The upcoming Tivoli Federated Identity Manager for z/OS offering secures transactions across mainframes and distributed computers using SOA and Web services technology, IBM said. Featured are identity management and compliance tools to enhance System z's encryption and intrusion detection features.

IBM is making the right move by promoting a mainframe role in SOA, said Phil Murphy, principal analyst at Forrester Research.

"The presumption there is that the mainframe had nothing to do with SOA, and this [announcement] changes that," Murphy said.

"I guess my view is the industry tried, 'Let's everyone get off of the mainframe,' in the late 90s. It didn't work because there are many organizations that need that level of power," Murphy said.

Mainframes have been used for applications insulated from the public security breaches of newer technologies, Murphy said. "It's a natural to expose those transactions as services," he added.