Dive Brief:
- Kyndryl and Microsoft expanded their mainframe modernization partnership, the two companies said in a Thursday announcement. The IT services provider also added RISE with SAP ERP migration services for Azure customers to its portfolio as part of the expanded partnership.
- The move will ease enterprise AI adoption by helping customers modernize core business applications and unlock troves of data stored on mainframe systems, according to Petra Goude, global practice leader for core enterprise and zCloud at Kyndryl.
- “We can help organizations elevate their hybrid IT operating models and enrich core business applications and data with Azure while advancing security, accelerating generative AI deployment and expanding the developer ecosystem using the latest Microsoft Copilot technologies,” Goude said in the announcement.
Dive Insight:
AI is only the latest driver of Kyndryl’s alliance with Microsoft, which dates back to 2021, shortly after Kyndryl was spun off by its former parent company IBM.
Bridging the gap between on-prem IT and the cloud, the cornerstone of digital transformation, was the initial impetus for the partnership. But AI is at the heart of Thursday’s announcements.
Large language models are creatures of the cloud, hungry for the data locked away in mainframe systems, legacy ERPs and core business applications.
The added services include migrating mainframe applications for integrations with Azure OpenAI, Microsoft Copilot and the Azure DevOps platform, as well as with Microsoft’s data governance toolkit and Sentinel security solution, the companies said.
ERP modernization is another pillar of the expanded partnership, as SAP customers face a potential tech talent crunch ahead of a looming 2027 migration deadline.
SAP CEO Christian Klein promised a dedicated technical assistant to every customer that signs on to the RISE with SAP program earlier this year, speaking during a July earnings call. But nearly two-thirds of the estimated 35,000 SAP customers running legacy ERP Central Component systems had not yet initiated migrations midyear, according to Gartner.
Kyndryl began shifting its SAP systems to cloud via the RISE program on Azure last year, Michael Bradshaw, Kyndryl SVP and global practice leader for applications, data and AI, told CIO Dive. The process paved the way for the current migration partnership, he said.
