The IBM Mainframe: 50 years and going strong

April 8th, 2014
Kurt Repholz
VP zSystems Sales

On April 7 this year IBM will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the mainframe. It is an impressive milestone!

When I started in my “mainframe” career over 15 years ago there was talk that the mainframe would not be around much longer. I didn’t believe it then, and I don’t believe it now.

Applications written for the S/360 (IBM’s first mainframe) can still run today. IBM’s signature big iron has been a core part of the IT industry and remains at the heart of major transactional systems today. IBM has continued to evolve the mainframe, which today is now used in multiple applications including cloud, big data, mobile and social computing workloads. In mid-2013, IBM announced a major new version of its mainframe system, the zEnterprise EC12 server (zEC12). IBM calls the latest mainframe the most powerful and technologically advanced version of an IBM system that has been the core of enterprise computing for over 49 years. zServers support significant portions of the data environment at most large enterprises, which today are looking for new ways to secure and gain insights from such critical information as financial, customer and enterprise resource data that will enable them to provide their clients with new services. The zEC12 — a result of an R&D investment by IBM surpassing $1 billion — offers enhanced security and support for operational analytics that can help clients work through large volumes of raw data and transform it to gain knowledge that can be used for competitive advantage.

Mainline is also celebrating a milestone this year. Our 25th anniversary! In those 25 years the IBM mainframe has been a large part of our success and the foundation on which built our business. (We even named our company after it! Mainline…mainframe, get it?) Mainline has over 500 mainframe customers today. And we have one of the strongest technical support organizations in the mainframe industry with more than 40 dedicated technical specialists.

On April 8, IBM will host a landmark event in New York City and make a series of announcements to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the mainframe. The event will highlight breakthroughs in business, industry and society driven by the mainframe, and the strategic role it will continue to play in the future.

» Click here to learn more about it.

Congratulations to IBM on such a great accomplishment!

Mainline is proud to be a part of it.

Mainline