Faced with declining sales for several large systems, IBM decided to advance the timing slightly to launch its new mainframes. The zEnterprise EC12 mainframe is designed for securing large volumes of transactions and data analysis ideal for cloud computing and big data.
The mainframe zEC12 promises 25% better performance per core and 50% more capacity compared to its predecessor (the zEnterprise 196). IBM presents its platform as full of safety features, including the Crypto Express4S co-processor for the protection of sensitive data and transactions. With security strategy deployed on its mainframe, IBM is the first manufacturer to obtain the Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level classification.
The mainframe offers a 30% improvement in data load analysis in relation to the zEnterprise 196, IBM technologies with real-time monitoring of system status and rapid identification of bottlenecks using IBM zAware. IBM said the mainframe has the world’s fastest chip running at 5.5 Ghz and 50% more total system capacity.
IBM Looks to the Cloud
The main development is focused on security while designing the mainframe. With the Internet and cloud computing, security of data has become a priority. And it is not large IBM mainframe customers, especially the financial sector, which requires greater security. The mainframe is thus ideal for managing cloud computing/virtualization in scale of thousands of distributed systems.
IBM has also made sure that the zEC12 does not necessarily work for datacenter environments, promising more flexibility for the site in order to attract new customers not necessarily with facilities like data centers.
“The mainframe is a good foundation for cloud delivery because it has all the base characteristics such as efficient consolidation, virtualization and the ability to host multiple tenants,” said Jeff Frey, CTO of System z mainframes at IBM. “As a result, large enterprises can deliver cloud services internally,” he added.
In addition, mainframes support a significant amount of data in most large companies. As these companies face the growth of data, looking for ways to increase security and gain insights from critical information such as financial data, customer data and resource data of companies.
As a part of the cloud initiatives, the company recently announced a wide range of improvements in performance and efficiency of their storage systems and technical systems called Smarter Computing and released lower cost cloud products and services.
Big Data Analysis Capabilities
The mainframe supports the IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator, which incorporates the Netezza data warehouse appliance to IBM zEC12 that allows customers to perform complex business analysis and operations on the same platform.
It also provides analysis capabilities of computer systems based on technology from IBM Research. The system Analyzes internal messaging system to provide near real-time view of the health of the system, including potential operational problems.
The mainframe virtualization capabilities make it a strong alternative to support private cloud environments. Customers can consolidate thousands of distributed systems in Linux zEC12, lowering operating costs associated with technology, power consumption, space in the datacenter and software licenses.
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