Case Study

Strengthening Mainframe Resilience with Disaster Recovery Transformation

Industry

Banking and Financial Services

Location

USA

Our Contributions

Mainframe Modernization, Disaster Recovery Transformation, MFaaS Enablement

Technologies

IBM z-Series, COBOL, CICS, DB2

Coforge partnered with a leading U.S.-based financial services organization to modernize its mainframe environment and strengthen disaster recovery readiness for mission-critical workloads. The client’s legacy infrastructure and fragmented recovery mechanisms posed increasing risks to operational resilience and business continuity.

By adopting a transformation-led Mainframe-as-a-Service (MFaaS) model, Coforge enabled a scalable, resilient, and future-ready platform. The solution embedded disaster recovery as a core operational capability while ensuring uninterrupted support for critical legacy workloads.

Transformation

Phase 1

Infrastructure assessment and resilience strategy design

Phase 2

MFaaS operating model implementation

Phase 3

Disaster recovery enablement and platform modernization

Phase 4

Continuous optimization and capacity scaling

Drag

The Challenge

The client’s mainframe estate, built on IBM z-series systems, supported critical workloads but faced challenges due to aging infrastructure and inflexible legacy contracts. Fragmented disaster recovery mechanisms limited resilience and increased operational risk.

Additionally, the lack of a unified and scalable recovery framework made it difficult to ensure business continuity across mission-critical applications.

The organization required a modernization approach that could enhance resilience, improve operational efficiency, and future-proof the platform while maintaining uninterrupted operations for core systems.

Our Approach

Mainframe-as-a-Service (MFaaS) Transformation

Transitioned from a traditional contract model to a centralized, partner-enabled MFaaS framework, improving flexibility and commercial sustainability.

Resilient Disaster Recovery Architecture

Implemented geographically separated recovery sites with replicated storage and governed recovery objectives, embedding resilience into daily operations.

Platform Modernization & Capacity Scaling

Modernized the mainframe foundation and expanded capacity to align with business growth and evolving workload demands.

Legacy Workload Continuity

Ensured uninterrupted support for critical applications running on COBOL, CICS, and DB2, maintaining operational stability during transformation.

Operational Optimization & Monitoring

Enabled proactive monitoring and performance optimization to improve system stability and reliability.

Partner / Technology Ecosystem

IBM z-Series Mainframe
COBOL, CICS, DB2
Disaster Recovery & Replication Frameworks

Impact to Date

-40%

Reduction in Batch Processing Cycle Time

Improved

Platform Stability & Reliability

Enhanced

Disaster Recovery Readiness

Scalable

MFaaS Operating Model