How IBM’s Innovation in z15 Extends Mainframe Value – eWEEK

Posted on September 24, 2019 by Design in Design Innovation | 0 Comments

Follow technology news long enough and you often see an odd discrepancy: press releases that minimally address or largely skip over the businesses and use cases that new IT solutions are supposedly designed to support. Instead of illuminating their practical business benefits, these announcements focus largely or entirely on abstract new features and “speeds/feeds” technical achievements.

The tech industry certainly isn’t the only place where this occurs. The promotional focus on “shiny new things” is even more commonplace in consumer goods. But in business IT, such inclinations can signal especially dangerous or fatal flaws. Look closely at any floundering IT vendor or solution; there are plenty to choose from, and you’ll usually find a failure of relevance to end customers.

That said, the obverse is also true—that vendors and solutions which focus intently on customers’ current and emerging needs remain relevant and successful long after competitors have fallen away. IBM’s flagship Z mainframe solutions are a terrific example of this, and the company’s next-gen z15 system should continue IBM’s longstanding leadership in enterprise computing.

Let’s examine the new z15 and consider why that’s the case.

Challenges for Today’s Enterprises

Let’s begin by looking at challenges enterprises face that can be assuaged or solved with business computing solutions. Three come quickly to mind:

IBM’s z15 and Modern Enterprise Computing

IBM’s Z mainframe solutions have long stood at the pinnacle of “enterprise-class” computing due to their exceptional performance, scalability, reliability and security features. But with the new next generation z15 platforms, IBM has incorporated features which allow customers to extend the capabilities and benefits of IBM Z beyond the system to incorporate mainframe applications and data residing in off-premises hybrid multi-cloud infrastructures.

How has IBM accomplished this? First and foremost, this happens through a collaborative development effort incorporating IBM Systems and IBM Research (which generated 3,000+ issued or in-process IBM Z patents), along with input from more than 100 enterprises and more than 300 mainframe customers. As a result, the new z15 systems support some remarkable new features tailored for the needs of modern enterprises.

Final Analysis

What’s the important takeaway from all this? In essence, with its new z15 and LinuxONE solutions, IBM is not only continuing to refine the capabilities of its flagship mainframe platforms but to redefine the meaning of enterprise-class computing. It is also significantly extending the areas where these systems can impact and improve mission-critical business applications and processes to include hybrid multi-cloud deployments and environments.

In other words, with the help of hundreds of enterprises and clients, IBM has fashioned the z15 into a solution that offers benefits customers can immediately enjoy, as well as features that will help them achieve the future initiatives they are planning. It should also be noted that this approach is no new thing. For decades, IBM has put business and businesses first in its solution and services planning efforts.

The new IBM z15 and LinuxONE platforms are simply the latest examples of the company’s customer-centric approach. However, they also highlight why, after occupying enterprise data centers for over a half century, the IBM mainframe remains the industry’s preeminent enterprise computing platform.