At IBM, we obsess over what our clients need—not just to meet today’s business challenges, but what will help them capitalize on future opportunities.
That’s why I’m so excited about our new single frame and rack mount configurations of IBM z16 and IBM LinuxONE 4. The result of five years of planning and innovation, these new options are a game changer for our clients and the IBM Ecosystem that will help bring them to market.
The new offerings are built for the modern data center to help optimize flexibility and sustainability, particularly for small- and medium-sized businesses. For IBM Ecosystem partners, the new rack mount configurations open more business opportunities to reach new audiences with specific data center design requirements. With capabilities for partition-level power monitoring and additional environmental metrics, the single frame and rack mount configurations can potentially help reduce a client’s carbon footprint.
For example, consolidating Linux workloads on an IBM LinuxONE Rockhopper 4 instead of running them on compared x86 servers with similar conditions and location can reduce energy consumption by 75% and space by 67%. [1]
Delivering game-changing value
For clients, the introduction of IBM LinuxONE Rockhopper 4 options means that they can integrate a sustainability-focused hybrid cloud platform into a much wider variety of data center environments, helping to create a new class of use cases, including optimizing data center design and supporting data privacy.
For example, Amret, a leading microfinance institution in Cambodia, provides financial services to micro and small businesses, spurring economic and community development. As the Cambodian economy rapidly grows, Amret is focused on offering loans, deposits, money transfers and digital payments to millions of citizens. They’ve chosen IBM LinuxONE running a Temenos core banking platform to underpin their technical infrastructure strategy. This technical infrastructure positions Amret to deliver top-tier customer service and meet business objectives with high availability, reliability and performance capabilities.
IBM z16 and LinuxONE Rockhopper 4 support many Linux and Red Hat OpenShift-certified workloads, including data serving, core banking and digital assets. Independent Software Vendors supporting these platforms include Alebra, Clari5, CrowdStrike, Dynatrace, F5 NGINX, Finacle, Flexera, Fujitsu, MongoDB, Nth Exception, Pennant, SQ Solutions and SunTec.
The built-in security capabilities of IBM z16—quantum safe cryptography and pervasive encryption complemented by AI acceleration—provide a securable computing platform that helps to protect sensitive data in highly regulated industries. Working with IBM partner Vicom, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) depends on IBM z16’s hallmark security and availability for the Virginia Commonwealth Cloud Center for Cloud Computing (C4) initiative. This initiative aims to teach VCU students key technology skills that are valued by highly regulated industries.
Opening new opportunities
Today’s IT leaders are tasked with not only solving challenging technical problems, but also driving key business outcomes. Digitally transforming operations and reshaping customer experiences requires deep integration across the full stack of technology and business priorities.
By introducing single frame and rack mount configurations for zSystems and LinuxONE, we can help partners open the door for new use cases with their clients by offering configurations that participate in distributed, hybrid cloud environments—co-located with storage and compute in a client’s own racks.
With the new IBM LinuxONE Rockhopper 4 servers, IBM will offer IBM LinuxONE Advanced Expert Care. IBM Expert Care integrates and prepackages hardware and software support services into a tiered support model, helping organizations to choose the right fit of services. This support for LinuxONE Rockhopper 4 will offer enhanced value to clients with predictable maintenance costs and is designed to address deployment and operating risk.
How to get started
IBM provides resources and skills for clients and partners who want to learn more about the new single frame and rack mount configurations and IBM LinuxONE Expert Care. To learn more about the new configurations from industry experts, please attend the upcoming virtual events on April 4 and April 17, 2023. Read the official press release to learn more.
Clients, ISVs and developers can get started right away by visiting the Journey to LinuxONE to learn more and even sign up for access to develop, test or run open-source applications on the LinuxONE Community Cloud. IBM also provides access to IBM z/OS on the IBM Cloud with IBM Wazi as a Service, providing users with on-demand access to virtual server instances for development and test.
ISVs interested in validating their solutions are invited to join the LinuxONE Partner Network to certify their software. For re-sellers, IBM offers the following courses:
[1] DISCLAIMER: Compared IBM Machine Type 3932 Max 68 model consisting of a CPC drawer and an I/O drawer to support network and external storage, with 68 IFLs and 7 TB of memory in 1 frame versus compared 36 x86 servers (2 Skylake Xeon Gold Chips, 40 Cores) with a total of 1440 cores. IBM Machine Type 3932 Max 68 model power consumption was measured on systems and confirmed using the IBM Power estimator for the IBM Machine Type 3932 Max 68 model configuration. x86 power values were based on February 2023 IDC QPI power values and reduced to 55% based on measurements of x86 servers by IBM and observed values in the field. The x86 server compared to uses approximately .6083 KWhr, 55% of IDC QPI system watts value. Savings assumes the Worldwide Data Center Power Utilization Effectiveness (PUE) factor of 1.55 to calculate the additional power needed for cooling. PUE is based on Uptime Institute 2022 Global Data Center Survey. x86 system space calculations require 3 racks. Results may vary based on client-specific usage and location.