Mainframe modernisation gains momentum with AI adoption: Kyndryl survey

IT services provider Kyndryl has released the results of its second annual State of Mainframe Modernisation Survey, which suggests that 2024 is set to be the year of AI adoption - on the mainframe.

Whilst modernisation projects are delivering significant financial benefits, many organisations still face skills shortages that are hindering the transformation of complex, mission-critical systems.

The survey, which polled 500 business and IT leaders globally, found that 86 per cent of respondents are swiftly adopting AI to accelerate their mainframe modernisation initiatives.

A third of respondents indicated that the platform has become a foundation for running AI-enabled workloads.

Almost half aim to use generative AI to unlock and transform critical mainframe data into actionable insights.

Petra Goude, global practice leader for Core Enterprise & zCloud at Kyndryl, highlighted the central role of mainframes in the hybrid world.

"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 modernisation plans", she said.

The survey revealed that IT modernisation projects are yielding substantial business results.

These include triple-digit one-year return on investment of 114 per cent to 225 per cent and collective savings of 11.9 billion US dollars annually.

Almost all organisations have opted for a hybrid IT strategy.

This strategy combines modernising on the mainframe, integrating with public/private cloud, and moving applications and data off the platform.

Furthermore, 96 per cent of respondents are migrating some workloads — on average 36 per cent — to the cloud.

The survey also confirmed that many respondents are still grappling with skills shortages especially in new areas such as generative AI.

Security skills are in high demand due to increasing regulatory compliance requirements.

Almost all respondents flagged security as the key factor driving modernisation decisions.

The survey revealed that 77 per cent of organisations are using external providers to deliver mainframe modernisation projects.

This second annual global survey provides insights into the current and future role of the mainframe in hybrid IT, and how it continues to transform.