The growth numbers tell the story.
One of the most attention-grabbing of the new uses in which mainframes now excel is blockchain. The mainframe’s advantages over x86 servers in response time, transaction throughput, scalability, and particularly security, make it the ideal blockchain host. That security advantage is decisive. The blockchain model is entirely dependent on transaction records being carried in a chain of data blocks that, once assembled, cannot be changed. Because of their superior processing power, mainframes can provide the protection of 100% end-to-end encryption without degrading performance. In fact, IBM claims that its mainframes encrypt data 18 times faster than x86 platforms at just 5% of the cost. Other areas in which the mainframe is carving out a significant spot for itself in the modern era of IT include DevOps, cloud computing (both public and private clouds), and running multiple virtual operating systems. The mainframe is here to stay! As this brief survey of the mainframe’s place in the current IT landscape shows, “big iron” is not going away any time soon. In fact, according to Allied Market Research, the global mainframe market is expected to reach a staggering $2.90 billion by 2025. Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone On Monday, August 7, 2023, 1:01 PM, Phil Smith III <[email protected]> wrote: Mike Shaw wrote: >I have seen the 10,000 number several times in this thread...IBM does >not publish their count of installed mainframes AFAIK...how was that >number developed...anybody know? I expect that's a marketing number, and I strongly suspect it's high, and includes internal machines and Kyndryl. At the peak of System/370 in the 80s the claimed number I heard was about 20,000, including MVS, VM, VSE, and TPF. We know there's been a lot of erosion, plus simple consolidation both because of mergers and more LPARs and CPUs per CEC. So 10K CECs just seems.very very high to me. I'd bet on more like 2,500 if I had to put money on it. But of course we'll never know because IBM has no reason to tell us. Can't blame 'em for that. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
