In a recent report by Rocket Software, over seventy-five percent of surveyed data professionals indicated that accessing data from legacy mainframe applications poses significant challenges, with nearly two-thirds struggling to integrate this data with cloud sources. The survey, conducted by Foundry among two hundred thirteen professionals, highlights a cultural disconnect between cloud and mainframe teams, complicating data access. As enterprises increasingly adopt cloud computing and generative artificial intelligence, executives are focusing on the valuable data trapped in mainframe systems, which handle approximately seventy percent of global transactions by value. However, only a quarter of respondents feel equipped to leverage these mainframe data assets. Instead of migrating data to the cloud, many companies are opting for hybrid solutions, running specific models on-premises to address security concerns.
Why do we care?
There is always opportunity in seemingly boring stuff. Mainframes are not sexy. They continue to process a staggering volume of global transactions (70% by value), underscoring their critical role in industries like finance, healthcare, and retail. However, their relative isolation from modern cloud systems limits organizations’ ability to fully utilize the data they house.
These issues are not merely technical—they involve culture, strategy, and resource allocation. IT providers and enterprises that address these challenges effectively will be better positioned to unlock the value of their data, driving both innovation and operational excellence in an increasingly hybrid IT landscape. Thus, they are interesting.