Mainframe redux - how AI is breathing new life into big iron
The death of the mainframe has been talked about on and off for at least 30 years. But although such doom-mongering had subsided somewhat over recent times, IBM, the only surviving mainframe manufacturer, has lately found it being ignited once again. Second quarter revenues, which were announced in July, plummeted 42% year-on-year at its mainframe division. This contributed to the company's turnover coming in at $17.2 billion, missing Wall Street targets by around $700 million.
Chief Executive Arvind Krishna attributed the fall to "low tens" of customers delaying their mainframe purchasing decisions due to anxiety over soaring demand for AI infrastructure, particularly among the hyperscalers. This led to them raiding their mainframe budgets to stockpile servers, storage and memory instead.
To make matters worse, only months before the markets had shaved more than $30 billion off IBM's value over analyst concerns that its mainframe business would be disrupted by...
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