Mainframe TCO

Understand your total cost of ownership and accurate utilization of mainframe environments

Mainframe TCO Hero angled - Mainframe TCO - Apptio

A clear, defensible view of mainframe costs

Mainframes account for 72% of the world’s transaction workloads, but enterprises can struggle with opaque costs, complex chargeback models, and limited visibility into cost drivers.

IT Finance and IT leaders need to be able to understand mainframe total cost of ownership (TCO) to have an accurate picture of mainframe environments. Mainframe costs span hardware, software, licensing, labor, storage, and networking, and are tracked through usage-based metrics that are precise for IT but often meaningless to business stakeholders.

Without visibility into what’s driving these costs, or how they relate to specific business units, organizations are left with limited ability to accurately allocate them or understand the actual costs for valued business transactions.

A 360° view of mainframe economics

IBM Apptio’s Mainframe TCO solution helps you understand your total cost of ownership, accurate usage, & utilization of mainframe environments. It supports a variety of performance data sources, but when paired with IBM Z IntelliMagic Vision for z/OS performance management software, it unlocks deeper insights and a 360° view of mainframe economics. It surfaces detailed insights across total costs, consumption trends, and cost allocation, helping organizations manage mainframe spend and better inform modernization decisions.

Mainframe Cost Transparency Pie Chart - Mainframe TCO - Apptio

Cost Transparency & Allocation

Get a full view of mainframe TCO with cost per MSU, GCP/zIIP usage, and spend by application or workload to support accurate allocation and reporting.
Mainframe Unit Rates Column Chart - Mainframe TCO - Apptio

Unit Rates & Consumption Insights

Track GCP and zIIP MSU trends to spot underutilization, anomalies, and patterns (spikes, seasonality, growth).
Mainframe Showback Chargeback Bar chart - Mainframe TCO - Apptio

Showback & Chargeback

Allocate costs by actual usage and provide clear, defensible views to business units.
Mainframe Workload Efficiency line chart - Mainframe TCO - Apptio

Workload Efficiency

See what’s running on mainframe, identify redundant workloads, and reallocate or retire them to improve efficiency.

Complete visibility into mainframe costs and usage

Mainframes continue to play a central role in powering the world’s most critical business operations, from financial transactions to core enterprise applications. Find out how to get complete visibility into mainframe costs and usage with the new IBM Apptio Mainframe TCO solution. Transform cost and usage data into insights for precise allocation, better utilization, and smart modernization.

Are you maximizing the value of your mainframe?

Mainframes remain integral to enterprise operations and are best for modern workloads. As your organization continues to rely on mainframes for critical workloads, do you have full visibility into its cost and consumption, across business units, applications, and modernization efforts?

Cross-organizational collaboration

Mainframe TCO insights provide value across multiple stakeholder groups, from executives and finance to IT operations and application owners.

Executives and IT leadership

Need visibility into total IT costs, alignment with digital transformation, and evaluate against peer/industry benchmarking metrics.

IT Finance

Allocate costs effectively across business units, require granular cost transparency to support decision making, improve forecasts

IT operations and enterprise architects

Need to assess technical debt, maximize mainframe usage, and make decisions on workload modernization

Infrastructure and application owners

Depend on accurate cost allocations and business transaction volumes to understand and determine the value of mainframe applications to their org.