IBM announced a series of new enterprise cloud offerings for the mainframe, which includes the first System z-based integrated system offering, the IBM Enterprise Cloud System. IBM also announced a new flexible utility pricing model intended to provide service providers with the ability to pay for Linux-based mainframe cloud infrastructure over time based on compute consumption, rather than system capacity.
The IBM Enterprise Cloud System is factory built and configured with automated cloud orchestration and monitoring to enable clients to rapidly deploy enterprise-grade cloud services. The Infrastructure as a Service solution is a combination of System z hardware, IBM storage and IBM cloud management software.
Components of the new offering include zEnterprise BC12 or zEnterprise EC12 as the server; IBM Storwize v7000 or IBM DS8000 System Storage as the storage infrastructure; and IBM Cloud Management Suite for System z, IBM z/VM or IBM Wave for z/VM as the virtualization engine.
The new “IBM MSP Utility Pricing for System z” pricing model, delivered through IBM Global Financing, provides consumption-based pricing designed especially to make mainframe technologies more widely accessible to managed service providers. This consumption-based approach enables these providers to focus on building their business rather than on the cost of their infrastructure.