B M C 11TH

ANNUAL
MAINFRAME
RESEARCH
R E S U LT S

2016

Digital Business Is Driving Growth

on the Mainframe

OVERVIEW

GENERAL
FINDINGS

INCREASING
APPROACH

APPROACHES

STEADY/REDUCING
APPROACHES

PREVIOUS

DEMOGRAPHICS

NEXT

OVERVIEW | EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

APPROACHES

TOP FINDINGS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1227

+ Digital business is impacting the

For the 11th consecutive year, BMC has
mainframe. Respondents are seeing higher
conducted the largest mainframe survey of
its kind, with more than 1,200executives
executives
and technical data and transaction volumes, as well
professionals
and technical professionals sharing responded as increases in the speed of application
change. And more activity creates higher
their perspectives and experiences with the
workload unpredictability and volatility.
platform and their businesses.

1227

executives and technical

professionals responded

1227

+ The platform is here to stay: 89% of

respondents predict the platforms

long-term viability. These companies

choose to depend on the mainframe
because of its superior reliability,
performance, and security.

89%
predict long-term
viability

89%

executives and technical

professionals responded

predict long-term
viability

+ The responding groups have been named

based on their approach to the mainframe:
Increasing(58%), Steady(23%), and
Reducing(19%).

58% Increasing

89%

- The Increasing group sees more

23% Steady

predict long-term
advantages in leveraging the
viability

mainframe and is adding work and

exploiting new technologies

19% Reducing

- The Steady group views the

platform as the best option for
maintaining critical applications,
but does not look to expand its
workload
- The Reducing group is looking to58%
another platform as a perceived
method of lowering costs

58% Increasing
23% Steady

Increasing

19% Reducing

23% Steady

+ The Increasing group is increasing usage

and leverage of the mainframe to drive
19% Reducing
digital business and be more successful.
This group, the largest of the groups,
tends to see all of the advantages of using
the mainframe, wants to fully leverage
their investment, and is looking for ways
to add more work and capacity to it.
The Increasing group exhibits certain
interesting characteristics, takes particular
actions, and experiences unique benefits.

bmc.com/mainframe | 02

OVERVIEW

GENERAL
FINDINGS

APPROACHES

INCREASING
APPROACH

STEADY/REDUCING
APPROACHES

PREVIOUS

DEMOGRAPHICS

NEXT

GENERAL FINDINGS | ACTIVITY

Digital business is having measurable effects
on the mainframe. Survey respondents
see more activity, such as higher data and
transaction volumes, and an increase in
workload volatility and unpredictability.
They also report an increasing number of
databases (41%) and an increase in the
speed of application change (45%).
The vast majority of mainframe shops
acknowledge that the mainframe is the
best platform to host this increased activity
and to manage the unpredictability, due
to its security (55%), availability (53%),
data serving (51%), and high performance
(43%). In fact, 67% of large companies
have seen increasing capacity in the last 12
months and the majority have seen higher
activity. Half of respondents keep more than
50% of their data on a mainframe.
A few YoY trends:
+ Linux in production continues to rise
(2014 - 41%, 2015 - 48%, 2016 - 52%)
+ Use of Java on the mainframe is clearly
increasing (67% say so)

58%

57%

43%

29%

46%

29%
Increased

14%

No Change

14%

Decreased

12%

Data volumes

Transaction volumes

n= 1,105

n= 1,093

Workload volatility and

unpredictability
n= 1,092

n= 189

17%
12%

21%

33%

67%

34%

Capacity growth rates of large companies

Large companies are defined
as over $1B in revenue.
Growing

More than 75%

16%

51%-75%
25%-50%
Less than 25%
n= 698

Percentage of data residing

on the mainframe

Flat
Declining

bmc.com/mainframe | 03

OVERVIEW

GENERAL
FINDINGS

INCREASING
APPROACH

APPROACHES

STEADY/REDUCING
APPROACHES

PREVIOUS

DEMOGRAPHICS

NEXT

GENERAL FINDINGS | PERCEPTIONS

STRENGTH

70%
Long-term
Success

Long-term
Success

Survey respondents say that the platform

is strong and growing. 89% predict the
platforms long-term success.

Flat
Declining

49%

n= 189

Application Availability

Application Modernization

41%

Business Responsiveness

Improved Automation / Operational Analytics

Data Recovery
Leading Priorities

2016 Projected
Capacity
Business
Analytics
Growth Rates of
Managing Mobile Workloads
Large Companies

n= 189

GROWTH

Data Privacy/Compliance/Security
50%

Staffing & Skills

89%

Availability, cost optimization, modernization, 2016 Projected Capacity

89%
and data compliance are top priorities for the
Growth Rates of
majority of respondents.
Large Companies

Data Privacy/Compliance/Security

Application Modernization Growing

Flat
Business Responsiveness
Declining
18%
Improved Automation / Operational
Analytics
13%
Data Recovery

13%

PRIORITIES

Cost Reduction/Optimization
65%

Application Availability

Growing

18%

Cost Reduction/Optimization
70%

n= 998

Staffing & Skills

Business Analytics

Managing Mobile Workloads

Outsourcing

Outsourcing
Cost Reduction/Optimization

70%

Top Mainframe Priorities 2016

Data Privacy/Compliance/Security

Long-term
Success

50%
49%

Application Availability

70% of large company respondents say

they anticipate capacity growth in the next
24 months.

