Dive Brief:
- Microsoft and Kyndryl launched a joint initiative to ease the migration of mainframe data to cloud, the companies said Thursday. The goal is to help enterprises integrate mainframe data with internal and external cloud-based sources.
- The data pipeline solution allows “mainframe data to be ingested into the low-code and no-code Microsoft Power Platform so business users can perform analytics without having to rely on mainframe application development,” Steven Dickens, senior analyst at Futurum Research, said in an email.
- Microsoft established a strategic partnership with Kyndryl in November, the same month Kyndryl was spun off from its former parent company IBM.
Dive Insight:
Modernizing mainframe computing is one of Kyndryl’s primary lines of business, and hybrid cloud solutions are the future of mainframe. The latest initiative between Kyndryl and Microsoft reflects this dynamic, easing the path for companies moving data between on-prem and cloud.
“Mainframe and cloud are not mutually exclusive,” Dickens said. “Customers are looking to deploy hybrid multicloud architectures and the mainframe has a key role in these deployment architectures.”
The joint solution from Kyndryl and Microsoft is designed to unlock mainframe data for integration with cloud-native and other on-prem data sources using Microsoft Power Platform, Petra Goude, Kyndryl’s global practice leader for core enterprise and zCloud, said in an email.
Enterprises can then access the ML, AI and BI capabilities available through Microsoft’s Power Platform and Azure.
“This collaboration enables customers to make full use of all data that sits on their mainframe or IBM i platform to be integrated and used in public cloud and all other data sources,” said Goude.
