The Linux Executive Report from IBM
November 20, 2012
The Linux Executive Report from IBM: November 20, 2012. A monthly summary of important trends and market research, case studies and information about IBM's Linux initiatives of interest to senior management.
Linux News
In a new blog post, Jean Staten Healy, director, Worldwide Linux and Open Virtualization, IBM, writes about IBM's PureFlex System: Hiding complexity - it has become the mantra of technology providers. As customers' IT resources continue to be stretched, staffs are asked to do more, and budgets remain flat or growing slightly, the demand for systems and interfaces that make operations simpler is increasing. We understand that - and with this customer requirement in mind, IBM created the PureFlex System. However, at IBM we still think that there are certain choices that should not be taken out of customers' hands because it will limit their agility now - and in the future
It is often assumed that KVM does not run Windows workloads, or at least does not run them very well, writes Mike Day, IBM distinguished engineer & chief virtualization architect, open systems development software architect, in a new blog.
Webb is a supply change management company in Brazil that has built its SaaS solution on IBM BladeCenter running Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (KVM). Webb also deployed IBM Systems Director with Active Energy Manager for systems management and IBM Storwize V7000 for storage. By using this KVM-based solution, Webb reduced its software licensing costs by 70%, reduced its virtual machine configuration time from 2 days to 15 minutes and reduced its server footprint by more than 80%.
The need to streamline new application development is driving demand for a relatively new form of cloud computing known as platform-as-a-service (PaaS), according to a new study released by the IBM Center for Applied Insights. Unlike other cloud computing services, such as infrastructure-as-a-service and software-as-a-service, PaaS uniquely offers a foundation of common application services, tools and templates for businesses to rent and build their own powerful software applications quickly and deploy them into an automated environment.
IBM has released the KVM Success Stories Book showcasing the use of KVM with IBM hardware and/or software. The book includes thumbnails of case studies with links for additional information on the clients' deployments.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux KVM has been awarded the Common Criteria Certification at Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL) 4+ - the highest level of assurance for an unmodified commercial operating system - for the Operating System Protection Profile (OSPP) including extended modules for Advanced Management, Advanced Audit, Labeled Security, and Virtualization for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 on Dell, HP, IBM and SGI hardware.
As part of its ongoing alliance with SAP AG, SUSE has announces that SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 11 Service Pack 2 is certified for integration with the SAP NetWeaver technology platform. The SAP certification scenario - called "SAP NetWeaver High Availability Cluster (NW-HA-CLU) 730" - establishes a reference architecture to help ensure compliant implementation of high-availability scenarios for running SAP solutions.
At LinuxCon Europe in Barcelona, The Linux Foundation, the non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, announced that HP, previously a gold member of the organization, is making a strategic, long-term investment in Linux by upgrading to platinum membership.Fujitsu joins existing platinum members IBM, Fujitsu, Intel, NEC, Oracle, Qualcomm Innovation Center and Samsung.
Inside Linux at IBM
IBM z/VM 6.2 introduced significant changes to z/VM with a multi-system clustering technology that allows up to four z/VM instances in a single system image (SSI) cluster. This technology is important because it offers you an attractive alternative to vertical growth by adding new z/VM systems. In the past, this capability required duplicate efforts to install, maintain, and manage each system. With SSI, these duplicate efforts are reduced or eliminated.
The City and County of Honolulu needed to increase government transparency by providing useful, timely data to its citizens. The city's goal was to improve citizen involvement, the city's service to its citizens and the efficiency of city operations. Working with IBM and IBM Business Partner Sirius Computer Solutions, Honolulu deployed a custom cloud using an Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL) engine running Linux on the city's IBM System z10 Enterprise Class mainframe. Honolulu also implemented an IBM XIV Storage System and IBM Maximo Asset Management, IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON, Tivoli Workload Scheduler and Tivoli Storage Manager software. The IBM solution reduced application deployment time from one week to only hours, lowered licensing costs for one database by 68% and enabled creation of a new property tax appraisal system and increased tax revenue by $1.4 million in just 3 months.
KVM can help provide protection from the sting of increasingly expensive virtualization licensing costs especially for Linux and mixed workload environments, writes David Hsu, program director, WW IBM Linux and KVM Marketing. He offers a pricing analysis of the KVM stack compared to its competitors (i.e., VMware and Microsoft) in a new blog.
The project described in this paper implements the TSAM 7.2.2 for Linux on System z to manage Linux guests on z/VM. It provides a sample installation to guide you through the installation steps and provide sizing suggestions. The results of this project can be used to establish a performance baseline.
Inside IBM's Linux Partners
A replay of "The Reality of x86 Virtualization: Hypervisor Diversity," a webcast presented by presented by Red Hat and IBM on October 11, is available for replay now - streaming and in downloadable MP4.
A new blog posted by the Red Hat and IBM Performance Teams showcases the new performance results for KVM, which is incorporated in both Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization.