IBM has announced the System z Solution Edition Series, including seven packages of integrated hardware, software and services designed to help customers deploy new enterprise workloads.
IBM also introduced additional new programs to help organizations lower costs and reduce inefficiency by migrating from Sun and HP servers to the Linux platform on IBM's System z.
The Solution Edition offerings are affordable complete-stack solutions which include IBM System z hardware, IBM middleware products and maintenance programs for business functions, such as data warehousing, application development, disaster recovery, security, electronic payments, and service-oriented architecture.
The System z Solution Edition series expands on a successful program for SAP business applications on the IBM mainframe. The new Solution Edition series enhances the existing SAP offering, which is designed to provide near-continuous availability and data protection with DB2 for z/OS databases on System z. The solution can now be combined with SAP application deployments for running Linux on the System z platform.
IBM also announced new pricing for its Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL) and associated memory to help companies consolidate workloads from siloed, inefficiently used servers onto Linux on the System z platform.
"Now more than ever, clients are looking for fast return on their investments," Reed A. Mullen, IBM System z consolidation and virtualization strategy and marketing leader, tells LinuxLine. Mullen, who spoke from Denver where he was attending this week's SHARE conference, points out that the new targeted solutions, which include hardware, software, and services, are intended to provide customers with best-of-breed solutions combined with advantageous pricing.
The announcement reflects continued investment by IBM in Linux on System z. More than 3,000 of the 5,000 unique applications available on the System z platform are Linux-based. Linux accounted for about half of the roughly 1,000 new or updated applications produced for the IBM mainframe in 2008. More than 40% of new System z customers installed Linux last year, and Linux continued to grow more than 15% during the first half of 2009.
For more information about System z, go here.