Survey respondents rate security and mainframe
skills as top priorities and crucial to the success of their
transformation initiatives
NEW
YORK, Sept. 12, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Kyndryl
(NYSE: KD), the world's largest IT infrastructure services
provider, today unveiled the findings of its inaugural global
survey and analysis of the current and future state of
mainframe modernization for businesses. The survey among 500
business and IT leaders finds that most organizations are taking a
hybrid approach to mainframe modernization, and the respondents
reported collectively achieving $12.5B in cost savings.
In today´s competitive and fast-changing business environment
where many leaders are reconsidering spending choices,
enterprises are looking for ways to start or accelerate their
mainframe modernization journey to drive increased efficiency,
agility, and innovation. According to Kyndryl's survey, as
companies seek to transform their mainframe environment:
- 95% of respondents are moving at least some of their mainframe
applications to cloud or distributed platforms, on average 37% of
their workloads. Only 1% of respondents plan to move all workloads
fully off the mainframe.
- 90% of respondents state the mainframe remains essential to
their business operations due to its high levels of security,
reliability, and performance, while having the flexibility to move
to cloud platforms for efficiency.
Enterprises looking to update their mission-critical operations
are approaching modernization in three ways - modernizing on the
mainframe, integrating with the hyperscalers, or moving off to the
cloud. Almost all respondents use a combination of approaches, by
considering the capabilities of each platform and tailoring
projects to their business and technical needs.
A key observation is that regardless of the chosen mainframe
modernization approach, businesses report reduced costs and
increased profitability by 9% to 11%. Average annual cost savings
per organization are $25M, showing
that mainframe modernization yields a positive return on
investment. In addition to financial benefits, respondents indicate
that transformation is fueling innovation by allowing them to take
advantage of increased scalability and faster time to market.
Kyndryl's survey uncovers that respondents share a common
concern about security, no matter what transformation path they
choose. Security is the most important factor noted (49%) in
defining an organization's transformation strategy. At the
same time, it is one of the most crucial elements for the success
of a mainframe modernization project and the most popular topic for
training and upskilling. Concerns about declining mainframe skills
are also cited as a major challenge for more than half of the
organizations surveyed, and this skills gap represents job
opportunities for rising technical talent. In fact, 74% of
respondents say they rely on external firms to support them on the
transformation due to their skills challenges.
"Our survey reveals that mainframes increasingly become an
integral part of hybrid cloud environments and continue to drive
business value. However, the lack of a skilled workforce to support
and secure these mission-critical environments is a significant
cause of anxiety for many businesses," said Petra Goude, Global Practice Leader for Core
Enterprise & zCloud at Kyndryl. "Finding a trusted advisor and
integrator with deep expertise and experience is key to success –
no matter where organizations are on their journey and how they aim
to execute their transformation. The survey shows that maintaining
the status quo is not a path to modernization or growth."
Kyndryl commissioned Coleman Parkes Research to survey 500
decision-makers including CTO/CIOs, IT Directors and Business
Leaders from enterprises across all industries and government, of
different sizes, with different levels of dependency on the
mainframe, and at different points in their modernization
journey.
To learn more about the insights gathered on how respondents
view mainframe transformation and application modernization, as
well as the challenges, risks, and benefits related to their
initiatives, go to: Kyndryl´s 2023 State of Mainframe Modernization
Survey Report.
About Kyndryl
Kyndryl (NYSE: KD) is the world's
largest IT infrastructure services provider, serving thousands of
enterprise customers in more than 60 countries. The company
designs, builds, manages and modernizes the complex,
mission-critical information systems that the world depends on
every day. For more
information, please visit www.kyndryl.com.
Kyndryl Press Contact
press@kyndryl.com
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SOURCE Kyndryl