Don’t Be Afraid of the Mainframe

Mainframes process 70% of the world's transactions and deliver 99.999% uptime. Yet most IT executives have never received a proper introduction to this critical infrastructure. Instead, you get myths, jargon, and vendor pitches. This book fixes that. Written for IT leaders and professionals who need to understand mainframes without becoming specialists, it provides the missing foundation: clear, vendor-neutral guidance on what mainframes are, how they work, and how they fit into modern IT landscapes. What you'll learn: What makes mainframes different — and what modern capabilities like AI, containers, and DevOps look like on the platform How to evaluate options: modernize, migrate, integrate, or hybrid — based on business value, not vendor advice How costs work, how to build talent pipelines, and how cloud and application integration apply Vendor-neutral. Business-focused. Covers current technology: AI accelerators, quantum-safe encryption, containerization, REST APIs, and integration patterns. For CIOs, IT executives, enterprise architects, IT professionals, CFOs, and consultants. No mainframe experience required. The platform isn't the problem. The knowledge gap is.