BT will migrate mainframe applications to the cloud with Kyndryl
BT is expanding its existing partnership with IT infrastructure services provider Kyndryl, to move mainframe applications – which serve its legacy copper business and consumer broadband products – to the cloud.
As part of the project, BT’s digital unit is set to move critical legacy applications that cannot be shut down in the short term to Kyndryl’s zCloud environment, enabling more agile operation of its copper broadband infrastructure as a result.
Kyndryl, which currently runs BT Group’s mainframe fleet, wants to speed up its work to reduce costs and unlock data insights into these key applications.
Some applications are planned for either retirement (contributing to BT’s aim to reduce strategic systems to less than 500 by 2027); conversion to the company’s existing strategic systems and architecture; or revert to operate in a cloud environment.
“We like to think outside the box to solve complex problems – such as how to move off mainframes given the prohibitive increase in legacy infrastructure costs – without rewriting decades-old applications,” said Harmeen Mehta, head of digitization and innovation at BT Group.
“With that mindset, working with Kyndryl, we figured out how to turn legacy mainframes into modern digital apps and run them at a fraction of the cost.”
Petra Goude, global practice leader, core business and zCloud at Kyndryl, commented: “It’s exciting to be working with BT Group on such an ambitious and critical programme.
“Migration from mainframe to cloud extends the utility and lifespan of these applications in a modern, microservices-led, cloud-centric way and helps unlock intelligent data insights.
“We are excited to draw on our deep knowledge, ecosystem of partners and community of industry-leading experts to help deliver this transformation.”
Benefits of cloud migration
Moving to the cloud will allow the development of application programming interfaces (APIs) and microservices capabilities to help with integration across companies, as well as help drive automation, while reducing costs.
From here, applications will be programmed to support BT’s ‘AIOps’ self-healing IT estate model, reducing the risk of downtime and accelerating and automating fixes, along with making the customer experience more intuitive.
Through this migration, the British telecoms company is aiming for annual savings of over £17 million and a 70 percent reduction in energy consumption by 2026.
As customers are supported with the migration to modern fiber services, the older copper networks are planned to be retired in the coming years.
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