When it comes to dealing with legacy applications, there are no across-the-board answers, says Robert Rosen, president of Share, a Chicago-based IBM mainframe user group. "Where you get into trouble is when you try to force-fit a solution," he says. "Taking the best of both worlds, that's the key."

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Growth inhibitors

Data center managers cited software costs as the largest inhibitor to increasing their use of mainframes.

Hardware costs -- 1 percent