IBM's mainframe business is cyclical: buyers spend up big when new machines debut. The current generation of z16 generation mainframes launched in 2022, meaning this cycle is winding down.

IBM zSystems grew 9 percent year over year. IBM’s z16 revenue is “well ahead of prior cycles after six quarters of availability,” Kavanaugh said. He cited growing enterprise workload ...

This isn't too surprising. The current generation z16 mainframe is deep into its product cycle, and while IBM hasn't announced its successor, it has detailed the new Telum II processor that will ...

"IBM's last mainframe cycle launched in 2Q22 with z16," said Stifel analysts, led by David Grossman, in an investor note.

IBM’s mainframe upgrade cycle drew to a juddering halt in the third quarter as sales of the z16, introduced in 2022, fell by 19%. Overall, IBM revenues inched ahead by just 1% to $14.97 billion ...

Infrastructure Support was down four percent. IBM's CEO and chairman, Arvind Krishna, put some of this down to "product cycle dynamics," noting that the z16 remains ahead of previous cycles. Krishna ...