations and evolving privacy requirements are putting new pressure on retailers and consumer products companies. They must maintain high-volume transaction processing and keep track of inventories all while digitally transforming operations to support new, profitable business models without raising operational costs. By using mainframe application modernization tools, IBM can help retailers engage personally and seamlessly across touchpoints to enhance customer experiences. Such a modernization strategy enables retailers to differentiate themselves with dynamic supply chain and partner collaboration—all while minimizing risk and maintaining security.

Resources

Blending mainframe power into the cloud computing landscape

Why mainframe application modernization is key to accelerating digital transformation