As AI accelerates across every layer of the enterprise, the mainframe is undergoing its most consequential redesign in decades \u2014 and hybrid AI infrastructure has found itself decidedly at the center of conversations.<\/p>\n
IBM Corp. has spent years embedding AI directly into its hardware platforms, positioning IBM Z \u2014its flagship line of mainframe computers \u2014 and its storage portfolio as the foundational layer for hybrid AI workloads that enterprises cannot afford to move to the public cloud. The combination of sovereign data requirements, agentic AI adoption and a decade of sustained Z growth has now placed IBM infrastructure in an unlikely position: one of the fastest-growing bets in enterprise technology, according to Ric Lewis<\/a> (pictured), senior vice president of the Infrastructure Division at IBM.<\/p>\n \u201cIt couldn\u2019t be more fun right now,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cThe industry is as exciting as I\u2019ve ever seen it in my entire career. Every boardroom is having a conversation around, \u2018What are you doing on AI? What\u2019s the plan? What\u2019s the infrastructure that underlies that?\u2019 The conversation has changed radically in just the last 18 months with agentic and how quickly that\u2019s changing everything.\u201d<\/p>\n Lewis spoke with theCUBE\u2019s\u00a0John Furrier<\/a> and Dave Vellante<\/a> at the Think 2026<\/a>\u00a0event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media\u2019s livestreaming studio. They discussed IBM\u2019s hybrid AI infrastructure strategy, the decade-long growth of the Z platform and the strategic collaboration with Arm Holdings PLC. (* Disclosure below.)<\/p>\n IBM Z and hybrid AI infrastructure as the enterprise backbone<\/p>\n IBM\u2019s Z platform has long been the backbone of the world\u2019s most sensitive transaction processing, and the AI era is extending \u2014 not ending \u2014 that relevance. The company reported a 48% jump in mainframe revenue<\/a> from its latest product line in mid-April, a figure that can be attributed directly to sustained client demand for AI-ready, on-premises infrastructure, according to Lewis. Z has grown 20 to 30% program to program for nearly a decade, driven by clients bringing new workloads onto the platform, he added.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have AI built on the chip. We have AI cards that we plug in the systems that we started shipping last year,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cAll of that is resonating. The conversation we\u2019re constantly having with clients is, \u2018We\u2019d like to bring more workloads to the platform, but we don\u2019t want to have them just be the ones that run on Z OS.\u2019 As long as it\u2019s performant, we\u2019d love to [put alternatives] on there. We\u2019re making that a reality and designing it.\u201d<\/p>\n That client feedback has been the direct origin of IBM\u2019s collaboration with Arm<\/a>\u00a0to bring Arm-ecosystem applications natively into the next generation of Z systems \u2014 without emulation. The move is designed to let enterprises consolidate Arm-native workloads onto a single Z platform with the security, reliability and AI processing already built into IBM\u2019s silicon, Lewis explained. The business case is already established by Linux app stacking on Z, he added.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re integrating Arm technology directly, natively, into our chips,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cIt\u2019ll still run all the same Z apps the same way it does \u2014 it\u2019ll just be able to execute Arm as well.\u201d<\/p>\n The hybrid AI infrastructure imperative also shapes the broader landscape. AI has made hybrid computing an inevitability, because the data enterprises need is distributed across on-premises systems, neoclouds and hyperscalers, Lewis explained. IBM\u2019s response has been to bring AI capability to the data \u2014 through built-in AI on Z and IBM Power and through storage systems such as IBM Storage Fusion that simplify data pipelines \u2014 rather than requiring enterprises to move data to reach AI.<\/p>\n \u201cSovereignty is our home court,\u201d he said. \u201cWe do 70% of the world\u2019s financial transactions. The most important data that travels around the world is in our Z systems. Those are sovereign systems. They\u2019re on-prem, they\u2019re in environments, they\u2019re in banks, they\u2019re in financial institutions, they\u2019re in insurance. Sovereign is our home court and we know this space extremely well.\u201d<\/p>\n The client-first philosophy extends to how IBM originally justified embedding AI into the Z processor \u2014 a bet made well before the ChatGPT moment. Financial clients told IBM they needed inline fraud detection<\/a> at the point of transaction, not a report seven days later. That demand forced IBM to get aggressive about silicon-level AI before the broader industry caught up. The result is the model IBM intends to carry forward as inferencing specialization becomes the defining infrastructure challenge, according to Lewis.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had our financial clients coming to us saying, \u2018Fraud is a billion-dollar industry, it\u2019s a major problem. We need a way to be able to do that in line in the system,’\u201d Lewis said. \u201cThey don\u2019t invent for you \u2014 the clients \u2014 but if you listen really closely, they\u2019ll tell you kind of what they really need and it forces you to get to that next place.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE\u2019s and theCUBE\u2019s coverage of the Think 2026<\/a> event:<\/p>\n (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Think 2026 event. Neither IBM, the sponsor of theCUBE\u2019s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)<\/p>\n Photo: SiliconANGLE<\/p>\n Support our mission to keep content open and free by engaging with theCUBE community. Join theCUBE\u2019s Alumni Trust Network, where technology leaders connect, share intelligence and create opportunities.<\/p>\n 15M+ viewers of theCUBE videos, powering conversations across AI, cloud, cybersecurity and more About SiliconANGLE Media<\/p>\n SiliconANGLE Media is a recognized leader in digital media innovation, uniting breakthrough technology, strategic insights and real-time audience engagement. As the parent company of SiliconANGLE<\/a>, theCUBE Network<\/a>, theCUBE Research<\/a>, CUBE365<\/a>, theCUBE AI<\/a> and theCUBE SuperStudios \u2014 with flagship locations in Silicon Valley and the New York Stock Exchange \u2014 SiliconANGLE Media operates at the intersection of media, technology and AI.<\/p>\n Founded by tech visionaries John Furrier and Dave Vellante, SiliconANGLE Media has built a dynamic ecosystem of industry-leading digital media brands that reach 15+ million elite tech professionals. Our new proprietary theCUBE AI Video Cloud is breaking ground in audience interaction, leveraging theCUBEai.com neural network to help technology companies make data-driven decisions and stay at the forefront of industry conversations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As AI accelerates across every layer of the enterprise, the mainframe is undergoing its most consequential redesign in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[179,7493,27838,11153,396],"class_list":["post-45908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-agentic-ai","tag-agentic-ai","tag-agentic-artificial-intelligence","tag-ibm-zs-decade-of-growth-finds-new-footing-as-hybrid-ai-infrastructure-becomes-cornerstone","tag-jonathan-anthony","tag-siliconangle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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