Growing
Flat
18%
13%

Declining

Application Modernization

41%

Business Responsiveness
Improved Automation / Operational Analytics
Data Recovery
Staffing & Skills

89%

2016 Projected Capacity

Growth Rates of
Large Companies
n= 189

Leading Pri

Business Analytics

n= 998

Managing Mobile Workloads

Outsourcing

Top Mainframe Priorities 2016

bmc.com/mainframe | 04

OVERVIEW

GENERAL
FINDINGS

APPROACHES

INCREASING
APPROACH

STEADY/REDUCING
APPROACHES

PREVIOUS

DEMOGRAPHICS

NEXT

APPROACHES | THE 3 APPROACHES

Analysis of the results shows that companies
with mainframes fall into one of three groups
in their approach to leveraging the platform:
Increasing (58%), Steady (23%), and
Reducing (19%).

Approaches to Mainframe

58%
Increasing

23%
Steady

+ Increasing companies, the largest of the

groups, tend to see all of the advantages of
using the mainframe, want to fully leverage
their investment, and are looking for ways
to add more work and capacity to it.
+ Steady companies leverage the mainframe
to maintain critical applications and view
it as a secure and highly available engine
for running their business. They are not
looking to add new workloads.
+ Reducing companies are looking to
another platform for lower costs, driven
mostly by management perception that
the mainframe is expensive and outdated.
Interestingly, only 13% of large companies
are Reducing.

n= 1,160

19%
Reducing

INCREASING

STEADY

REDUCING

Takes longer-term view of platform

and invests in more capacity

Relies on the platforms availability

and security strengths

Management perceives that platform

is outdated

Experiences more activity from

digital business

Places high priority on responsiveness

to business

Focus is on removing workloads

Capacity remains steady

Higher concern about skills and

migrating more workloads off to
solve the problem

Focus is on implementing new

technologies and automation

bmc.com/mainframe | 05

OVERVIEW

GENERAL
FINDINGS

INCREASING
APPROACH

APPROACHES

STEADY/REDUCING
APPROACHES

PREVIOUS

DEMOGRAPHICS

NEXT

INCREASING APPROACH | THE INCREASING GROUP

79%
72%

Increasing companies are experiencing

greater growth in volumes of data (72%),
transactions (79%), and databases (60%),
while also seeing higher speeds of application
change (63%) and more workload
unpredictability and volatility (63%).
Increasing respondents tend to be
enterprises of all sizes, as measured by
annual revenue.
Coincidentally, the percentage ratios of
increasing speed of application change and
workload volatility/unpredictability are the
same (63% increased).

79%

72%

60%
60%

24%

38%

Increased

38%

Stayed
the same
Increased
Decreased
Stayed the same

19%

24%

Decreased

19%

4%

2%

2%

4%

2%

2%

Data Volume

Transaction Volume

Data Volume

Transaction Volume

Databases
Databases

Speed of Application Change

Speed of Application Change
5%

32%

63%

5%

32%

63%
Increased
Stayed
the same
Increased
Decreased
Stayed the same

Workload Volatility/Unpredictability
Workload Volatility/Unpredictability
5%

32%

63%

5%

32%

63%

Decreased

bmc.com/mainframe | 06

OVERVIEW

GENERAL
FINDINGS

APPROACHES

INCREASING
APPROACH

STEADY/REDUCING
APPROACHES

PREVIOUS

DEMOGRAPHICS

NEXT

INCREASING APPROACH | THE INCREASING GROUP

ACTIONS THEY TAKE
te
va
no
In

e
or

+ Place a higher priority on responding

quickly to business needs or changes

+ Address skill gaps directly by investing in

training

st

+ Place a higher priority on using automation

ve

+ Use more innovative technologies, such as

Java and specialty engines

More success

In

+ Continue to invest in the mainframe by

adding more capacity and workloads

or
e

BENEFITS

Based on the study

sample, some of the
worlds most wellrecognized companies
and industry leaders
are increasing their
workloads and investing
in the mainframe.

bmc.com/mainframe | 07

OVERVIEW

GENERAL
FINDINGS

INCREASING
APPROACH

APPROACHES

STEADY/REDUCING
APPROACHES

PREVIOUS

DEMOGRAPHICS

NEXT

INCREASING APPROACH | IT OPTIMIZATION

Z
13 Z

Respondents in the Increasing group

optimize their environments through a
number of methods. These companies tend
to invest in more innovative technologies to
meet the demands of digital business.
+ Java usage
88% of Increasing companies use Java
on the mainframe in production or
development environments versus 65%
for Steady and 54% for Reducing.
- 73% of the Increasing group that
use Java say that Java is growing
because of new apps being written
in Java

