Friday, 23 March 2007

IBM Mainframe and Linux Can Lower Customer Costs, Independent Analyst

The IBM System z mainframe is a platform for consolidating distributed UNIX/Linux applications and offers users "potential cost savings, productivity gains and improved utilisation rates through capabilities such as virtualisation and security and systems management," according to IT analyst Forrester.

In a new report titled, 'Why Choose Linux on the Mainframe', Forrester analyst Brad Day examined the cost, human resources, and capacity utilisation issues that customers need to address in their distributed Linux or Unix computing infrastructures.

The report states that the mainframe can provide customers with many clear benefits as the "cost—driven by new Linux OS images, new applications, new staffing requirements, and an ever-increasing user base—of deploying new physical x86 servers escalates." To make this easier and help attract first-time customers, IBM introduced a new System z Business Class Mainframe, offering mainframe power and capacity at a lower cost.

"As of Q2 2006, IBM claimed some very impressive market statistics relative to Linux workload traction on System z. And now, with a much more aggressively priced System z9 Business Class 'midframe' offering ... weighing in at a similar price band to an equivalent midrange native Unix and/or Linux/RISC-based server alternative, we expect IBM to start closing footprint for new System z placement with Linux consolidation as a core reason," the report states.