Enterprise Software has introduced NEON zPrime, a proprietary software product intended to reduce cost of mainframe computing by helping customers take advantage of IBM System z specialty processors.
According to NEON, zPrime can save companies with System z mainframes 20% or more of their annual mainframe hardware and software costs under conventional use-pricing structures. zPrime enables companies to shift of large amounts of routine workloads running on System z central processors (CPs) to IBM's System z Integrated Information Processor (zIIP) or System z Application Assist Processors (zAAP) specialty processors.
IBM charges customers for work that is processed on a central processor, but does not charge for work processed on zAAPs and zIIPs, Robin Reddick, vice president of marketing, NEON, tells 5 Minute Briefing. By moving work from a central processor to a zIIP/zAAP the customer can reduce their usage costs of the central processor, he explains. "Any work that can be moved over to a specialty processor is good news; it reduces the cost. And what zPrime does is it allows mainframe users to expand the use of specialty processors."
The business application remains on the mainframe; the work associated with processing the application transactions is what gets moved to the zIIP and zAAP, according to Reddick, who notes that zPrime uses IBM documented exits.
zPrime can facilitate the transfer of as much as 50% or more of a company's IMS, DB2, CICS, TSO/ISPF, and batch workloads from System z CPs to zIIP and zAAP processors. This has the potential to provide mainframe users with more options of what workloads to move to a specialty processor to meet capacity planning and cost optimization objectives.
"Most of the work that is run on the mainframe is associated with business applications and these are all business applications that were written years ago-old COBOL applications. That is the vast majority of the processing that gets done on the mainframe," notes Reddick. "With zPrime, we create an environment that lets users move that work associated with these business applications over to a specialty processor."
NEON zPrime is compliant with IBM specifications, rules and conditions for System z processor access to assure an environment that makes IMS, CICS, TSO/ISPF, DB2, batch jobs and NEON IMS utilities workloads eligible for processing on zIIPs or zAAPs, the vendor says.
For more information about NEON and zPrime, go here.