After three years and $1.2 billion in R&D expenses, IBM unveiled a new line of mainframe computers - the z9 - that is "not only twice as powerful as its predecessor but also intended to make it easier for corporations to encrypt vast amounts of customer information and to bundle the workloads of many smaller computers onto an IBM mainframe." Mainframes represent only a small percentage of revenues these days for IBM, but are an important way to land follow-on consulting work and sell other products and services. Whatever you've heard, the mainframe computer is alive and well, says an industry analyst:

"IBM is doing what it needs to do, which is to continue to invest in the mainframe to take on new workloads, so it's clear it is not an old technology and that the mainframe is not dead,"

InfoWorld has more on the debut of the z9 mainframe line in New York, where IBM executives emphasized three key themes: openness, virtualization and collaboration.