Don't Be Afraid of the Mainframe

The missing introduction to mainframe computing for modern IT leaders and professionals. 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. When decisions arise-invest? modernize? migrate? integrate?-you lack the fundamental understanding to evaluate options intelligently. This book fixes that. Written for IT leaders and professionals who need to understand mainframes without becoming specialists, this provides the missing foundation: clear, vendor-neutral guidance on what mainframes are, how they work, and how they integrate with modern applications and cloud platforms. What you'll learn:Understanding the platform - What makes mainframes different? Modern capabilities like AI, containers, and DevOps. How integration with cloud-native applications actually works. Evaluating options - Modernize, migrate, integrate, or hybrid approach? Each has trade-offs. This book helps you evaluate based on business value. Managing effectively - How costs work. How to build talent pipelines. How cloud strategy and application integration apply. What makes this different: Vendor-neutral. Business-focused, not just technical. Covers current technology: AI accelerators, quantum-safe encryption, containerization, REST APIs, and integration patterns. Who this is for: CIOs, IT executives, enterprise architects, IT professionals, CFOs, and consultants. You don't need mainframe experience-this is the introduction you never received. The platform isn't the problem. The knowledge gap is. This book closes that gap. Then you can decide.