>>>
The university I worked for still
ran an early 80's vintage Amdhal
mainframe well into the late 1990's for the sole purpose of running SPSS,
because the cost of running the mainframe plus the yearly license for SPSS
was cheaper than a site desktop license.
<<<<
Oddly enough the University computer centre where I was employed bought its
first SUN for a similar (in reverse) reason - it was significantly cheaper
to buy the SUN and an Ada compiler for it than to get the Ada compiler for
the Honeywell mainframe.
As it happens I don't think the /users/ who were demanding we support Ada
ever even tried using it so we got a nice new toy and wasted less money.