Mainframe computers used to occupy more space and the cooling systems required a cool environment. But, now a days mainframe computers can be placed in smaller space. Even though personal computers are more in demand, mainframes are still being manufactured for businesses/firms, which need them to process critical applications. Mainframes play an important role in major businesses – E-commerce and E-Businesses, health care industry, military purposes, academics and scientific researches.
- Major businesses/firms that do their business online use mainframes to perform business tasks and transfer money over the web. Companies like Fortune 500 companies, public and private sector businesses, stock exchanges, banking and financial institutions, insurance companies use mainframes to keep their data secure and transfer data online. Mainframes perform such business data-processing as processing payrolls of employees, tracking inventory controls, customer orders and requests, and financial transactions at a reliable speed and the like.
- In health care industry, doctors use these computers to know everything about schedule of surgeries, prescriptions, insurance benefits, and condition of patients in order to speed up the treatment process of a patient.
- Educational institutions widely use mainframes to store critical data like storing student ranks/grades, marks etc.
- Even all sections of armed forces use mainframes for implementing new technologies in battling and maintaining security international borders. To communicate in ships, planes, and in different places, to know the weather details, tracking geological locations and positions mainframes are used by these people.
In simpler words, mainframes are used for processing critical applications by large-scale companies because of reliable speed features.