Dive Brief:
-
IBM announced Wednesday its acquisition of EZSource, an Israeli company that helps make the process of modernizing mainframe applications easier.
-
EZSource allows developers to easily see what part of the mainframe code needs updating, rather than requiring them to check code manually.
-
As skilled mainframe developers become more rare, a system like EZSource can help companies bridge the gap.
Dive Insight:
In its announcement, IBM said 68% of the "world’s production IT workloads" still run on mainframes.
"The mainframe is the backbone of today’s businesses," Ross Mauri, general manager for IBM z Systems told ComputerWorld. "As clients drive their digital transformation, they are seeking the innovation and business value from new applications while leveraging their existing assets and processes."
Frank Scavo, an analyst and president of Computer Economics, said many large organizations—especially those in the financial-services industry—still rely heavily on mainframe systems. But skilled mainframe developers are few and far between today, so a company like EZSource can be a huge help to organizations as they work to modernize their businesses with mobile, social and other apps.
"Anything to increase the productivity of these developers will go a long way to ensuring the success of their digital business initiatives," Scavo said. "Automation tools to discover, expose and analyze the inner workings of these legacy apps are really needed."
