Kyndryl’s recent expansion of its Skytap platform into the Australian market signals a major development in the evolving landscape of cloud-based IT modernization. With this move, Australian enterprises now have access to cutting-edge migration solutions specifically designed to support legacy business-critical applications—traditionally tethered to on-premise infrastructures—directly into the cloud via the Microsoft Azure Australia East data centre in Sydney. This expansion serves not just as a strategic milestone for Kyndryl but also as a testament to the accelerating demand for cloud modernization among enterprises navigating increasingly complex digital transformation journeys.
Kyndryl, a global leader in mission-critical technology services, has made substantial strides since spinning off from IBM. The acquisition of Skytap in May of last year provided Kyndryl with a unique asset: a sophisticated platform purpose-built to enable the seamless migration of complex workloads—particularly those reliant on IBM Power systems—into the public cloud. This technology is especially compelling in markets like Australia, where many organizations still rely heavily on AIX, IBM i, and Linux on IBM Power environments for their most essential operations.
Skytap’s value proposition is rooted in reducing the friction, risk, and complexity of migrating such workloads. Historically, moving business-critical applications from mainframes or RISC-based architectures to the cloud often demanded significant refactoring or even complete rewrites. These undertakings were typically expensive, slow, and prone to disruption. Skytap eliminates much of this effort by enabling lift-and-shift migrations, allowing companies to run AIX, IBM i, and even Linux on x86 and Power-based workloads on Microsoft Azure without forcing application changes.
The choice of Sydney’s Azure Australia East data centre is strategic. Not only does it offer robust, scalable infrastructure with high security and compliance standards—critical for heavily regulated industries in Australia—it also brings Skytap closer to local users, eliminating latency and ensuring data sovereignty requirements are met.
This marks the tenth Microsoft Azure data centre region globally where Skytap is available, and notably, is the platform’s first geographic expansion since Kyndryl’s acquisition. This period of focused investment and integration enabled Kyndryl to thoroughly refine the offering before introducing it to new regions.
Skytap neatly sidesteps this challenge by enabling organizations to directly move these workloads onto Azure infrastructure, preserving the operating environment and application logic while taking advantage of cloud economics and scalability. This is achieved through native support for Power workloads, including both AIX and IBM i, with integrated networking and management features that allow for smooth coexistence with x86 workloads and Azure-native services.
For customers, the process means rapid deployment—often within days or weeks rather than months—without the upheaval of changing the underlying codebase. This empowers IT teams to modernize at their own pace, introducing new cloud-native services around their existing applications as business needs dictate.
Kyndryl’s extensive experience in IT modernization and managed services adds significant value for local customers. End-to-end support—from initial assessment and migration planning through ongoing management and optimization—helps de-risk the journey and accelerates return on investment.
Ashish Kumar highlighted the growing demand from customers who are eager to move off expensive, rigid legacy environments but are wary of the potential disruptions that can accompany cloud migrations. “We expect interest to grow during the coming years as local organisations seek more efficient ways to migrate to the cloud without the need to rewrite or replatform applications,” he said. The flexibility to avoid application rewrites is particularly important for enterprises managing complex portfolios of proprietary or bespoke software.
Integrating Skytap within Azure goes far beyond basic infrastructure provisioning. Customers benefit from direct access to Azure’s array of native services, including advanced AI, machine learning, and security capabilities from day one. This fusion enables organizations to augment their legacy workloads with new digital services—ranging from predictive analytics to automated threat detection—without breaking existing systems.
Williams pointed out that the joint solution directly supports business continuity and operational efficiency. By leveraging both Skytap and Azure, organizations can maintain existing service levels while iteratively modernizing critical systems.
Azure’s rich toolkit of security services—ranging from encryption at rest and in transit to advanced identity and access management—further bolsters the compliance posture of workloads running within Skytap. Additionally, both Kyndryl and Microsoft have deep experience navigating the compliance requirements of APRA, PCI DSS, HIPAA, and other critical frameworks, offering customers assurance that their data and operations are in safe hands.
