The world is in an era where almost everything is done online. Businesses serve a large portion of their clients online. They do transactions and respond to customer questions through the internet. In the center of fast digital progress, the mainframe remains the foundation of enterprise computing.
As much as some people might argue that the mainframe is obsolete technology, at least 80% of data generated by businesses around the world is managed on mainframes. Due to its dependability and solid metrics, the mainframe has stood strong in every digital era.
A pioneering solution for data applications
As much as some people might term the mainframe as old technology, the reality is that it remains years ahead of many technologies since its inception. Businesses only need to implement their mainframe modernization strategies to allow the mainframe to support other fast-growing digital technologies. Today’s business environment is multi transaction oriented where most of the transactions are done online. Technologies such as the internet of things, artificial intelligence, and the industrial internet of things allow high volumes of trading that produce big volumes of data.
Businesses need to process this data at high speed for sustained production lines and smooth response to end-user apps. The mainframe is well equipped to serve this need where user demands keep increasing. It has proved resilient in an environment where businesses keep inventing new applications that are added to the existing ones to keep the service running seamlessly. This is a strong reason why the mainframe remains relevant in the current highly demanding digital environment.
A data-centric world
The demand for data keeps growing as businesses seek to serve customers better. There is a need to increase product quality as well as pricing to sustain cutting-edge service to customers. Due to this, businesses use various apps for data collection to help them gather data from multiple sources, which is processed to help businesses make several decisions for their production and service lines. The best technology that can handle the massive data collected is the mainframe. Indeed, the mainframe today is not only used by large enterprises but also small businesses because they too rely on big data for its functionality.
The old mainframe users keep upgrading as users and applications increase while new users purchase new mainframes to connect them with their IT infrastructure. A report released by Market Watch at the end of 2021 shows mainframe market value stood at $2278 million. The report anticipates the technology will progressively grow at a rate of over 4.3 percent for the next six years. It further says mainframes globally are expected to process almost one trillion online transactions daily at high rates of security and reliability.
This proves that mainframes are still playing a central role in a data-centric world. This is one of the reasons why businesses continue to invest heavily in mainframe technology to help them handle massive data generated from multiple sources. It also provides high data encryption capabilities, eliminates bottleneck challenges, and the need to keep upgrading storage needs.
Mainframe in a world of growing applications
In the current days, businesses rely on multiple applications to run smoothly. They use productivity apps, enterprise-specific apps, communication apps, payment apps, business utility apps, etc. They all help with the internal running of businesses while connecting them with their customers globally. The connection between the applications and the computers or gadgets is the API. For smooth communication between multiple apps, the mainframe helps connect between the applications and the API.
Different technologies help make the mainframe connect with API. It is important in providing data to both web and mobile applications. This helps with the analytics of big data and integration with partner systems. Most businesses today connect with third-party services through mobile apps whenever they want to support users to locate the nearest places to find services offered by the specific business. They use data mapping tools combined with geolocation data. This is the point where the mainframe becomes the epicenter for an API economy. As new programming technologies emerge where new coding languages are developed, the mainframe proves to be a necessity. The IT department is growing fast in sophistication, thus requiring a solution that processes multiple programs at super speeds.
The mainframe’s powerful capabilities allow modification to enable them to handle multiple programming languages and operating systems that would otherwise prove difficult for other systems. Today, the mainframe is handling a complex AI ecosystem that is using open-source tools and languages because it is a highly dependable host with high machine learning capabilities.
Mainframe’s capabilities for data security, scalability, and compatibility
The value of data in commerce cannot be underestimated. The critical role played by data in every enterprise calls for uncompromised data security. It must be combined with availability to all authorized users. The mainframe perfectly provides both data security and availability. Data has contributed to the massive growth of businesses, thus triggering the need to increase capacity. Without proper infrastructure, normal transactions might be heavily disrupted during upgrades. Due to the mainframe’s high scalability for both hardware and software, businesses can upgrade systems without anyone ever noticing about such a process.
Since its inception, the mainframe has proved to be a compatible tool that works perfectly with any new application installed into it. The technology can support multiple applications that differ with age. Programs that were developed decades ago work uninterrupted the same way programs developed a few months ago would work on the mainframe.
The future of mainframe computing
A report by Allied Market Research shows that by 2025, the mainframe will have a global market share of $2.9 billion. The current computing technology is headed to cloud computing, yet the mainframe remains an important technology that will connect the two to create a cloud-mainframe hybrid. This provides the most cost-effective infrastructure to businesses globally. The future of the mainframe is bright as it will remain the center that will propel the greatest businesses into the highest places ever experienced. The role played by mainframe computing in a fast-growing digital world will keep growing both in the near and far future.
