IBM announced the System z Solution Edition Series-seven integrated hardware, software and services packages designed to help customers deploy new enterprise workloads such as data warehousing, electronic payments and disaster recovery. In addition, IBM says it is launching a new campaign to encourage companies to migrate from Sun and HP servers to the Linux platform on System z.
These new programs reflect an ongoing IBM strategy to make mainframes attractive to new workloads so customers can run a much wider range of their business activities on System z, IBM says.
"Now more than ever, companies and institutions are looking for ways to maximize the return on their IT investments," says Karl Freund, vice president of IBM System z strategy and marketing. "The programs offer clients the strengths of System z at prices they are going to love, helping them deploy and consolidate workloads across enterprises and streamline IT infrastructures into a high-performance, energy-efficient environment."
The Solution Edition offerings are designed to make the cost of deploying new workloads on System z price-competitive with alternative distributed systems, according to IBM. The Solution Edition offerings are affordable complete stack solutions that include IBM System z hardware, IBM middleware products and maintenance programs for new business functions, such as data warehousing, application development, disaster recovery, security, electronic payments, and service oriented architecture.
The System z Solution Edition series also expands on a successful program for SAP business applications on the IBM mainframe. IBM says it has experienced significant growth in SAP applications on System z since the program was introduced 18 months ago. IBM's existing SAP offering 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.
Today's 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, the vendor says. Linux accounts for about half of the roughly 1,000 new or updated applications produced for the IBM mainframe in 2008. More than 40 percent of new System z customers installed Linux last year, and Linux continued to grow over 15 percent during the first half of 2009.
The announcements also reflect the latest phase of a six-year commitment on IBM's part to repurpose the mainframe at the core of new enterprise deployments. "The Solution Edition Series, part of the Mainframe Charter, which IBM first articulated in 2003 delivers innovative solutions, expands System z's performance and value, and fosters a larger System z community to meet customers' business requirements," Freund says.
For more details, visit the IBM System z website.