This table highlights Skytap’s clear edge in facilitating non-disruptive migrations with direct Azure integration—a critical difference as many organizations seek to operate hybrid estates combining both legacy and modern workloads.
Several factors are likely to influence Skytap’s impact and trajectory:
The partnership between Kyndryl and Microsoft encapsulates the future of enterprise IT: collaborative, agile, and focused on delivering customer-centric value without sacrificing security or compliance. For Australian organizations poised at the threshold of large-scale transformation, the arrival of Skytap represents a rare opportunity to bridge the gap between past investments and future ambitions, all while maintaining the continuity and control demanded by mission-critical operations.
Nevertheless, this is not a silver bullet. The real value will be realized by organizations that embrace the opportunity to not just migrate, but to modernize—transforming their core systems into launchpads for innovation in a rapidly changing world. As the cloud landscape continues to evolve, Skytap's arrival in Australia is a timely catalyst inviting businesses to accelerate their journey towards digital resilience.
Source: Technology Decisions Kyndryl expands Skytap platform to Australia
Kyndryl and Skytap: A Partnership Shaping Cloud Modernization
Kyndryl, a global leader in mission-critical technology services, has made substantial strides since spinning off from IBM. The acquisition of Skytap in May of last year provided Kyndryl with a unique asset: a sophisticated platform purpose-built to enable the seamless migration of complex workloads—particularly those reliant on IBM Power systems—into the public cloud. This technology is especially compelling in markets like Australia, where many organizations still rely heavily on AIX, IBM i, and Linux on IBM Power environments for their most essential operations.Skytap’s value proposition is rooted in reducing the friction, risk, and complexity of migrating such workloads. Historically, moving business-critical applications from mainframes or RISC-based architectures to the cloud often demanded significant refactoring or even complete rewrites. These undertakings were typically expensive, slow, and prone to disruption. Skytap eliminates much of this effort by enabling lift-and-shift migrations, allowing companies to run AIX, IBM i, and even Linux on x86 and Power-based workloads on Microsoft Azure without forcing application changes.
Unpacking the Australian Expansion: Why Now?
Australia has emerged as a particularly promising market for cloud infrastructure innovation. Ashish Kumar, president of Kyndryl for Australia and New Zealand, underscored the significance of the expansion, attributing it to the “surging demand for IaaS for Power workloads” across the region. According to Kumar, the move is in response to local organizations’ desire to modernize their IT environments while minimizing disruption and cost.The choice of Sydney’s Azure Australia East data centre is strategic. Not only does it offer robust, scalable infrastructure with high security and compliance standards—critical for heavily regulated industries in Australia—it also brings Skytap closer to local users, eliminating latency and ensuring data sovereignty requirements are met.
This marks the tenth Microsoft Azure data centre region globally where Skytap is available, and notably, is the platform’s first geographic expansion since Kyndryl’s acquisition. This period of focused investment and integration enabled Kyndryl to thoroughly refine the offering before introducing it to new regions.
The Technical Promise: Migration Without Modernization Headaches
One of the key advantages of Skytap is its ability to facilitate “lift-and-shift” migrations for workloads running on legacy IBM systems. For decades, many financial institutions, telcos, and large enterprises have relied on IBM’s AIX, IBM i, and other Power-based platforms. Migrating these environments to the cloud typically required rewriting or rearchitecting applications—a daunting and risky prospect for mission-critical workloads.Skytap neatly sidesteps this challenge by enabling organizations to directly move these workloads onto Azure infrastructure, preserving the operating environment and application logic while taking advantage of cloud economics and scalability. This is achieved through native support for Power workloads, including both AIX and IBM i, with integrated networking and management features that allow for smooth coexistence with x86 workloads and Azure-native services.
For customers, the process means rapid deployment—often within days or weeks rather than months—without the upheaval of changing the underlying codebase. This empowers IT teams to modernize at their own pace, introducing new cloud-native services around their existing applications as business needs dictate.