13

Z
13Z

88%
JAVA

88%

13

JAVA

Increasing

Increasing

Z Z
13 13

- Increasing respondents are turning

to Java as the language of choice to
help modernize their applications

+ Advanced automation
+ Optimized costs, such as such as
monthly license charges (MLC)

54%
54%
JAVAJAVA

58%

58%

of all respondents
of all respondents

The Increasing group says that the top two

cost optimization priorities are:
1. Reducing resource usage during peak
processing

Reducing
Reducing

+ Moving more work onto lower-cost

specialty engines (zIIPs and zAAPs)

As with the other groups, cost optimization is

a top priority for the Increasing group in the
coming year. Increasing companies embrace
approaches to optimizing costs on the
mainframe. It makes sense that these efforts
would help make the platform that much
more attractive to adding new workloads.
58% of all respondents pay over 30% of
their budget in MLC costs.

2. Exploiting lower-cost specialty engines

30%
30%
as budget
% of budget
MLCMLC
costscosts
as % of

65%65%
JAVA
JAVA

Steady

Steady

Java usage for all 3 groups is high

Java usage for all 3 groups is high

bmc.com/mainframe | 08

OVERVIEW

GENERAL
FINDINGS

APPROACHES

INCREASING
APPROACH

STEADY/REDUCING
APPROACHES

DEMOGRAPHICS

PREVIOUS

NEXT

INCREASING APPROACH | MANAGEMENT PERCEPTION

Increasing companies tend
to take a longer-term view
of the mainframe.
The Increasing group may leverage the platform
more effectively for greater benefits. Increasing
companies tend to add capacity and workloads,
modernize to ensure a superior customer
experience, and ensure a highly available IT
environment for serving customers. Happy
customers lead to higher revenue. Companies
that are doing well need a superior platform to
handle this type of transaction and data growth.

Why is there such a contrast?

By contrast, among the Reducing group,
the number one answer for reducing or
eliminating the mainframe is management
perception that the mainframe is outdated.
Increasing companies are continuing to
invest because of the strong security and
availability benefits, as well as it being
a superior data server environment.

INCREASING
REDUCING

bmc.com/mainframe | 09

OVERVIEW

GENERAL
FINDINGS

APPROACHES

INCREASING
APPROACH

STEADY/REDUCING
APPROACHES

DEMOGRAPHICS

PREVIOUS

NEXT

INCREASING APPROACH | SKILLS AND TRAINING

Increasing companies indicate that they are
directly addressing the skills gaps and new
workload unpredictability by exploiting
modern, advanced automation wherever
possible. This can span all areas of the
mainframe IT environment, including
areas like systems management, database
management, and operations.

The survey indicates that the Increasing

group performs more in-house training for
current employees and hires experienced
staff to train internally. By contrast, this
group rates outsourcing and migrating
workloads off the mainframe as the
least effective solution to the skills
problem.

The survey indicates that the Increasing

group ranks investing in automation as
a higher priority than the other groups.
Addressing the skills gap can be one reason
for this investment.

The Steady group indicates that their

top priority for addressing the skills gap
is training existing employees. And the
Reducing group selected migrating workloads
off the mainframe as their top priority.

bmc.com/mainframe | 10

OVERVIEW

GENERAL
FINDINGS

APPROACHES

INCREASING
APPROACH

STEADY/REDUCING
APPROACHES

DEMOGRAPHICS

PREVIOUS

NEXT

APPROACHES | THE STEADY AND REDUCING GROUPS

STEADY APPROACH

REDUCING APPROACH

The Steady group focuses on the

mainframes reliability and availability as the
foundation of their most critical business
applications. In contrast to the Increasing
group, the Steady group is less open to
exploiting new technologies or allocating
budget toward advanced automation.
The focus, as with the other groups, is on
optimizing costs to maximize ROI. Steady
group companies also span a wide variety of
key industries.

The Reducing group indicates stronger

management perception that the mainframe
is outdated, and they focus largely on moving
workloads off the platform.

REDUCING
STEADY

bmc.com/mainframe | 11

OVERVIEW

GENERAL
FINDINGS

APPROACHES

INCREASING
APPROACH

STEADY/REDUCING
APPROACHES

DEMOGRAPHICS

PREVIOUS

NEXT

DEMOGRAPHICS
Technical Professionals
and Managers

71%
25%

Executives
Job Function

Other

4%

51%

Americas
EMEA
Geography

Asia Pacific

42%
7%

48%

Over $1 Billion
37%

$100M to $1B
Less than $100M

15%

Company

Financial and Insurance

34%

Technology
Government
Industry

Other Industries

23%
16%
27%

bmc.com/mainframe | 12

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