[OGWhales]

This is what I see most shops doing, including ours. I think the cost of getting off a mainframe is too high, so this will likely continue to be be the trend for the foreseeable future.

Also, mainframes can run both batch jobs and "online" (CICS) jobs. Our shop is about half and half with batch and online programs. The main thing that batches can be annoying with is that they run on schedules and may have to wait for other jobs to complete before they can kick off, causing delays. We just upgraded from a z13 to z15, so our mainframe is no longer a concern but we are also much smaller than a bank.

[rbanffy]

IBM's profit margins are so high they sell you a machine that's fully configured because they know you'll pay for the upgrade that's already delivered but deactivated in a year or so.

If moving off the mainframe becomes cheaper, they have a lot of flexibility