IBM continues push of Linux on the System z mainframe
Profile: Mark Fontecchio
This week IBM continued pushing Linux on the System z mainframe, offering a Linux-based mainframethat comes pre-built with z/VM and other Linux-related features.
The starting price, for a Business Class machine with two IFLs, is $212,000 and ramps up from there.
The announcement is the latest of IBM’s System z Solution Editions, which it started pushing out late this summer and which already include bundled packages for disaster recovery, data warehousing, security and a few others. This one, for Linux, can be considered especially important considering IBM’s claim that almost half (3,000 of 6,300) unique applications on the System z mainframe are on Linux. It has clearly been a growth segment of the stagnant mainframe market, with zLinux growing 100% in the last two years, according to IBM.
The System z Solution Edition for Enterprise Linuxincludes from two to 64 Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL) processors, which are geared toward running Linux specifically, as well as memory, I/O connectivity, and the z/VM virtualization operating system that runs under Linux. All of this can go on either a z10 Enterprise (bigger) or Business (smaller) Class machine. The solution can include running Linux alongside z/OS or just Linux only. They include 3-5 years of hardware maintenance, 3-5 years of software support, and partnerships with Novell SUSE and Red Hat Linux distros.
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