Why Mainframe Modernization No Longer Optional: A 2025 Strategic Imperative for CIOs and CXOs

As 2025 unfolds, businesses stand at a strategic turning point, a space where they must make firm IT transformation calls. Mainframes, the supporter of corporate computing in the past, now increasingly function as bottlenecks for innovation. The reality is obvious: Mainframe Modernization can no longer be a nicety or a “nice-to-have.” It’s a strategic necessity for visionary leaders who wish to empower corporate agility, operational effectiveness, and competitive differentiation.

The Burden of Legacy: Why the Clock Is Ticking

Though mainframes have held their businesses reliably for decades, the weight of legacy is quickly gaining on them now. The cost of licensing, maintenance of infrastructures, and limited pools of available talent are mounting operation risks and costs. Gartner reports that 71% of businesses intend to modernize or move off mainframes in the next three years, a movement followed by industry titans like GM, Lufthansa, and the State of New Jersey.

For CIO Strategy 2025, the question isn’t whether or not you modernize, it’s how quickly you can do it without impacting core business operations.

Strategic Advantages of Mainframe Modernization

Mainframe Modernization serves as a driver of enterprise transformation. InterraIT’s modernization platforms are designed to achieve concrete business benefits:

• Lowered Operational Expenditures: Minimized licensing and infrastructure overhead
• Increased Agility: Modular and API-based architecture for quicker innovation
• Enhanced Accessibility of Talents: Utilizing contemporary skill sets (Java, cloud, APIs)
• Improved Analytics: Make legacy data available for real-time decision-making
• Increased Speed of Deployment: DevOps-enabled pipelines, CI/CD support
• Future-Proof Architecture: Scalability, Security, and Integration with Digital Ecosystems

Two Tested Approaches to Legacy Modernization

At InterraIT, we recognize that each organization has specific transformational objectives. That’s why our Legacy Modernization Services present two strategic approaches:

1. Mainframe Modernization on Cloud

Suitable for: Quick ROI without significant business interruption

• • Strategy: Rehost COBOL applications and supporting infrastructure (JCL, CICS, VSAM) on cloud platforms such as AWS or Azure
  • Tools Utilized: Micro Focus, Heirloom, Raincode
  • Cloud Mapping: COBOL → COBOL Runtime; DB2 → Managed DB2 on Cloud; JCL → Workflow Orchestration (AWS Step Functions, Azure Logic Apps)

Pros

• • Lower risk and quick deployment
  • Continuous availability
  • Cost-effective cloud infrastructure

Cons

• • Has a monolithic structure
  • Limited DevOps and microservice support

2. Java + UDB Refactor

Best suited for: Long-term agility and complete Digital Transformation for CXOs

• • Strategy: Convert COBOL to Java, reengineer databases to UDB, and build newer architecture pieces on top of Spring and REST APIs
  • Key Components: Java Spring, JPA/Hibernate, OAuth2/JWT, Kafka, Spring Batch
  • Integration: RESTful APIs, message queues and cloud-native services

Pros

• • Maintain a clean modular codebase
  • High maintainability
  • Facilitates containerized DevOps pipeline

Cons

• • Increased initial cost and complexity
  • Needs extensive testing and side-by-side runs

The Cost of Inaction

Though modernization involves investment, inaction comes at a much higher cost. Aging buildings produce:

• Increased downtime and performance risks
• Increased compliance and security liabilities
• Lack of support for contemporary apps, analytics, and integrations
• Declining agility in keeping pace with market trends

Too much delay would mean lagging behind those who have already adopt IT Transformation for Enterprise solutions.

Real-World Outcomes & Recommendations

Companies that adopted InterraIT’s Mainframe Modernization solutions have seen:

• Reduction of 40-60% of the operational cost in the initial year
• 2-3x faster deployment pace through DevOps-enabled platforms
• Smooth integration with cloud ecosystems and digital apps
• Better employee experience through contemporary tools and workflows

Recommendation for CIOs & CXOs:

• If your priorities lie in speed and minimal disturbance: Begin with rehosting.
• If you’re targeting long-term agility: Rewrite as Java + UDB.
• If a full digital transformation would be the outcome: Rebuild on Azure-native or AWS-native architecture.

Final Thoughts: A 2025 Strategic Opportunity

Modernization of legacy systems goes beyond being an IT initiative; it’s a business initiative. It aligns IT with corporate priorities, facilitating innovation, agility, and scalability.

For CIOs and CXOs who will guide their organizations toward the digital future, Mainframe Modernization is a key part of any CIO Strategy 2025 success story. The moment for action has now arrived.

Discover InterraIT’s Legacy Modernization Services

Let us assist you through the transition in confidence. Contact us to learn more: Let’s Connect – InterraIT.