z Adds Entries and x to p Plus XIV

IBM Corp. announces two new models of the System z zEnterprise servers and expands the IBM zEnterprise BladeCenter Extension (zBX) to include select System x blades, which will run Linux and Microsoft Corp. Windows applications.  IBM also announced a new generation of XIV storage arrays that greatly improves its capacity and performance.

Focal Points:

• IBM unveiled its new entry-level mainframe server series, the IBM zEnterprise 114, which comes in two models – one with five configurable processor cores and one with 10 cores. The zEnterprise 114 is the successor to the System z10 BC server. The new server costs 25 percent less than its predecessor, with an entry price of $75,000 and offers up to 25 percent more performance and 12 percent more capacity. IBM claims customers can consolidate workloads from 40 x86 processors running Oracle Corp. software on to a new z114 with just three processors running Linux. IBM also states it can scale from 26 MIPS to 3100 MIPS and can be configured with up to two spare cores. Additionally, company officials provided notice that this would be the last System z family to support ESCON channels. Along with the new server, IBM announced a new pricing slope for the processors and maintenance and price reductions on memory and specialty engines. IGF is offering a number of financing options for current clients upgrading as well as those trading in competitive servers.
• IBM is expanding the zBX options to include System x blades, specifically the HX5 dual-socket 16-core blades. The HX5 blades can run Linux x86 applications unchanged today, and in the near future will be able to execute Windows applications. Up to 112 blades can be supported on a zBX. Customers can intermix DataPower, Power7, and System x blades in the same zBX chassis. IBM's Unified Resource Manager will install an integrated KVM hypervisor on the BladeCenter HX5. The IBM zEnterprise Unified Resource Manager integrates the management of all zEnterprise resources as a single system and extends mainframe qualities to workloads running on zBX processors.
• IBM introduced the XIV Gen3 storage arrays, which improve the performance fourfold and can be upgraded to include SSD cache. The entry capacity doubles from 27 TB to 55 TB, although total capacity remains at 161 TB. The new arrays employ an InfiniBand interconnect that provides a 20x increase in performance as well as 50 percent larger cache per module and new 8 Gbps Fibre channel ports. The maximum memory expanded to 360 GB from 240 GB and the supported disk types are now SAS and SSD. IBM claims that users will find the XIV Gen3 storage will increase performance by up to three times for mixed workloads, and two times for OLTP workloads and snapshots. Officials also state that there is a three times improvement in latency. According to IBM, in the first half of 2012 SSD caching will be available as a hot online upgrade, providing up to 7.5 TB of fast read cache. Also included in the announcement were plug-ins for mobile devices and VMware Inc.'s vCenter.

Experton Group believes IBM's converged architecture strategy, when fully deployed, will enable customers to bring all critical workloads under a single operating umbrella that will provide mainframe quality of service, improve productivity and cut operating costs. Once Linux and Windows environments can be encapsulated within the zEnterprise system environment, IBM can move toward making the mainframe the primary data store for all platforms. Moving databases from shared-nothing distributed system database architectures to the shared mainframe database architecture will enable companies to drastically reduce the number of database copies, improve scheduling and backup windows, eliminate duplicative storage costs, and make companies more agile and information aware. Currently, the XIV storage system supports all IBM platforms (and some non-IBM servers) except the mainframe; however, Experton Group expects IBM to correct this architectural flaw within 12 to 18 months. IT executives looking at data center consolidation and virtualization and/or platform convergence should talk to IBM about its zEnterprise roadmap, strategy and successes and determine if, how and where this converged operating environment could fit into the enterprises' target architectures and strategies. IT executives should also understand the XIV architecture, how it slashes storage costs and improves administrator productivity, and then determine if the XIV storage system should be on the short list of those being considered as a target storage platform.