Smaller and less expensive PC-based servers are replacing _______ in many business.
Smaller and less expensive PC-based servers are replacing mainframes in many business.
Mainframe computers (colloquially referred to as "big iron") are computers used primarily by large organizations for critical applications; bulk data processing, such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning; and transaction processing.
Currently IBM system z is the primary mainframe. Depending upon the definition, IBM isystem computers are sometimes considered mainframes. Burroughs, Fujitsu, Hitachi, and Compaq (DEC) make or made computers considered mainframes. The most prevalent current example is the IBM Z mainframe.
z/OS, a widely used mainframe operating system, is designed to offer a stable, secure, and continuously available environment for applications running on the mainframe. As a control program, z/Virtual Machine (z/VM) is a hypervisor because it runs other operating systems in the virtual machines it creates.