Security, AIOps top mainframe customer challenges, BMC says

Compliance, security, operational analytics, and AIOps are the top priorities for organizations investing heavily in mainframes, according to the 2024 BMC Mainframe Survey, which is in its 19th year and polled 1,000 customers.

Like a similar survey conducted recently by Kyndryl, interest in continuing to develop the mainframe for the future remains high, with the modernization of Big Iron’s workload capabilities indicated as one of the hottest topics for customers.

Positive perception of the mainframe remains high, with 94% of respondents seeing it as a long-term platform or a platform for new workloads. Not surprisingly, survey results also show that investment in the mainframe remains high, with 90% of respondents reporting that their organizations are continuing to invest in the platform, wrote John McKenny, senior vice president and General Manager of Intelligent Z Optimization and Transformation at BMC Software in a blog about the survey.  

“While large (10,001–50k MIPS) and extra-large (greater than 50k MIPS) shops show increased investment, smaller shops (under 10k MIPS) are seeking to maintain current investment levels while leveraging new technologies to optimize within their current footprint,” McKenny wrote. 

For the fifth consecutive year, compliance and security topped the list of mainframe priorities, with 64% of survey respondents indicating the two areas were top concerns.

“While the threat of ransomware remains a top concern, survey respondents report decreased confidence in the effectiveness of their ransomware controls, with an [8%] drop in those that find their controls to be extremely effective,” McKenny stated.

This drop in confidence is even more pronounced in European respondents, with a 10% decrease, McKenny wrote.

With official application of the European Union’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) coming in January 2025, and ransomware attacks continuing to make headlines, it is clear that ransomware controls, hardened security, and recovery capabilities are facing increased scrutiny, McKenny stated. According to the survey, 43% of respondents have built dedicated capabilities to protect against ransomware, and another 29% plan to adopt such technologies.

DORA enacts a mandatory comprehensive information and communication technology (ICT) risk management framework for EU-based organizations.  Other compliance regulations such as NIS2 and SEC cyber rules also impact mainframe development.

While optimizing the costs of the mainframe was in second place on the list, the biggest technology driver among top priorities was the development of artificial intelligence for IT operations (AIOps) and operational analytics which jumped to 45% — an 11% increase from 2023, according to McKenney.

“The increased prioritization of AIOps reflects surging interest in the implementation of emerging technologies on the mainframe. Those reporting the adoption of AIOps on the mainframe increased [9%] from the 2023 BMC Mainframe Survey, while 76% of respondents reported the use of generative AI [genAI] in their organizations,” McKenney wrote.

“The power of AI/ML and genAI open a new world of possibility in IT management. Organizations are leveraging these technologies throughout their IT ecosystems to gain real-time insight into security postures, automate issue resolution, gain critical business insight, and onboard and train new personnel,” McKenney wrote.

The survey found 36% of organizations wanted to use AI to analyze code and configuration files to identify problems and vulnerabilities, while 37% said AI would help them remove repetitive tasks and improve efficiency.

BMC recently said it would begin adding AI-based assistants to help customers manage mainframe resources. Its BMC AMI Platform will feature the BMC AMI Assistant, a chat-based, AI-powered assistant available for developers, operators, system programmers, and IT managers to use for real-time explanations, support, and automation, the company stated.

“Whether help is needed to debug code, understand system processes, or make informed decisions and take actions, the BMC AMI Assistant will provide expert guidance instantly, enhancing productivity and reducing downtime. Users will leverage BMC AMI Assistant Tools to capture their local knowledge and integrate it seamlessly into the BMC AMI Assistant,” McKenny wrote in a BMC blog.

IBM too has been stoking mainframe AI interest. It recently said it is outfitting the next generation of the IBM Z and LinuxONE mainframes with a new Telum processor and a new accelerator aimed at boosting performance of AI and other data-intensive workloads.

The new processor, the IBM Telum II, has greater memory and cache capacity than the previous generation, and it integrates a new data processing unit (DPU) specialized for IO acceleration along with enhanced on-chip AI acceleration capabilities.

In the Kyndryl study, the vendor found high interest in AI saying that AI and genAI promise to transform the mainframe environment by delivering insights into complex unstructured data, augmenting human action with advances in speed, efficiency, and error reduction, while helping to understand and modernize existing applications. GenAI has the potential to illuminate the inner workings of monolithic applications, Kyndryl stated.

Beyond AI, the BMC survey not surprisingly found the growing use of cloud technology and the mainframe.

“Connecting the mainframe to cloud-based workloads and utilizing a cloud-based mainframe are strong considerations, the use of cloud-based data storage ranked highest among respondents, led by 57% of extra-large shops,” according to the survey. “Given its greater scalability, lessened infrastructure restraints, and improved data access, the flexibility afforded by cloud-based storage was cited as its number one benefit. Respondents also cited the ability to use mainframe data with cloud-based analytics engines to unlock business insights as a top benefit of cloud-based data storage.”

While not technically a new technology, the use of Java for mainframe code is increasing, as well, McKenney noted.

“As organizations feel the need for code that is accessible across platforms, and for developers who can write mainframe code without additional training, Java has emerged as an attractive option. Survey results show an increase in new applications being written, and in the rewriting of existing applications, in the language,” McKenney stated.