It would seem to me (i.e. someone who knows none of the details of IBM's internal business) that if IBM is so sure that its mainframes are so much better than using "cloud" services, then they should be building a cloud solution on those mainframes to compete with the Amazons, Microsofts, and Googles of the world. It's really not that different from the lease model with their mainframes (which they invented, I believe) and they would actually make their systems somewhat relevant again.
But I'm sure that I just grossly oversimplified the problems that they are facing.
But I'm sure that I just grossly oversimplified the problems that they are facing.