Get the facts

IBM’s System z mainframe draws on decades of innovation and collaboration with our most advanced clients – who run the most complex business operations on the planet. We think you’ll agree that System z is simply the most powerful tool available to clients to reduce cost and complexity and improve security and reliability in their data centers. Among other things, the proof is in the mainframe’s rapid adoption this decade in solving the most complex business, governmental and academic challenges, doubling IBM’s mainframe revenue share and driving growth in skills supporting the mainframe around the world.

• All 50 of the world’s top global banks depend on IBM mainframes to run some of the most sophisticated transactions on the planet.
• An IBM System z10 EC has the equivalent capacity of nearly 1,500 x86 servers with an 85% smaller footprint and up to 85% lower energy costs.
• The mainframe is a hotbed for business applications—with 600 new applications in 2007 alone—with momentum in both traditional and Linux, Java and business intelligence apps.
• System z is a strong driver of IBM's greater than 50% revenue share in the high-end server segment, according to IDC

UPDATE (11/11/08):‘Get the Facts’ challenged HP’s Oct 29 market share position claim (noted below). Subsequently, HP issued an updated press release on the same topic, leaving out any mention of a “strong market share position,” or that companies are “increasingly” choosing Integrity servers over mainframes.

The fact is that the adoption of IBM mainframes, which power the top 50 banks worldwide and 22 of the top 25 US retailers, has enabled IBM's System z to nearly double its share this decade, according to IDC's high-end server quarterly tracker. Over the same timeframe, HP and Sun have lost share.

Additionally, in August 2008, Gartner credited System z with driving IBM's overall lead for
global servers for the second quarter—as System z captured nearly 34 percent revenue share.

Also, installed capacity of new workloads on IBM mainframes grew significantly in the first half
of 2008. For example, Linux "specialty engines" for the mainframe grew 26% in the first
half of this year; Java specialty engines grew 45%; and database specialty engines grew
133%.

Examples of the wide range of clients that have adopted IBM mainframes include: Winn-Dixie Stores (United States), Transzap (United States), Industrial Bank of Korea, Japan Airlines International, Banco De Guayaquil (Ecuador), Itau Bank (Brazil), Postbank AG (Germany), Finanz Informatik (Germany); PSBank (Philippines), RHB Banking Group (Malaysia), and
Allied Irish Bank. In emerging markets such as Brazil, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, IBM mainframe revenue grew 21%, comparing the first half of 2008 to the first half of 2007.

For more information please visit IBM’s November 11 press release entitled "Clients Across Major Industries, Mature and Emerging Markets Choose IBM Mainframes to Run Their Most-Sophisticated Business Transactions"

11/5/08: HP’s market share statement is misleading – and supported only by a carefully selected slice of market share data – not the global market.

In making the claim, HP cited a single-quarter’s report, and then limited that report’s findings
to the EMEA market alone.  In this particular quarter and in this particular part of the world, IBM and HP actually tied for revenue share, according to the report.

Again, HP is using small, carefully selected examples in an attempt to refute a bigger point:
IBM System z is seeing remarkable adoption among companies today, growing revenue share
on a worldwide basis. 

• System z is the key driver of IBM's greater than 50 percent revenue share worldwide in the high-end server segment, according to IDC.
• HP's high-end system worldwide revenue share has declined over the past two years (2Q06
  - 2Q08) as IBM's has grown according to IDC.
• In August 2008, Gartner credited System z with driving IBM's overall lead for
  global servers for the second quarter—as System z captured nearly 34 percent revenue share.

Back to top

HP’s “70 percent savings” number is misleading to clients.

The number is based on a single, unnamed company’s experience - not the experience of many companies, and not representative of the value that so many clients are seeing with the mainframe today. 

This is one of many misleading claims that HP has made relative to the IBM mainframe.  Click here (PDF, 877KB) to see a report which captures HP’s misleading points and sets them straight.

Back to top

The facts prove dramatically otherwise
z10 mainframes can outperform HP Superdomes on power consumption by a factor of 2.5x or greater. The key is the capacity of the machine to run work in the industry’s leading virtual and automated enterprise systems environment, not just comparing a single frame z10 to a single frame HP Superdome.

Back to top

• First, Mainframes dramatically reduce overall IT staff requirements versus distributed environments.
• All core infrastructure technologies require a skills plan. IBM offers many options to address client skills requirements.
• The fact is there is a skills boom fueled by the soaring growth of the mainframe.
• IBM's Academic Initiative for System z — creates thousands of mainframe-trained graduates every year. More than 400 universities worldwide have joined the Alliance to teach mainframe and large systems skills - up from just 24 universities in 2004. Over the past three years, nearly 50,000 students have participated in mainframe training and education.
• In 2006, IBM initiated a five-year, $100 million simplification program to enable technology administrators and computer programmers to more easily program, manage and administer a mainframe system. Through this initiative, IBM has made the use of mainframes more intuitive and more GUI-based, saving valuable time for programmers, system administrators and other IT professionals.

Back to top

Say What?

Gartner Group rates both System z and NonStop tied at 10 out of a possible 10. HP left out a fact that is critically important to client value….

• NonStop is a specialized system, with a specialized operating system that is losing share, doesn’t run any industry standard benchmarks and has a narrow set of applications.
• In contrast, the mainframe runs Linux, z0S, WebSphere and has been demonstrated to run Sun Microsystems’ OpenSolaris. The mainframe also is a hotbed for business applications—with 600 new applications in 2007 alone—and a grand total of 4,000 unique applications.
• HP NonStop lacks many other characteristics needed for a general purpose system, such as the availability of a wide range of systems management tools, and mixed workload management capabilities. Gartner rated NonStop a 6 out of 10 for mixed workload management, for which System z earned the top rating of 10.

Back to top

Guess again.

• HP’s comparisons based on hardware specs (eg. engine-to-engine basis and on memory prices) overlook the utilization (up to 100%) and management advantages of the System z, which is what matters in operations and drives real lower cost of ownership.
• The combination of specialty engines, superior systems management, and the overall economics of the mainframe lead to TCO results that clearly favor the System z.
• IBM conducted a TCO assessment of System z10 and HP Superdome servers in a banking environment. The assessment showed that the z10 configuration provided excellent scalability with fewer cores, less supporting staff, and less power consumption than the HP distributed server configuration.
• Further, the HP Superdome configuration was 62% ($11.8 million) more expensive than the System z10 configuration in a three-year TCO comparison.

Back to top