Mainframe computers were once viewed as dinosaurs, doomed to extinction by smaller, more nimble machines. Now, they are viewed as data-hungry bulwarks of the global economy, a view reinforced by IBM”™s introduction July 22 of a faster, better mainframe, the so-called “zEnterprise” system.
The zEnterprise mainframe server and a new systems design allow faster processing of larger workloads and do so with money-saving energy efficiency, according to IBM.
Specifically, the zEnterprise system is 40 to 60 percent faster than its mainframe predecessor the System z10, but uses the same amount of energy. It is their first revamped main frame in 20 years.
The zEnterprise system project took three years and cost about $1.5 billion to develop, involving some 5,000 employees at 18 locales worldwide. The project development was led by employees in the Poughkeepsie and Fishkill facilities, which have long served as IBM centers for mainframe research and development. But company officials say the breakthrough will not lead to any upsurge in employment in those facilities.
Besides being faster, more powerful and more energy efficient than current mainframes, perhaps the most significant change is that other kinds of computers can now be plugged into the mainframe to manage a data center almost as if it were all a single computer.
“It’s one place to manage multiple systems, rather than having customers have to worry about managing all of the various systems,” said IBM director of platform integration and tests Kevin Collins. “They can do it from one single location, using one single set of tasks, one single set of tools,”
Mainframes are large, extremely powerful computers used to process high volumes of information. Data centers of all sorts can benefit from a faster, more energy efficient mainframe, but the IBM zEnterprise system can allow a data center to serve as a sort of single mega-computer, by making it possible to plug data from different computers into a single unifying system.
Banks seeking to track A.T.M. transactions for fraud in real-time, for example, would hold the customer data on a mainframe that handles banking transactions. But the pattern analysis for fraud is best done on a Unix machine, which the zEnterprise system now allows to be plugged into the mainframe. That makes the complex applications needed to uncover fraud easier and less expensive to run.
The company said the core server in the zEnterprise system contains the world’s fastest, most powerful microprocessors, running at 5.2Ghz, making them capable of executing more than 50 billion calculations per second. The microprocessor technology also includes new software to help handle data-heavy workloads, by utilizing predictive analytics technology, according to the company. It will also come with a water cooling option, which could help reduce energy consumption by up to 12 percent by removing air heat.
IBM said rollouts of the new System z mainframe and associated systems will happen in mid-September. The company expects the new product to drive revenue growth and pretax profits into the double-digit range in the second half of 2010. On July 22, the company announced revenue jumped 9 percent over last year in the period ending June 30.
