The mainframe powers large – and vital – elements of the global economy. Mainframe DevOps and new innovations offer the potential for delivering greater value, faster. Yet market data suggests significant challenges in achieving it. What can be done to beat the bottlenecks in mainframe delivery? 

The Mainframe: Powering the Future of Enterprise Computing

The mainframe market comprises thousands of well-known, successful organizations and institutions worldwide. These organizations span the financial services, insurance, retail, logistics, transportation, and government sectors, among others, serving millions of clients. Their IT infrastructure is among the most active, processing billions of transactions as they support vast areas of the global economy. 

The core business systems of these organizations rely on the IBM mainframe, which is considered by reputation to be the most powerful and resilient machine available. 

To learn more about the mainframe market and the opportunities—and challenges—it faces today, PopUp Mainframe recently commissioned a survey, conducted in 2025 by market researchers Vanson Bourne.

The survey revealed overwhelming loyalty to the mainframe platform and a positive outlook regarding the opportunities Linux provides on the mainframe by using the specialist processor IFL. The market responses showed a clear commitment to the mainframe, now and into the future:

• 98% rely on the IBM mainframe to run their organizations
• 94% confirm their potential to leverage additional workload capacity on specialist/Linux environments on Z
• 97% seek to increase the use of specialist mainframe processors

The Challenges Ahead

The same survey, though, highlighted areas of concern. Organizations face significant operational challenges across the mainframe delivery process. Nearly all respondents encountered difficulties during development and testing phases using the mainframe. Concerns over the availability of mainframe environments were widespread, while a third of respondents required four or more teams to complete mainframe deliveries. Additionally, 80% cited staffing and tooling limitations as hindrances to business operations.

The research further emphasized five strategic areas where the mainframe environment struggles to meet aspirations: cost efficiency, flexibility, speed of delivery, risk management, and sustainability. More than 80% of respondents indicated that improvements were needed in each area.

Addressing the Bottlenecks 

PopUp Mainframe offers an innovative solution to these bottlenecks and their strategic impacts. It’s instantly available mainframe environment supports development, testing, training, and other typical mainframe activities, accessible with the click of a button. Functionally equivalent to mainframe z/OS, it runs on the customer’s choice of hardware, enhancing availability and usefulness.

PopUp addresses key bottlenecks head-on: in an ideal mainframe scenario, everyone involved in the SDLC—analysts, programmers, QA staff, business users, administrators, DBAs—logs into the mainframe to perform their tasks in sequence. However, in reality operational complexities and restrictions often hamper innovation and impede mainframe delivery. PopUp Mainframe addresses these complexities and provides instantaneous resources for those who need them by enabling dev, test, and training activities in a compatible, virtual mainframe environment.

Cornerstone Capabilities

PopUp Mainframe ensures compatibility with the mainframe z/OS environment it replicates. Key product highlights include:

• Integration with mainframe environments and tools, including IBM, BMC, third-party, and open-source DevOps tools.
• Full compatibility with z/OS applications.
• Support for data compliance and regulation using advanced masking technology, with the option to keep data on the mainframe.
• Easy access and availability, with environments up and running in minutes, supporting IT sustainability goals.
• Universal usability, accommodating both ISPF access and GUI IDE tools simultaneously.

PopUp Mainframe acts as a virtual mainframe environment, designed to support each organization’s unique selection of tooling for mainframe application delivery processes. To do so, the product will integrate with a wide variety of popular mainframe toolchain elements. For example, PopUp Mainframe supports mainframe DevOps setups using VS Code or IDZ as the developer IDE, and open-source tools like Galasa and COBOL Check for unit testing, with orchestration tools such as GitHub managing these processes. 

Fully flexible and scalable, the solution allows organizations to deploy as many PopUp Mainframe instances as needed. Two editions of the PopUp Mainframe product are available: Z edition (Linux on Z or LinuxOne installation) and X edition (x86 on premise or cloud installation).

Revolutionary Results

The opportunity for improvement by using PopUp Mainframe is both instantaneous and significant: one client demonstrated the solution’s efficacy by completing a POC in a single afternoon. Another client significantly improved delivery speed by several hundred percent. Other observed outcomes show PopUp Mainframe has helped clients meet several strategic goals:

• Accelerate development and testing while protecting production MIPS.
• Initiate development, testing, training, and R&D projects flexibly and quickly.
• Quadruple mainframe deliveries through efficient resource usage.
• Ensure data compliance in mainframe testing by keeping data on Z.
• Enhance sustainability and reduce emissions by deactivating unused environments.

Futurum Research Perspective

“Hosting critical time- and availability-sensitive business functionality on the mainframe remains a vital part of IT in the enterprise and much of the public sector,” said Guy Currier, Analyst, The Futurum Group. “But change management on the mainframe can be slow and inefficient, especially as business complexity and regulatory pressures increase. Innovative technologies such as PopUp Mainframe offer mainframe teams opportunities to accelerate the delivery velocity of their business-critical systems.” 

Learn More

Watch our recent DevOps.com webinar on demand to learn more about this topic. We will also be presenting at the forthcoming Tech Field Day Extra at SHARE Cleveland 2025 on August 19-20. 

For further information, datasheets, and release highlights, visit the PopUp Mainframe website.