IBM has announced IBM z/OS V2.5, the next-generation operating system (OS) for IBM Z, designed to accelerate client adoption of hybrid cloud and AI and drive application modernization projects.
According to an IBM Institute for Business Value study, 71% of executives surveyed say mainframe-based applications are central to their business strategy; and in 3 years, the percentage of organizations leveraging mainframe assets in a hybrid cloud environment is expected to increase by more than 2x.
The new z/OS V2.5 helps drive value for clients by delivering new capabilities across AI enablement, application modernization, resiliency, enhanced security, and an improved developer experience.
With z/OS V2.5, IBM is introducing new high performance AI capabilities that are tightly integrated with z/OS workloads, designed to give clients business insights for more informed decision making.
"IBM is all-in on hybrid cloud and AI, and we are deeply focused on delivering new innovations like AI and new security capabilities on IBM Z to help our clients move forward, more quickly with their modernization journeys," said Ross Mauri, GM, IBM Z. "For our clients, IBM z/OS V2.5 brings new security and resiliency capabilities to the platform, and enables clients to infuse AI in real-time into every business transaction—imperatives that became more urgent during the pandemic."
According to IBM, z/OS V2.5 is also helping to address cyber security and resiliency challenges by adding a broad spectrum of enhancements across authentication, authorization, logging, system integrity, system and data availability, encryption for data in flight and at rest, and overall data privacy including:
- Expanding pervasive encryption to new types of data ets: sequential basic format and large format SMS-managed datasets are now included, providing users with the capability to encrypt data without application changes and to simplify compliance
- Anomaly Mitigation capabilities that leverage Predictive Failure Analysis (PFA), Runtime Diagnostics, Workload Manager (WLM), and JES2 to help further detect anomalous behavior in near-real-time, letting clients proactively address potential problems
- As clients accelerate their journey to hybrid cloud, having a secured, scalable environment is critical for the underlying transformation process. IBM z/OS V2.5 introduces new capabilities that support application modernization and provide a cloud native experience on z/OS:
- New Java/COBOL Interoperability that extends existing application programming models with support for parallel 31-bit and 64-bit addressing, simplifying enterprise application modernization.
- Enhanced performance and ease of use for z/OS Container Extensions (zCX) to integrate Linux applications and utilities into z/OS.
Additional capabilities to integrate cloud storage through transparent cloud tiering (TCT) and the Object Access Method (OAM) cloud tier support to help reduce capital and operating expenses with data transfer to hybrid cloud storage environments for simplified data archiving and data protection on IBM Z.
IBM z/OS V2.5 is expected to be faster and easier to install and upgrade, with one client trial demonstrating the ability to install z/OS more than 30% faster than compared with IBM z/OS 2.3 and 2.4. With a simplified management experience supplied by streamlined and automated tasks, specialty skills may not be required.
IBM z/OS V2.5 is expected to be generally available on September 30, 2021.
For more information, go to www.ibm.com/it-infrastructure/z/zos.