The history between SUSE and the IBM mainframe goes back more than 15 years, observed Michael Miller, SUSE’s Vice President of Global Alliances, Marketing and Product Management, and Ross Mauri, General Manager, IBM z Systems, during a keynote conversation at SUSECon 2015. Today, 28% of the IBM installed mainframe capacity around the world runs Linux, it is in 82 of the top 100 clients around the world, and it has been growing at a 45% compound growth rate over the last decade. The bottom line, Mauri said, is that Linux is a phenomenon that has changed the world, is growing rapidly everywhere, and it is in enterprise and in mainframe computing, Mauri said.
IBM and SUSE are continuing their joint technology innovation. Recently, said Mauri, IBM rolled out the new LinuxONE product line, a whole new Linux-focused high-end system that can scale up and scale out with all the security, capacity, and performance IBM clients have come to expect; produced its own KVM distribution for IBM z Systems; and also introduced new community clouds to enable easier access to Linux on the mainframe by developers and university students.
The companies are also continuing to collaborate on the business side, said Miller. With the new LinuxONE systems, IBM introduced a new elastic pricing model for for IBM hardware and software, and SUSE will be embracing that elastic pricing model as well to enable a complete solution. And, in terms of community, the joint innovation continues as well. Among other ongoing joint efforts, there is the new Open Mainframe Project, a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project of which SUSE and IBM are cofounders. “We hope more and more of the community joins us as we explore new technology innovations that can serve our mutual customers and really push things forward for their businesses,” said Mauri.
To watch an on-demand replay of the keynote, go here.