IT executives who claim that mainframes are "old technology" need to have their heads examined.  Mainframes are advanced technology that constantly pushes the envelope and the industry in:

1. Consolidation/virtualization/provisioning/workload management with the most advanced virtualization capabilities of any platform in the industry;
2. Security -- with the highest level of security of any commercial server in the IT marketplace (plus advanced encryption/public key facilities).  The System z also sets the competitive bar in terms of information systems security (System z mainframes are the only servers in the world to achieve Common Criteria EAL5 level of security). And IBM’s System z holds the top hardware rating for its compliance with the FIPS 140 standard (the Federal Information Standard 140). More on IBM’s System z security positioning can be found at http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/security/features.html. While other operating environments and computer systems have been plagued by security incidents, the System z has provided super-strong cryptographic and encryption services unrivaled in the computer industry for decades. Tightened security can reduce operations costs -- as well as limit major liabilities that can result from security breaches;
3. Networking -- Instead of having to rely on external switches, routers, and cabling -- processors are networked using a switched backplane within the System z. This greatly simplifies System z deployment while reducing networking hardware acquisition and cabling costs and associated network latency issues;
4. MTBF and high-availability -- Over the past sixty years of mainframe development IBM has gotten very proficient in the design of highly reliable, highly-available systems design (mainframes can provide 99.999 per cent high availability). Mainframe application availability is reportedly the highest in the industry (through the use of IBM’s Parallel Sysplex technology and Geographical Dispersed Parallel Sysplex which mask planned and unplanned outages and provides both local and remote disaster recovery). In fact, one IBM customer claims that they kept a specific application continuously available for a decade (10 years)! IBM’s low meantime between failure (MTBF) rate on mainframes is extremely low — and as a result, some industries are able to avoid service shutdowns and save millions of dollars per hour that otherwise could be lost due to equipment failure.
5. Manageability -- Again, over the past sixty years, IBM has worked diligently to lower the complexity and cost to manage its mainframe systems. IBM does this by automating route functions (such as backup/restore, user provisioning, etc.) -- as well as by streamlining administrator user interfaces by graphically enabling its management software. The more IBM is able to simplify management, the more IBM is able to drive down management costs. Current estimates in terms of labor related savings using management facilities on a System z versus those in distributed systems environments show that it takes only five mainframe people to manage the same amount of resources that it takes twenty-five people to manage in a distributed computing environment!
6. Coprocessors/specialty engines -- IBM makes use of coprocessors within its System z chassis to assist in specialized application processing for specific environments. IBM’s zAAP environment is a low-cost workload engine designed to reduce software deployment, integration, and tuning costs for specific enterprise applications (BI, ERP, CRM, etc.). IBM’s zIIP environment focuses on centralizing data from multiple sources on a mainframe such that BI, CRM, or ERP applications can use that data to derive the answers to business queries, or use that data for enterprise reporting. And IBM intends to introduce several additional “specialty engines” over time. Also noteworthy is IBM’s Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL) – a central processor designed specifically to process Linux workloads (this processor has met with solid acceptance and plays a big part in allowing the System z to process “modern” Linux and Java workloads).
7. Near-linear scalability -- IBM’s System z design along with Parallel Sysplex enables near linear processor scalability (as additional processors are added they perform at nearly 100% of their capacity). Other system designs (such as some SMP designs) can see processor scalability drop by as much as 50% as new processors are added to a system.
8. Floor space -- For IT buyers concerned about floor space, the System z packs a lot of processing power into a relatively small footprint (as compared to the floor space dozens of networked SMP or PC servers might occupy if equivalently configured). And, finally,
9. Energy efficiency -- When comparing the System z to an equivalently powerful distributed computing environment, the System z uses far less power and cooling to deliver the same amount of computing power.

For more discussion of these points, go to the following links:
A discussion of the new zEnterprise and related zBX/Unified Resource Manager (here).

System z technology update;
Mainframes Are NOT Old Technology at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G7UA4l2tgA&feature=related
IBM Mainframe Cloud at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbHNU-QmksU