BT Group extends contract with Kyndryl to move legacy mainframe apps to the cloud

BT Group signed a 10-year deal with Kyndryl to move part of its traditional copper infrastructure-based business to the cloud.

The project was described as “complex”, with critical applications (shutdowns of which would lead to major operational disruption) being migrated from BT Group’s mainframes to the cloud so that they could be managed “in a modern way”. increase.

BT Group said the move is expected to deliver cost benefits worth £17m annually by 2026.

Most of the savings are expected to come from areas such as reduced maintenance and mainframe operating costs, and up to 70% reduction in energy consumption.

The project also aims to open up data insights for businesses, ensuring that some legacy applications are decommissioned, refactored, or rehosted.

In line with the group’s goal of relying on less than 500 strategic systems by 2027, obsolete apps will be phased out.

Some refactored apps add functionality to an existing system and deprecate the app itself. A rehosted app is “repackaged” so that it can be hosted in the cloud.

Harmeen Mehta, Chief Digital and Innovation Officer at BT Group, said:

“With that in mind, we worked with Kyndryl to find a way to turn traditional mainframes into modern digital apps and run them at a fraction of the cost.”

In addition to reducing costs and increasing levels of insight across the business, BT Group also expects to improve the customer experience, such as assisting customers during their transition from copper networks to fiber.

The group says further leveraging of an API-driven model for digitally managing mainframe infrastructure could open up greater automation capabilities across a wider range of systems.

Petra Goude, Kyndryl’s Core Enterprise and zCloud Global Practice Lead, said:

“Moving from the mainframe to the cloud will help extend the usefulness and lifespan of these applications in a modern, microservices-driven, cloud-centric way to unlock intelligent data insights.

We are excited to leverage our deep knowledge, partner ecosystem, and industry-leading community of experts to make this transformation happen. ”

BT Group originally signed a five-year deal with IBM to manage its mainframe infrastructure in 2020.

After IBM spun off its infrastructure services business in 2021, the business unit was named Kyndryl and, of course, continued to manage BT Group’s mainframes under its new brand.

Today’s announcement extends an existing partnership through 2030.