In what it calls the largest update to its systems portfolio this year, IBM announced 55 new and updated server and storage technologies - several of which incorporate the System z platform - that can help clients gain actionable insights from data, increase IT capacity and deliver new services faster to create profitable business opportunities. The new offerings include affordable business analytics systems, automated tools for implementing security and compliance standards, and starter kits for establishing private clouds.
On the platform side, IBM unveiled z/VM 6.2, designed to offer new multi-system virtualization capabilities within the software to help clients avoid virtual machine sprawl. Up to four instances of z/VM can be clustered together as members in a Single System Image, where they can be managed as a single z/VM system and share system resources. zEnterprise Starter Edition for Cloud offers customers an entry-level Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud delivery model for Linux on System z with Tivoli Provisioning Manager. This turn-key "cloud in a box" extends the scope of the enterprise cloud with centralized management of the entire zEnterprise system.
On the database side, IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator incorporates the Netezza data warehouse appliance into the IBM zEnterprise System for faster analytic responses. The blending of Netezza and System z technologies enables the merging of online transaction processing (OLTP) systems, which facilitate and manage transaction-oriented applications typically for data entry and retrieval transaction processing, with analytics into a single platform for operational business analytics. The appliance plugs into IBM DB2 for z/OS database on zEnterprise 196 (or z114) and is designed to speed response time for a wide variety of intensive analytics.
The IBM Smart Analytics System 9700 and IBM Smart Analytics System 9710 utilize innovative technologies to deliver an end-to-end data warehouse and business intelligence solution on IBM zEnterprise System. The new systems can support a data distribution hub, transactional analysis platforms and modernized reporting systems, or provide a framework for comprehensive predictive analytics. IBM clients can now build a mainframe-based operational business analytics solution at an entry-level price.
On the processor side, the company announced IBM POWER7 processor-based IBM Smart Analytics System 7710 and x86 processor-based IBM Smart Analytics System 5710, which are single server, all-in-one systems that deliver business analytics and reporting services.
On the storage side, IBM will be shipping the IBM Storwize V7000 Unified midrange disk system, designed to bring greater efficiency and simplicity to data storage with file and block storage located on the same system with a world-class graphical user interface. It provides automatic policy-driven movement of files to the desired drive type to help manage costs and simplify administration, the ability to either scale within a system or scale out by clustering two systems together, and enhanced remote mirroring options.
IBM also announced IBM System Storage DS8000 Release 6.2 enterprise disk systems, intended to enable greater performance and improved capacity optimization capabilities. IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 enterprise disk system was introduced in July with an advanced hardware upgrade that can improve performance for the most demanding workloads. Now, IBM is adding support for 3TB disk drives that increase capacity by 50 percent in the same physical footprint and enable an increase in usable capacity of up to 243TB per rack (based on IBM internal measurements).
On the cloud side, IBM announced IBM BladeCenter Foundation for Cloud, a converged cloud computing platform that combines server, storage, networking and management technology that enables clients to quickly create an x86-based virtualization environment that is simple to deploy, manage and scale. BladeCenter Foundation for Cloud comes in three sizes - small, medium and large. IBM Active Cloud Engine scales cloud file systems efficiently by moving files where and when they are needed. It gives companies fast access to billions of files and dramatically improves the management and efficiency of cloud storage. Capabilities for global clouds are available on IBM Scale-Out Network Attached Storage R 1.3 (SONAS) and for mid-sized clouds on Storwize V7000 Unified systems.
For more information on IBM Smarter Computing, visit www.ibm.com/smartercomputing.