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Dream Machine

zEnterprise creates an ideal multi-architecture infrastructure, perfect for cloud

In July IBM announced extended capabilities for the zEnterprise* System while also introducing the zEnterprise 114 (z114), a smaller version of the high-end zEnterprise 196 (z196).

“IBM is now making the midsize customers’ dream of smarter computing a reality,” says Michael Dickson, worldwide System z* product offering manager. “Today’s mainframe is a modern system that runs modern technologies such as Java*, Linux*, XML and SOA, and—with zEnterprise—extends this concept further to integrate traditional mainframe with AIX*, Linux on System x* and, eventually, Microsoft* Windows* environments all under one management construct.”

Dickson adds this evolution means System z servers are even more applicable to what customers need, no matter the size of their infrastructures. The zEnterprise System allows workloads and applications to run on best-fit technology architectures, spanning System z, Power* and System x servers in a single, integrated system. It opens the door to run and integrate any workload that has affinity to mainframe applications and data, on Power or System x blade servers within the zEnterprise BladeCenter* Extension (zBX), and manage it all via the Unified Resource Manager.

“This is the dream machine of sorts for practically any organization that has a multitier infrastructure and a mix of technology platforms and operating environments, which is pretty much everyone,” Dickson says. “What other system offers the capability to unify and run mainframe and distributed architectures as one under a single management construct? There’s no other platform in the industry that can compete with, or even offers, the hybrid capabilities of the zEnterprise.”

These capabilities enable customers to improve the deployment and management of multitier workloads such as business analytics, information management and warehousing, ERP, and end-to-end workloads that tap scalable databases.

"System z was a cloud before the term 'cloud computing' existed." —Michael Dickson, worldwide System z product offering manager, IBM

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