Micro Focus jumps on selection as Amazon mainframe partner

Micro Focus International shares surged after Amazon named it as one of the businesses approved to help companies move computer mainframes onto Amazon Web Services (AWS).

In a blog on Thursday, AWS's mainframe business leads said more than 70% of Fortune 500 companies run business-critical applications on expensive, cumbersome mainframes. Those companies are under increasing pressure to speed up their operations by moving to the cloud, including AWS.

AWS said its customers wanted to use proven technology to migrate their mainframes without a hitch. It named Microfocus as one of its approved competency partners, citing the company's work helping Kmart Australia move onto AWS.

"The competency designation helps AWS partners differentiate their business to customers by showcasing their products and services in specialised areas across industries, use cases, and workloads," AWS said. "AWS partners are vetted, validated, and verified against a high bar to achieve the AWS competency designation."

Micro Focus shares rose 14.7% in New York on Thursday to $5.71. The company's London-listed shares rose 10.6% to 445.4p at 12:29 GMT and were the biggest gainers in the FTSE 250 index.

The other partners named by AWS are Advanced of the UK and the US companies Blu Age and TSRI.