Real-World Benefits for Australian Enterprises
The arrival of Skytap in Australia comes at a time when CIOs and CTOs are under mounting pressure to drive modernization initiatives. The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent shifts to remote and hybrid work models accelerated demand for resilient, scalable, and secure IT infrastructure. At the same time, ongoing skills shortages and rising operational costs have made it imperative for organizations to leverage solutions that reduce complexity and maximize efficiency.Kyndryl’s extensive experience in IT modernization and managed services adds significant value for local customers. End-to-end support—from initial assessment and migration planning through ongoing management and optimization—helps de-risk the journey and accelerates return on investment.
Ashish Kumar highlighted the growing demand from customers who are eager to move off expensive, rigid legacy environments but are wary of the potential disruptions that can accompany cloud migrations. “We expect interest to grow during the coming years as local organisations seek more efficient ways to migrate to the cloud without the need to rewrite or replatform applications,” he said. The flexibility to avoid application rewrites is particularly important for enterprises managing complex portfolios of proprietary or bespoke software.
Collaboration With Microsoft: Unlocking Azure’s Advantages
The strategic partnership with Microsoft is central to unlocking Skytap’s full potential. As Evan Williams, Director of Microsoft Azure & Security Business Group for Australia and New Zealand, observed, the collaboration “underscores our commitment to providing innovative cloud solutions that empower local enterprises to seamlessly migrate and modernise their IBM Power workloads.”Integrating Skytap within Azure goes far beyond basic infrastructure provisioning. Customers benefit from direct access to Azure’s array of native services, including advanced AI, machine learning, and security capabilities from day one. This fusion enables organizations to augment their legacy workloads with new digital services—ranging from predictive analytics to automated threat detection—without breaking existing systems.
Williams pointed out that the joint solution directly supports business continuity and operational efficiency. By leveraging both Skytap and Azure, organizations can maintain existing service levels while iteratively modernizing critical systems.
Addressing Key Challenges: Security, Compliance, and Data Sovereignty
For many Australian enterprises, especially those in finance, healthcare, and government, regulatory compliance and data sovereignty are non-negotiable requirements. Migration solutions that fail to address these often face steep adoption barriers. Kyndryl’s selection of the Sydney Azure region as the launchpad for Skytap in Australia ensures that sensitive data remains within national borders, adhering to stringent data protection laws and industry standards.Azure’s rich toolkit of security services—ranging from encryption at rest and in transit to advanced identity and access management—further bolsters the compliance posture of workloads running within Skytap. Additionally, both Kyndryl and Microsoft have deep experience navigating the compliance requirements of APRA, PCI DSS, HIPAA, and other critical frameworks, offering customers assurance that their data and operations are in safe hands.
Balancing Strengths With Potential Risks
While the Skytap expansion presents substantial advantages, it’s important to weigh both opportunities and risks.Notable Strengths
- Seamless Migration: Skytap significantly lowers the barriers for migrating legacy workloads, enabling rapid transition without application refactoring or rewriting.
- Preservation of Business Continuity: Mission-critical applications can continue running uninterrupted during migration and afterwards, minimizing business disruption.
- Access to Cloud Innovation: Integration with Azure unlocks the ability to leverage AI, analytics, and security tools that were previously out of reach for legacy environments.
- Regulatory Fit: Data localization via local Azure data centres supports compliance and data sovereignty mandates.
- Scalability and Flexibility: With Azure underpinnings, organizations can easily scale resources up or down according to evolving business needs.
Potential Risks and Limitations
- Long-Term Architectural Debt: While lift-and-shift avoids the pain of immediate application rewrites, it can perpetuate reliance on outdated architectures. Organizations that stop at migration without investing in genuine modernization may miss out on the full benefits of cloud-native models.
- Cost Considerations: Running Power workloads in the cloud has traditionally been more expensive than x86. While Skytap negotiates some of these costs through efficiency gains, customers should conduct careful cost-benefit analyses to avoid sticker shock as workloads scale.
- Operational Complexity: The coexistence of Power and x86, alongside native Azure services, introduces new layers of complexity for IT teams. Robust governance and effective monitoring are essential.
