CEO Insights: Canada’s Mainframe Landscape

As CEO, I recently had the privilege of visiting Canada with Matt, our Director of Sales & Client Relationships and Jeff, our Director of Operations, along with other key leaders at CPT. The trip was very productive and filled with insightful conversations with clients, giving us a much clearer picture of how North American businesses are using, managing, and enhancing their mainframes.

We were pleased to see a high level of willingness among clients to meet with us and learn more about what CPT has to offer. As an independent voice in mainframe services and solutions, it's encouraging to see businesses actively seeking out ways to keep their mainframes current and efficient. This reinforces our belief that the mainframe isn't going anywhere and will continue to play an important role in business for years to come.

Based on these discussions, here are some of our key takeaways from our Canada trip.

Commitment to Mainframes Remains Strong

A key trend among our Canadian clients is their strong commitment to maintaining and updating their mainframes. Despite the hype around cloud technologies, many businesses see mainframes as essential. This isn't just loyalty, it's a strategic choice to ensure operational continuity and cost efficiency.

Mainframes have proven themselves over the years, and newer technologies are still catching up. That's probably why we've heard more clients say their modernization efforts are being directed toward peripheral systems, such as user interfaces and data analytics platforms, while maintaining the mainframe as their core system for mission-critical operations. It's this hybrid approach that's proving to be the most successful for companies.

The Cloud Conundrum

While some clients are eager to move their applications to the cloud, many have encountered challenges along the way. The complexity of modernizing and migrating mainframe applications is often underestimated, resulting in unexpected costs and delays. Additionally, we heard from several clients that they haven't seen the expected benefits from moving to the cloud, both in terms of cost savings and increased agility.

Clients also said that the benefits of cloud migration, like better scalability and flexibility, don't always outweigh the challenges of the transition. While there's a long-term plan to move off the mainframe to use modern, cloud-based solutions, the technology for making the transition is still maturing.

Addressing the Skills Gap

A major challenge facing many clients is the shrinking pool of mainframe experts. As long-time professionals retire, the skills vacuum is intensifying, making it hard for businesses to find qualified talent who can manage and maintain their mainframe systems. In some businesses, it's already leading to risks and inefficiencies.

CPT is committed to providing the guidance and expertise to help our clients bridge the gap. We offer training programs and support to help businesses build their in-house capabilities and develop their talent. Our goal is to support businesses in maintaining their mainframe systems effectively while preparing for the future, whether it involves upgrades, lift and shift, or modernizing the mainframe a little at a time.

Where is the Region Headed?

Interestingly, while some companies are quick to avoid the costs associated with moving off the mainframe, this approach might not be sustainable in the long term. Clients are adopting short- to mid-term strategies to stay afloat, but falling behind is a real possibility without a clear long-term vision.

Taking a strategic approach means not only maintaining and modernizing the mainframe but also considering how peripheral systems will integrate with the mainframe now and in the future. It's important to have a holistic view of the entire IT landscape and create a sustainable plan that takes the whole picture into account – and moving to the cloud, whether it happens in months or decades from now, is looking inevitable.

But having a plan is only half the battle, and finding success requires decisive action. Not only do businesses need to actively pursue their IT goals, but your plans should also be flexible enough to adapt to future changes. All too often we've seen procrastination lead to missed opportunities and increased costs, so we're urging businesses to start taking steps now, whether it's by modernizing or simply planning next steps.

To wrap things up, our trip to Canada was eye-opening and gave us valuable insights into how businesses are approaching the mainframe today and what they're planning for the future - and we're excited to help them find their way along the journey.