CA Technologies has released the results of an "independent" survey entitled Mainframe: The Ultimate Cloud Platform? in which More than 300 IT decision makers in 10 European countries responded.

According to CA, 81 percent of IT organizations who responded believe the mainframe is an essential component of their cloud computing strategy.The study also concluded that 66 percent of organiaztions running on mainframes face workforce sustainability issues in keeping mission critical systems staffed. In addition, 75 percent of respondents believe that the mainframe will have a role in any cloud computing initiative and 54 percent agreed that cloud computing will sustain or extend the mainframe environment.

Perhaps not quite the "independent" analysis that CA is describing, the company has attempted to use these results to justify a claim that the mainframe has agility to perform in new IT models such as cloud computing, and on-going durability as a critical data center platform for decades to come.

"Ongoing, practical innovation will be required to ensure that the mainframe can always be an effective and integral part of an evolving IT infrastructure," said Dayton Semerjian, general manager of mainframe at CA Technologies. "CA Technologies is addressing these needs through its revolutionary mainframe management strategy, Mainframe 2.0," added Semerjian. "Our focus is on helping organizations control costs as well as increase the productivity of the platform and the workforce that operates it. Simultaneously, we aim to attract and enable the next generation of mainframe technologist through the simplification, automation, and modernization of mainframe management."

Additional survey results include:

• 94 percent agreed that mainframe is an important concept to their company's IT strategy.
• 82 percent of respondents reported that they intend to use the mainframe in the future either as much or more than today.
• Top reasons why the mainframe is considered a valuable organisational asset included reliability (51 percent), followed by server consolidation to the mainframe (46 percent) and green IT (40 percent).

As part of the response to these challenges, CA says it is piloting a 'Mainframe Academy' as the first step in launching a global initiative to help a new generation of employees to become effective on the mainframe.