Tom McPherson IBM Z & LinuxONE General Manager
March 24, 2026
Innovation is essential to driving better business outcomes. Also, it’s not a one-time event. This is an ongoing journey that, if implemented correctly, creates lasting value.
The age of AI is raising new questions about how to maximize ROI while driving innovation. How can you optimize costs and create long-term value?
Answering these basic questions can seem difficult as enterprise infrastructure and application landscapes grow in size and complexity over time. Success requires a structured, data-driven approach.
To help with this, IBM recently published a handbook for maximizing business value using mainframes. Based on decades of experience, we share our proven approach to driving innovation with our clients. It starts with the most important step: choosing the best platform for your applications in a hybrid cloud environment.
When it comes to mission-critical workloads, the reality is that innovation on the mainframe is essential, costs less than the alternatives, and enables true business transformation. Mainframes currently process more than 70% of transactional workloads, but account for less than 10% of total IT spending.1
And those workloads are growing, with mainframe workloads quadrupling over the past decade. Going forward, AI will create unique opportunities and tailwinds for growth. As AI adoption increases, businesses will realize even more value from the platforms trusted to run the global economy.
So how can organizations accurately decipher mainframe value and cost?
Mainframe value for applications
In a hybrid cloud environment, mission-critical workloads are best suited for mainframes. These applications have uncompromising requirements, and leveraging mainframe capabilities can deliver more business value at enterprise scale.
In the future, with the involvement of AI and quantum, there will be more, not fewer, applications that are ideal for mainframes. The mainframe’s fully engineered vertical stack delivers this value at a fraction of the cost of alternatives.
Impact of platform choice on cost and value
Significant cost savings are possible when innovating on the mainframe. IBM’s Apptio TCO capabilities make it easier than ever to make data-driven decisions to choose the best platform for your workloads.
In-depth analysis of workloads over the past decade reveals that mission-critical applications 2-4 times cheaper Runs on the mainframe.
why? The non-linear cost per transaction improves significantly as the volume scales up. From the lowest level hardware to software, a purpose-built and optimized stack drives performance and energy efficiency.
If you look at this from a 5-year TCO perspective and leverage existing investments, such as applications that run your core business, the ROI for innovating on the mainframe is even higher compared to moving off the platform.
Additionally, even with AI code generation, you can avoid millions of dollars in development costs by choosing to extend and enhance your applications on the mainframe rather than rebuilding them off-platform.
Unanticipated costs not reflected in the above analysis may also occur and have a significant impact. For example, downtime and data breaches can cost millions of dollars in addition to reputational damage and risk to future business. By leveraging mainframes for your applications, you can significantly reduce the risk of these events.
Unlocking potential through innovation
Mainframes offer unmatched value and cost for mission-critical applications. When you choose to innovate on the platform, you can maximize ROI, deliver lasting value, and transform your business.
1Celent Mitigates Fraud in the Age of AI, April 2025
