NTT Data has partnered with IBM to deliver a hybrid cloud service called SimpliZCloud, aimed at financial institutions in India. Based on IBM’s LinuxONE platform, this service is intended to optimize core banking and risk management workloads, offering enhanced performance and reduced costs over traditional x86 servers.

SimpliZCloud is designed to consolidate datacenter resources, promoting sustainability and efficiency. NTT Data envisions this platform to be particularly beneficial for applications in core banking, lending, and risk management, enabling organizations to streamline their operations and manage budgets more effectively.

NTT Data highlights that mainframes, despite being perceived as costly, remain a potent solution for certain applications, with IBM’s latest models showing record sales. Analyst Peter Marston from IDC supports this view, indicating that mainframe applications are expected to continue playing a critical role in enterprise operations, customer engagement, and innovation.

NTT Data India’s CEO, Avinash Joshi, attributes part of the mainframe’s resurgence to the surge in AI and ML applications. Joshi states that SimpliZCloud’s infrastructure will provide superior performance for AI/ML applications, outperforming traditional x86 architectures, and is offered as a fully managed service.

While global expansion plans for SimpliZCloud have not been detailed, NTT Data and IBM’s global reach suggests the potential for broader deployment. As the financial services industry continues to evolve, this collaboration highlights the ongoing relevance of mainframes in supporting critical business applications.