- Vendor Dependence: Deep integration with Azure reduces multi-cloud flexibility. Organizations should be aware that heavy reliance on a single provider can create future switching challenges.
In-Depth Comparative Look: Skytap Versus Other Migration Solutions
The cloud migration field is hotly contested, with vendors such as AWS, Google Cloud, and IBM all offering various approaches to support legacy workloads. However, Skytap distinguishes itself in several ways:| Feature | Skytap on Azure | AWS Mainframe Modernization | IBM PowerVS Cloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native IBM AIX/Application Support | Yes | Partial (via partners) | Yes |
| Requires Refactoring? | No | Often | No |
| Integrated with Major Hyperscaler | Yes (Azure) | No (AWS native only) | No |
| Local Data Residency | Yes (with local Azure regions) | Limited | Yes (for IBM Cloud DCs only) |
| Access to Hyperscale AI/Security | Yes | Yes | Limited |
| Seamless Integration With x86 | Yes | No | Challenging |
Forward-Looking Analysis: The Direction of Cloud Modernization
The launch of Skytap in Australia is emblematic of broader trends shaping the future of enterprise IT. Key among them is the recognition that modernization is rarely a singular, revolutionary event. Instead, most organizations are pursuing incremental, hybrid strategies—preserving what works while judiciously investing in transformation.Several factors are likely to influence Skytap’s impact and trajectory:
- Increasing Hybrid Demand: Hybrid cloud models are becoming the norm as organizations balance innovation with risk mitigation and compliance.
- Pressure to Innovate: As AI, analytics, and real-time processing become mandatory for competitiveness, the need to migrate and modernize legacy workloads will grow.
- Skills Gap: A shortage of talent with deep legacy expertise makes managed modernization services like those offered by Kyndryl especially valuable.
- Geopolitical and Regulatory Shifts: Data localization requirements and geopolitical concerns will continue to drive demand for solutions that guarantee data sovereignty.
Recommendations for IT Leaders in Australia
For organizations considering a leap to the cloud for their mission-critical workloads, the following best practices can help maximize return on investment while mitigating risk:- Thorough Assessment: Don’t treat migration as a purely technical project. Assess business processes, dependencies, and regulatory requirements before embarking on the journey.
- Choose a Trusted Partner: Engage with experienced providers like Kyndryl who offer deep domain expertise and holistic support.
- Emphasize Security and Compliance: Confirm that providers can meet both current and anticipated regulatory requirements.
- Plan for Modernization, Not Just Migration: Use tools like Skytap to remove migration barriers—but develop a mid- to long-term plan for adopting cloud-native architectures.
- Monitor Costs Continuously: Establish guardrails and governance to ensure cloud spend aligns with business goals, leveraging the cost transparency capabilities built into Azure.
Conclusion: A Strategic Inflection for Australian IT
Kyndryl’s expansion of its Skytap platform into the Australian market is a significant development that promises to unlock new avenues for digital transformation in the region. By enabling the rapid, secure migration of legacy IBM AIX, IBM i, and Linux on IBM Power workloads onto Azure, Kyndryl empowers local enterprises to modernize at their own pace while leveraging the innovative, scalable, and resilient infrastructure of Microsoft’s public cloud.The partnership between Kyndryl and Microsoft encapsulates the future of enterprise IT: collaborative, agile, and focused on delivering customer-centric value without sacrificing security or compliance. For Australian organizations poised at the threshold of large-scale transformation, the arrival of Skytap represents a rare opportunity to bridge the gap between past investments and future ambitions, all while maintaining the continuity and control demanded by mission-critical operations.
Nevertheless, this is not a silver bullet. The real value will be realized by organizations that embrace the opportunity to not just migrate, but to modernize—transforming their core systems into launchpads for innovation in a rapidly changing world. As the cloud landscape continues to evolve, Skytap's arrival in Australia is a timely catalyst inviting businesses to accelerate their journey towards digital resilience.
Source: Technology Decisions Kyndryl expands Skytap platform to Australia
