BMC Survey Unveils Mainframes Are Supporting Digital Business Growth, with 93% of Executives Reporting a Positive Long-term Outlook for the Platform

HOUSTON – September 18, 2018 – BMC, a global leader in  IT solutions for the digital enterprise, today announced the results  of its 2018 Mainframe  Research Report, revealing increasingly optimistic attitudes  towards mainframes. With 93% of executives and 92% of all respondents viewing the mainframe as a strong long-term platform –  the highest level in five years – this year’s survey also sheds light on how organizations are becoming more proactive with their mainframe strategy to  facilitate the changing dynamics of modern digital business.

With perspectives from more than 1,100  executives and technical professionals, BMC’s annual mainframe survey is among the  industry’s largest of its kind. Building off last year’s survey – which dispelled  common myths about the mainframe, including a perceived lack of modernization  and support from organizations – this year’s results continue to point toward the  growing strength of the platform.

"Digitization and mobility are placing incredible  pressure on both IT and mainframes to manage a greater volume, variety, and  velocity of transactions and data, with workloads becoming more volatile and  unpredictable," said Bill Miller, president of ZSolutions at BMC. "The  2018 BMC Mainframe Research Report shows a bright future in which the mainframe  shines due to its strengths in scalability, availability, and security. At BMC,  we are helping  our customers evolve their mainframes’ capabilities to advance their digital  business strategies.”

Modernizing with New Approaches
  Organizations  are working more diligently than ever to modernize and optimize their mainframe  applications and operations, and they are exploiting automation to help  transform the digital enterprise. Application and operations teams report  taking advantage of new practices and technologies to modernize their mainframe  environments:   

• 82% are using  Java on the mainframe.
• 48% are using agile/DevOps  practices in their mainframe environment.
• 42% ranked application  modernization as one of their top four priorities. 
• 20% ranked AIOps  and operational analytics as one of their top four priorities.   

Millennial Mainframers See Plenty of Upside
  Changing demographics contribute to the mainframe’s  positive future. While staffing and skill shortages are still challenges for  organizations as experienced mainframe talent retires, organizations are  continuing to hire and invest in the next generation of employees.

• 63% of  respondents reported they were under the age of 50, up from 53% in the previous  year.
• 95% of millennials  are positive about the mainframe’s long-term prospects for supporting new and  legacy applications.

“Today's digital economy presents  complex challenges for the mainframe at a time when operational skills are  pivoting to younger staff with less experience. Ongoing research is important  to understand the evolving state and direction of the mainframe. Such studies  can provide a valuable perspective to help mainframe organizations evaluate  customer attitudes and expectations,” Tim Grieser, research vice president,  Enterprise System Management Software at IDC.

To further unleash the power and  value of the mainframe, BMC recommends evangelizing the mainframe within  organizations as the hub of today’s digital business, embracing the new  workforce, and engaging in new techniques and technologies to optimize the  mainframe. BMC provides mainframe solutions designed to support the journey to  self-managed systems with trusted information and policy-based actions, and to  meet the 24x7 demands of digital business.

To  read the full 2018 BMC Mainframe Research Report, visit https://www.bmc.com/info/mainframe-survey.html

To register for the results  webinar on September 19, visit
  http://ow.ly/YBHm30lAPSk

To  read BMC blog posts about the mainframe industry, visit http://www.bmc.com/blogs/categories/mainframe/

To  learn more about BMC’s mainframe solutions, visit https://www.bmc.com/it-solutions/bmc-ami-automated-mainframe-intelligence.html

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Methodology
1,122 surveys were completed between May 15  and June 1, 2018. The survey was sent worldwide and offered in six languages:  English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, and Portuguese. 66% percent of the respondents were technical professionals and  managers, 31% were executives, and 3% were other.

About BMC 
BMC helps customers run and  reinvent their businesses with open, scalable, and modular solutions to complex  IT problems. Bringing both unmatched experience in optimization and limitless passion  for innovation to technologies from mainframe to mobile to cloud and beyond,  BMC helps more than 10,000 customers worldwide reinvent, grow, and build for  the future success of their enterprises, including 92 of the Forbes Global 100.
 
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Editorial contacts:
 
Ana Gabriel
BMC
D: 408.546.1069
M: 510.219.6625
ana_gabriel@bmc.com

Francesca  DeAnda
Bateman  Group for BMC
bmc@bateman-group.com