research
The mainframe exit,
documented.
Strategy, cost anatomy, failure patterns, vendor matchups — and the technical foundations underneath the platform. Everything we know, written down and left open.
17 pieces · ungated · no email walls · cite freely
showing 17 of 17
prefer it printable? the downloads shelf →The State of Mainframe Modernization 2026
The annual report on the estate, the exits, and the year ahead. A taste is open; the full edition arrives by request.
The Modernization Lexicon
The vocabulary of the field — 16 canonical definitions, kept current, quotable with attribution.
Mainframe Modernization on One Page
The whole field on a single sheet — the 7 Rs, the cost meter, the failure patterns, the evidence standard. Print it, pin it, pass it on.
Application Rationalization on One Page
The fundamentals behind Palm 360: scoring an estate by value, risk, and effort — and retiring what earns nothing.
Dependency Mapping on One Page
The fundamentals behind Palm Key: dependencies, data flow, impact analysis, and the dead-code dividend.
Rule Extraction on One Page
The fundamentals behind Palm Ark: deterministic extraction, source lineage, and why repeatability decides audits.
Forward Engineering on One Page
The fundamentals behind Palm Ray: redesign over translation, target-agnostic architecture, and evidence-backed cutovers.
Near-deterministic by design
Why Palm Ark refuses to guess: the framework that makes extraction repeatable, auditable, and safe to sign.
Gazelle — the bespoke model
Up to ~95% business-rule extraction where generic LLMs land ~30% — what a purpose-built model changes, with receipts.
The Exit Doctrine
Rehost, refactor, replatform, rewrite: the 7 Rs collapsed into the three decisions that actually matter.
What leaving the mainframe actually costs
MIPS, MLC, people, parallel-run: the full cost anatomy of staying vs leaving.
The Mainframe Exit Calculator
Your run cost vs your exit cost, modeled in the open.
Why mainframe modernization projects fail
A library of documented failure patterns — and the controls that would have caught each one.
The vendor matrix
Every serious mainframe modernization option, refereed — including the matchups we’re not in.
The RFP Kit
A complete RFP template, 40 hard questions, a PoC scope, and a board deck — no email required.
Can AI convert COBOL?
What LLMs get right, where they hallucinate, and why determinism wins audits.
The ECC 2027 clock
Your S/4HANA program has a mainframe dependency nobody scoped. The deadline doesn’t care.
nothing matches · clear a filter or two
start here
Three ways through the library.
for cios & ctos
- 1 · The Exit Doctrine
- 2 · What an exit costs
- 3 · Run your numbers
- 4 · Request the annual report
forward any of these · no gate, no wall
for enterprise architects
- 1 · Near-deterministic by design
- 2 · Gazelle — the bespoke model
- 3 · PalmBench, in full
- 4 · Get certified on the engines
then join the room · palm neh
new to mainframes
- 1 · The one-page overview
- 2 · Learn the words
- 3 · Can AI convert COBOL?
- 4 · Watch The Mainframe Empire
the field needs you · welcome in
quotable
Numbers you can take to a board.
Copy with the citation attached. Quote us; hold us to it.
~95%
business-rule extraction accuracy on PalmBench — vs ~30% from generic LLMs on the same program.
33–40%
of modernization scope removed before work begins, by Palm Key’s dead-code report.
#2
worldwide in product strength — second only to IBM. MarketsandMarkets, 2026.
Reading is free. So is asking.
When the reading turns into a decision, we scope a paid proof of concept — your code, your perimeter, receipts on the table.