The twentieth annual BMC Mainframe Survey highlights the continuing significance and transformation of mainframe know-how in 2025. The survey, which gathers enter from professionals worldwide, reveals that mainframes are usually not solely surviving but additionally adapting to new know-how tendencies, together with synthetic intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and trendy software program practices.
Mainframe Seen as a Lengthy-Time period Platform
In accordance with the survey, 97 % of respondents imagine the mainframe will stay a long-term platform or will entice new workloads. That is the very best stage of confidence recorded within the survey’s 20-year historical past. The optimistic outlook is particularly sturdy amongst youthful professionals, with Millennials and Gen Z now making up 66 % of the mainframe workforce. It is a main shift from 2018, when solely 37 % of respondents have been from these youthful generations.
Workloads and Purposes Are Rising
Seventy-two % of organizations report that their mainframe capability is growing. This development is pushed by each new and present purposes. Java, a contemporary programming language, is now one of many 4 most used languages on the mainframe, with 60 % of respondents reporting frequent use. Practically half say Java utilization has elevated previously two years. This shift away from older languages like COBOL and Assembler reveals a transfer towards modernization.
Concentrate on Modernization and New Processes
Software modernization is turning into the next precedence. In 2025, 42 % of respondents listing it as a high focus, up from 37 % in 2024. For the most important mainframe environments, this quantity rises to 49 %. Fashionable practices like DevOps and AIOps are additionally gaining floor. DevOps adoption elevated from 63 % in 2024 to 67 % in 2025. AIOps, which makes use of AI to enhance operations, is now utilized by 72 % of organizations, up 11 % since 2023. These modifications assist groups ship worth quicker and clear up issues extra rapidly.
Safety and Compliance Stay Key
Safety and compliance proceed to be the highest priorities for mainframe groups. Organizations are growing their use of ransomware detection and restoration programs. Extra respondents report that their controls towards ransomware are efficient. There’s additionally an increase in using instruments to watch privileged customers and establish delicate knowledge. Integration of safety instruments is now the very best safety precedence, changing final 12 months’s give attention to stopping intrusions.
Cloud Storage and AI Adoption
Cloud object storage is being thought of by many organizations to fulfill regulatory necessities. Nonetheless, a lack of expertise about these options is slowing adoption. Creating in-house experience is seen as a approach to handle this hole.
Generative AI (GenAI) can also be on the rise. Sixty-five % of respondents already use GenAI on the mainframe, and 74 % say it is going to be essential to their technique within the subsequent two years. Important makes use of embody downside detection, automated testing, and compliance reporting. There’s rising belief in AI, with many professionals keen to let AI not solely advise but additionally take motion on their behalf.
Wanting Forward
The survey concludes that the mainframe stays an important a part of the IT panorama. As workloads and knowledge develop, organizations are inspired to maintain safety as a high precedence and to put money into AI and cloud capabilities. Embracing new applied sciences and trendy practices will assist organizations get probably the most from their mainframe investments.
The mainframe, as soon as seen as outdated, is now positioned as a contemporary platform prepared for the long run.
