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Infrastructure simplification

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IBM mainframe servers can be strategically leveraged at the heart of your Infrastructure Simplification strategy, as they offer a number of Infrastructure Simplification "sweet spots" to enhance your on demand IT enterprise.

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Scaling up
The ability to "scale up", or add processor power for additional workloads allows customers to order an IBM mainframe server configured with less than the maximum amount of processor power and upgrade it "on demand" using a customer-initiated procedure to add processing power when it's needed to support new applications or increased activity for existing applications, without, in most cases, waiting for a service representative to call.

Parallel Sysplex
Running an IBM mainframe Parallel Sysplex can help to simplify a distributed environment by running the transaction volumes on a single unified processing base with the associated benefits of IBM mainframe availability, etc. The Parallel Sysplex ability to support very large databases with integrity and high performance can help simplify those environments which have to partition data across multiple servers. This can help increase availability while reducing administrative and management costs.

Scaling out
An IBM mainframe server can help reduce the number of single-application servers running in distributed environments by its ability to "scale out." "Scale out" describes how the virtualization technology of the IBM mainframe server lets users define and provision virtual servers that have all of the characteristics of distributed servers, except they do not require dedicated hardware. In terms of simplification, an IBM mainframe server can share resources among hundreds of virtual servers. Therefore, the need for massive amounts of server hardware can be reduced. When server hardware is reduced, it may also reduce the need for power, cooling, floor space and UPS capacity.

HiperSockets
An IBM mainframe innovation called HiperSockets™ or an "in memory TCP/IP network," can reduce the size and complexity of the network needed for inter-server communication. Since HiperSockets is implemented in millecode and uses memory as its transport media, it reduces the need for networking hardware (cabling, routers, and switches and software) and can provide lower latency and higher performance than a physical external network. Security is also improved, since an eavesdropping device like a "sniffer" can't be attached to HiperSockets with the IBM mainframe.

Server consolidation
The ability of an IBM mainframe system to assume workloads from a variety of heterogeneous environments provides a new, highly viable avenue for server consolidation—the first step toward Infrastructure Simplification, particularly because of its comprehensive support for the largely popular Linux environment.

Open standards
Open and industry standard technologies like J2EE, Linux and Grid form a base upon which applications can leverage the virtualized computing environment, which can allow movement and scheduling between the IBM mainframe and distributed servers as appropriate. These capabilities support Infrastructure Simplification because they help clients leverage their existing IT resources more efficiently and lets the client leverage the inherent values of each individual platform—thus IBM mainframe can bring its database, transaction processing, availability, virtualization and scalability values as a major contributor to the computing resource of the on demand operating environment.

z/OS and z/VM
When using both z/OS® and z/VM® based virtual servers, the IBM mainframe can leverage its Intelligent Resource Director (IRD) to balance resource among partitions. This advanced workload management technology is used to establish policy and business priorities to direct resources to key applications when needed. This and other workload management features, like Workload Manager (WLM) function and VM Resource Manager, are key to IBM mainframe ability to effectively run at continued high utilization, efficiently using available resource designed to match business processing requirements among the mixed workloads in the system.

Linux on System z
Using Linux on System z can help to reduce costs. By reducing the number of operating systems and servers in an infrastructure, personnel skills can be optimized. Skills being used to support complex distributed infrastructures may be redirected in simplified environments and applied to building the business applications that will keep a company competitive in the future.

zAAP
With the IBM System z Application Assist Processor (zAAP) available on the IBM System z9 Enterprise Class (z9 EC), IBM eServer zSeries 890 (z890) and IBM eServer zSeries 990 (z990) servers, users can deploy and integrate new Java™ technology-based workloads on the very same platform as heritage applications and core business databases in a highly cost-effective manner.

Other IBM products and IT assessments

IBM System Storage Productivity Center
Helps reduce the effort of managing complex storage infrastructures, improve storage capacity utilization and improve administrative efficiency.

IBM BladeCenter
Integrates servers, networking and storage to help increase flexibility, ease of maintenance, reduce cost and streamline human resources.

IBM eServer pSeries 690 (p690)
Offers industry-leading UNIX performance and value with no compromises to its outstanding scalability, on demand features and high availability capabilities.

IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager
Automates manual processes for server provisioning, including operating systems, servers, middleware, applications, power supplies, storage and networking devices.

IBM Tivoli Intelligent Orchestrator
Can help reduce costs and improve server utilization by continually evaluating real-time IT resource status and dynamically aligning IT resources based on business priorities.

IBM SAN Volume Controller
Helps reduce the complexity and costs of managing storage networks by allowing users to virtualize their storage.