BT Group's Digital Unit and Kyndryl are collaborating on an innovative project to move several mainframe programs supporting its legacy copper commercial and consumer broadband services to the cloud.



This complex project would enable the Digital Unit to manage its copper broadband infrastructure in a modern way by migrating legacy programs to the cloud, which cannot be temporarily shut down. BT Group estimates that it will save more than £17 million ($21 million) per year by 2026, thanks to Kyndryl's hyperscaler capabilities and partner ecosystem, and lower the mainframe running costs and energy consumption by 70% during the ten-year agreement.

Harmeen Mehta, Chief Digital and Innovation Officer at BT Group, said the company aims to turn legacy mainframes into modern digital apps and run them at a fraction of the cost. API and micro-services capabilities will be built as a result of the move to the cloud to better integrate the value of data across larger BT Group systems, streamline technology estate, and accelerate innovation through automation, thereby saving costs.

The project aims to retire some applications, helping BT Group reach its goal of having fewer than 500 strategic systems by 2027 while also refactoring or repackaging to operate in a cloud environment. As old copper networks phase out, other programs can better access the data and capabilities found in mainframe systems, resulting in more seamless customer experiences. With this ambitious program, Kyndryl aims to extend the lifespan of these applications in a modern, micro-services led, cloud-centric way and unlock intelligent data insights.