After doing some thinking, I suddenly realized (ok, I knew) how pervasive the mainframes from IBM are within the global economy. Everything (ok, almost) flows in and out of "the" mainframes. Be it; banks, exchanges, insurers, planes, trains, automobiles and everything else. We can surround it with cool things from cloud computing and whatnot, but, it will always be in the pathway to deliver the system of truth or record of data and information.
This sounds so lucrative for IBM. It is better than sliced bread after all.
But; peeling back the onion; the holy grail to mainframe systems of record is to buy (or have bought) mainframes (hardware), operating systems (software) and subsystems (more software) that enable transactions against data and information. All of this from IBM. There is no choice. Obviously, if an enterprise was lucky to be born after the mainframes, such "buying" may not happen, directly. But, ultimately such enterprises will flow in and out of these mainframes to complete their business processes. Such flows indirectly "buy" these mainframes since exchange of goods, services and money ultimately end up flowing across enterprises with mainframes.
There is a slight problem with such an arrangement. Basically, a bundling of mainframe hardware, operating systems and subsystems by IBM. There is no choice (except a few subsystems, mostly being squashed). This is indeed the perfect monopoly. This monopoly is not just product and services but every single bit of information within the economy. It is beyond a monopoly.
We talk about banks being too big to fail. Well, the banks and everything else are ultimately tightly coupled with such an arrangement. Making the IBM machine too big to fail. They are indeed the controlling force behind the global economy by virtue of their monopoly on the flow of information and money starting at the top with the Federal Reserve down to the small business swiping a plastic card for a main street consumer to pay for food, healthcare, splurging and whatnot.
To unplug the mainframes is indeed virtually impossible. Unbundling such machines from such a monoply can only be done via government policy, be it the US, the EU or the global world where such expansion by IBM will complete the stranglehold by IBM and the mainframes.
What is amazing is that such a situation is driven by IBM with a purpose driven by human beings making a living within this machine. The machine is now in control.