Some CIOs in Australia and New Zealand have estimated that it could cost an average of A$10 million or more to update their mainframe applications, according to a new study. The survey which was conducted by Vanson Bourne for Micro Focus in November 2013 interviewed 35 CIOs in Australia and 15 in New Zealand. It was part of a study of nine countries which included the United Kingdom, United States, Brazil, Hong Kong and Singapore. A total of 590 CIOs were surveyed. According to the survey, 48 per cent of A/NZ CIOs said it would take an average of $10 million to update their mainframe applications while 80 per cent said that they find it difficult justifying the expense of mainframe applications due to mounting IT debt. Forty eight per cent of A/NZ respondents estimate that their organisation will be using mainframe applications for at least another 10 years. Westpac to stick with mainframes CIO Insights: Legacy systems – love them or leave them? Changing times in mainframe market for IBM Australia Adding to the problem of maintaining mainframe applications is the skills shortage. Seventy six per cent of A/NZ CIOs said it was proving difficult to find new staff with mainframe skills. In addition, 50 per cent of those surveyed said that they could not keep up with new mainframe compliance legislation because it was ‘highly likely’ that their mainframe expert had retired or left the company. To address the mainframe skills gap, 78 per cent of A/NZ CIOs surveyed said that university students should be learning mainframe programming languages such as COBOL and PL/I. However, according to Vanson Bourne, only 27 per cent of universities around the world have COBOL as part of their core or elective ICT curriculum. Follow CIO Australia on Twitter and Like us on Facebook… Twitter: @CIO_Australia, Facebook: CIO Australia, or take part in the CIO conversation on LinkedIn: CIO Australia Related content brandpost Sponsored by SAP When natural disasters strike Japan, Ōita University’s EDiSON is ready to act With the technology and assistance of SAP and Zynas Corporation, Ōita University built an emergency-response collaboration tool named EDiSON that helps the Japanese island of Kyushu detect and mitigate natural disasters. By Michael Kure, SAP Contributor Dec 07, 2023 5 mins Digital Transformation brandpost Sponsored by BMC BMC on BMC: How the company enables IT observability with BMC Helix and AIOps The goals: transform an ocean of data and ultimately provide a stellar user experience and maximum value. By Jeff Miller Dec 07, 2023 3 mins IT Leadership brandpost Sponsored by BMC The data deluge: The need for IT Operations observability and strategies for achieving it BMC Helix brings thousands of data points together to create a holistic view of the health of a service. By Jeff Miller Dec 07, 2023 4 mins IT Leadership how-to How to create an effective business continuity plan A business continuity plan outlines procedures and instructions an organization must follow in the face of disaster, whether fire, flood, or cyberattack. Here’s how to create a plan that gives your business the best chance of surviving such an By Mary K. Pratt, Ed Tittel, Kim Lindros Dec 07, 2023 11 mins Small and Medium Business IT Skills Backup and Recovery Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe