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Why Your Entire Data Center Could Be Running on System z (December 2011) |
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 When Sirius’ Kevin Gates started working with mainframes in 2001, he had no idea what a mainframe was, and he still knows little about z/OS or z/VM VSE. That’s because Kevin was a distributed computing specialist who was brought into the mainframe world with a focus on running Linux on z. And according to him, it wasn’t pretty.
“In 2001, the mainframes were the Multiprise or z800 models, which offered only anemic processing performance for Linux. Over a short period of time, I discovered we could leverage the strengths of System z to do some interesting things with regard to Linux, but still nothing worthy of real enterprise performance.”
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Contact Sirius to find out how the new IBM zEnterprise System can save you money while you solve your enterprise computing challenges
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Flash forward to 2011, and the situation has been changed completely with the introduction of the zEnterprise family of mainframes. Unlike preceding generations of System z, zEnterprise provides a mainframe platform that can be extended with IBM’s new zBX, a highly integrated BladeCenter frame that can host blades based on either POWER or x86 processors. This added functionality comes in addition to long-proven specialty engines such as zIIP for optimized DB2 performance, zAAP for Java performance, and IFLs (Integrated Facility for Linux processors) for Linux virtualization. Suddenly IBM’s venerable mainframe platform has become a comprehensive infrastructure solution that can handle virtually any business need or function across three processor architectures (System z, POWER and x86) and five operating systems (z/OS, z/VM VSE, Linux, AIX and Windows).
Massive scalability, incredible flexibility, unsurpassed security, rock-solid reliability
Multiple zBX frames can be attached to a z114 or z196, each supporting up to 112 POWER7 or x86 blades. The zBXs are coupled via a highly secure, extremely fast network, and both administration and workload management are done via the centralized Unified Resource Manager tool.
With all these possible configurations, zEnterprise provides a highly flexible, highly secure, highly scalable environment that provides benefits not found outside of IBM technology today. Now ‘Hybrid Computing’ and ‘Fit for Purpose’ not only make sense; they describe what every data center should be striving for. |
And the combination of Linux on z and zBX offers benefits that are desirable for and applicable to all data centers, including:
• The ability to run applications on hardware best suited to the task
• Simplified network topologies
• Enhanced security
• Improved performance (no need for SSL in most cases due to the secure network, fast transport between architectures, less network hops, and applications that run on architecture best suited for workload)
• Better utilization of resources (CPU, I/O, memory, etc.)
• Centralized administration, including systems management, workload management, governance and automation
• Flexible architecture to support SaaS, PaaS and IaaS
• DR replication at both metro and global distances (GDPS /PPRC)
• Software savings though consolidation
For example, consider an organization currently running SAP applications on Sun/Solaris, and using DB/2 on z/OS for back-end processing. A single zEnterprise can provide a multi-tiered platform alternative, performing front-end processing of SAP on a POWER7 blade, or Linux on z, or even on x86, based on whichever platform provides the best performance. Any firewalls, routers or switches could be eliminated, since all processes are running internally to the zEnterprise, providing a dramatic increase in performance. When SAP is not being fully utilized, resources are free to perform other tasks such as backup, system updates, batch jobs, etc. Finally, the SAP applications and data will benefit from the robust resiliency features of zEnterprise-based disaster recovery. |
We at Sirius see significant potential with zEnterprise for our clients. For many organizations, their entire data center could conceivably be run on zEnterprise, as the platform is just starting to be recognized for the potential it has to change the data center for the better. And Sirius consultants can help you determine if those benefits apply to you.
As IBM’s largest business partner, Sirius has skills in all IBM platforms, virtualization, networking, storage, capacity planning, infrastructure services, software analysis and more. More importantly, we want to ensure you get the solution that is best for you. For more information, contact your Sirius client executive, or visit Sirius’ System z page. |
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