Thursday, 6 December 2007

OpenSolaris Runs on IBM Mainframe

At the Gartner’s Data Center Conference Wednesday, IBM, Sun Microsystems and Sine Nomine Associates demonstrated how OpenSolaris can now run on an IBM mainframe, illustrating the Solaris Operating System (OS) and the mainframe's powerful ability to virtualize the data center.

This demonstration follows Sine Nomine's-- a research and engineering firm based in Ashburn, Virginia-- announcement last year of an independent project to do the port and August's announcement that IBM and Sun would investigate a project to port OpenSolaris to the System z mainframe.

"The future of the data center lies in virtualization's ability to reduce skyrocketing energy and maintenance costs," said James Stallings, general manager, IBM System z.

"Corporations around the world have for years relied on the IBM mainframe -- which pioneered virtualization -- to run their businesses. The Solaris Operating System is similarly prevalent in data centers. It makes perfect sense to marry these two stalwarts in a virtualized mainframe environment."

Complementing this news, IBM also endorsed Sun's xVM initiative. IBM and Sun believe in an open, comprehensive virtualization and management platform that increases customer value and choice.

Sun said that Wednesday’s news demonstrates important progress for Solaris compatibility between IBM and Sun, since the companies announced in August that IBM was expanding support for the Solaris OS.

"Momentum surrounding Sun's Solaris Operating System and Sun xVM virtualization continues to grow, and we're thrilled to be able to reach new customers and market opportunities alongside IBM," said Rich Green, executive vice president, Software, Sun Microsystems.

"Broadening our collaboration with IBM expands the reach of Solaris and Sun xVM to the mainframe marketplace, and brings the benefit of open source operating systems and open source virtualization to the highest scale datacenters in the world."