A recent Forrester Consulting Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study, commissioned by BMC, showed that organizations using BMC AMI DevX achieved notable development speed and quality improvements, like reducing mainframe application downtime by 99% while enabling up to 15x more annual codebase changes.
Forrester interviewed six organizations using BMC AMI DevX— including mainframe DevOps leaders in healthcare and financial services—and modeled results into a composite enterprise with $10B annual revenue and 300 mainframe developers. The study offers an ROI framework to help justify investments in tools that bring modern application development and DevOps capabilities to mainframe teams.
Why it matters
With modern tools and practices, mainframe DevOps teams are delivering faster releases, higher stability and better code quality—proving you don’t have to choose between speed and reliability.
The study’s findings reinforce a critical point: why strategic automation and integration are essential to DevOps pipelines—to being able to deploy on the mainframe with the same agility you deploy on other platforms without compromising quality.
Watch now :
In this short video, experts discuss how mainframe teams moved from being laggards to achieving parity with distributed platforms.
Key challenges to modernization
Before adopting BMC AMI DevX, the interviewed organizations faced two major obstacles to modernizing mainframe development for speed and quality:
- Complex, aging codebases—millions of lines of critical code dating back decades, difficult and risky to maintain
- Legacy tool limitations—rigid development processes, poor vendor support and high costs
Interviewees described their pain points:
- “The codebase is complicated. It’s 40 years old. It’s very complex.” — Mainframe Systems Engineer, Financial Services
- “The toolset we were using at the time was [a product suite from another vendor]. We ran into some limitations and challenges. Plus, we wanted to start pushing pipeline automation. … I don’t know whether [the other vendor] has caught up yet, but we were reaching out to their support team, and we weren’t getting much joy— they weren’t improving the products.” — Mainframe DevOps Lead, Financial Services
- “[Another vendor] changed their pricing—it was financially expensive. They’re good products, but much more expensive… they didn’t have all the features that BMC AMI DevX has.” — CIO, Healthcare
Takeaway: Quality is paramount, but hard to maintain with outdated tools.
What organizations were looking for in their next solution
To overcome these challenges, the interviewed organizations sought solutions that could:
- Bring DevOps to the mainframe environment—not just distributed systems
- Accelerate software delivery and improve consistency—synchronize all deployments
- Enable automation and rollback capabilities—restore service in minutes rather than days
Interviewees explained their goals:
- “We realized that we couldn’t just have good processes on the distributed side. We had to implement DevOps on mainframe as well.” — Mainframe DevOps Lead, Financial Services
- “One of our goals—which was fulfilled by [BMC AMI DevX] Code Pipeline—was to synchronize deployments and have consistency in our deployments so that everything was on the same level. And if we want to fall back, we can fall back everything at the same time. [Before,] without any tooling, [we did it] by hand, so it was very complex.” — Mainframe Systems Engineer, Financial Services
Watch now :
In this short video, Benoît Ebner, Mainframe Engineering Lead at NRB, describes the transformation from hours-long restoration processes to 2-minute rollbacks.
Why organizations chose BMC AMI DevX
Interviewees evaluated several vendors before selecting BMC AMI DevX to transform mainframe development. They chose BMC for its ability to deliver speed, quality and integration.
Organizations reported that BMC AMI DevX enabled them to:
- Synchronize releases across mainframe and distributed platforms
- Streamline release processes by saving 96% of the time previously spent on each release
- Integrate with standard DevOps toolchains including Git, Jenkins, and SonarQube
- Automate testing and rapid rollback to reduce errors before production and minimize downtime when issues occur
Interviewees highlighted key differentiators of BMC AMI DevX, including its rich feature set and capabilities supporting modern software development practices.
- “There were things that we specifically sought because [the developers] wanted the functionality…. [An alternative platform] has similar development capabilities, but the BMC products have a larger DevOps integration stack. The other big piece [of our decision] was the user interface. It’s very modern…” — CIO, Healthcare
- “We now have [features] like impact analysis [in Code Insights], which creates visibility into environments that many people didn’t know. [These tools] are helping map out legacy systems that previously weren’t well known or documented. [For example,] how the application sits together, what calls it, and when it’s called — those kinds of things. [The BMC AMI DevX tools] are creating visibility.” – Mainframe DevOps Platform Lead, Financial Services
Watch now :
In this short video, Benoît Ebner, Mainframe Engineering Lead at NRB, talks about how pipeline integration enables synchronization between mainframe and other platforms while providing better control and confidence.
What ROI really means for speed and quality with BMC AMI DevX
In addition to a total ROI of 217% for the composite organization, organizations using BMC AMI DevX achieved the following speed and quality gains:
Speed gains
Before adopting BMC AMI DevX, teams relied on manual release processes and dedicated release managers. With BMC AMI DevX tools, the mainframe team automated much of its release processes, from version control and contention management to documentation.
With automation, they achieved:
- Up to 50% faster release cadence: Releases increased from four per year to six, accelerating time-to-market.
- Up to 15x more code changes per year: Updating decades-old code was easier and safer due to improved visibility and streamlined workflows.
Financial impact: $655,000 over three years for the composite organization.
Watch now :
In this short video, Jeffrey Yozwiak, Forrester Analyst, breaks down the three things that led to 15X more code changes.
Quality gains
Using BMC AMI DevX tools, the mainframe team reduced its change failure rate and application downtime.
With integrated and automated testing, they achieved:
- 33% reduction in change failure rate: Fewer issues escaped to production thanks to better debugging tools.
- 99% less downtime: Rapid rollback and stability improvements virtually eliminated disruptions to critical systems.
Financial impact: $1.3 million over three years.
Watch now :
In this short video, Jeffrey Yozwiak, Forrester Analyst, explains how BMC AMI DevX enabled increased velocity without sacrificing quality.
Additional benefits (not quantified in the study)
The following benefits added value for the composite organization, but weren’t included in the financial analysis:
- Dedicated support: Unlike other vendors, BMC worked closely with organizations to guide them through mainframe modernization.
- Ongoing improvements: BMC AMI DevX tools provided metrics and insights that helped teams continuously improve their processes.
- Future AI capabilities: Planned AI features in the BMC AMI DevX roadmap could further boost benefits like better developer experience.
Final thoughts
Forrester’s TEI study reported that 54% of enterprises plan to increase mainframe usage in the next two years. For the interviewed organizations, mainframe systems remain mission-critical—powering financial transactions, healthcare claims and regulatory compliance.
As one financial services leader put it:
“Mainframe’s not dead. Your parents’ Social Security check, your credit cards, your bank statements—all big iron. [Mainframe] is what makes the money.”
Now more than ever, IT and DevOps transformation leaders can turn their mission-critical mainframe from a siloed system into a fully integrated part of an agile enterprise. With modern tools like BMC AMI DevX, you can achieve speed and quality advantages without compromising on either.
Watch now :
In this short video, Benoît Ebner, Mainframe Engineering Lead at NRB, offers practical advice for mainframe DevOps transformations.
Learn more
Discover all the benefits contributing to a 217% ROI of BMC AMI DevX in the Forrester TEI study →[Get the complete findings now]
Question for IT and DevOps leaders:
What’s your biggest barrier to accelerating mainframe delivery—tooling, process or culture? Share your experience in the comments.
