Episode 244: IBM’s Likhit Wagle on modernizing mainframes

Waters Wavelength

This week, we have a return guest on the podcast. Likhit Wagle, general manager of global banking and financial markets at IBM, joins Tony to discuss mainframe modernization and its importance, particularly since it will be a while before banks put a substantial portion of their mission-critical workloads onto the public cloud. 5:00 –Wagle joins the podcast and details why it’s necessary to consider mainframe modernization efforts. 8:30 – He says banks need to prioritize which applications should be modernized and rationalized. 10:00 – It will take some time before banks put a substantial chunk of particularly mission-critical workloads onto the public cloud. 11:00 – Firms want to be cloud native. Why is it important to modernize mainframes if the end goal is to move away from them? 15:00 – Wagle says the winning strategy is a hybrid strategy—public, private, on-prem. 16:30 – Then, he walks through IBM’s latest z15 mainframe, and the new version, which will come out in early 2022. 18:00 – Where do mainframes fit into the AI and analytics ecosystem that banks and asset managers want to leverage? 22:30 – Will there be an even split between public cloud, private cloud and mainframe? 25:00 – Then, they discuss how quantum computing impacts the idea of mainframes, public and private cloud. 28:30 – More banks are preferring buy versus build. Does that software sit on the public cloud?