Why Mainframes Aren't Going Away Any Time Soon
IBM's last earnings report showed the first uptick in revenue in more than five years. Some of that growth was from an expected source, cloud revenue, which was up 24 percent year over year and now accounts for 21 percent of Big Blue's take. Another major boost, however, came from a spike in mainframe revenue. Z series mainframe sales were up 70 percent, the company said.
This may sound somewhat akin to a return to vacuum tube technology in a world where transistors are yesterday's news. In actuality, this is only a sign of the changing face of IT.
Modern mainframes definitely aren't your father's punch card-driven machines that filled entire rooms. These days, they most often run Linux and have found a renewed place in the data center, where they're being called upon to do a lot of heavy lifting. Want to know where the largest instance of Oracle's database runs? It's on a Linux mainframe. How about the largest implementation of SAP on the planet? Again, Linux on a mainframe.
