Virtualization

About virtualization

Solutions

Getting started

	Overview  |  Features  |  Virtualization Engine  |  z/VM  |  Linux  |   Infrastructure simplification

Why IBM mainframe for virtualization?
Virtualization has become the buzz word for businesses wanting to lower their total costs of ownership and improve reliability and flexibility. But, how does virtualization technology work? And how is the IBM mainframe an important part of the picture?

The power of virtualization
In simple terms, virtualization offers a way to help consolidate a large number of individual small machines on one larger server, easing manageability and more efficiently using system resources by allowing them to be prioritized and allocated to the workloads needing them most at any given point in time. Thus, you will reduce the need to over-provision for individual workload spikes. Partitioning and virtualization are complementary technologies that are most effective when combined but it is very important to understand the distinction between the two. Partitioning provides the ability to divide physical system resources into a number of distinct, isolated regions that operate independently from each other. In general, there is a one-to-one relationship between a physical resource and the region or logical partition it is assigned to, creating the equivalent of a "box within a box." All the physical pieces behave and perform exactly as they do if partitioning were not present.

Virtualization takes this concept one step further in that it provides the ability to simulate the availability of hardware that may not be present in sufficient amount—or at all! Virtualization uses the available physical resources as a shared pool to emulate missing physical resources. Virtualization is capable of very fine control over how and to what extent a physical resource is used by a specific virtual machine or server.

Virtualization technologies can ultimately help:

• Reduce financial pressures
• Improve security and operational resiliency
• Protect sensitive data
• Accelerate time to market
• Deploy new capabilities
• Reduce "islands of information"

Through System z virtualization technology, rapid server deployment and provisioning can help enable new virtual servers in real time, and virtual blade technology can support multiple diverse workloads in a protected and isolated environment. Low network latency between virtual systems allows you to map physical server topology onto the System z landscape and allows you to manage tens to hundreds of virtual servers from a single point of control.

During spikes in demand, the IBM mainframe's ability to quickly redistribute system resources and scale up and/or out can make the difference between flawless execution and the cost of slow response times or system crashes. For example, a single System z mainframe can scale up to millions of transactions per day or scale out to manage tens to hundreds of virtual servers. It can also dynamically redistribute system resources to autonomically manage varying server demands on the systems resources.

Customer success stories

	Macro 4 boosts speed-to-market with IBM System z9 Business Class By implementing an IBM System z9 Business Class server with zAAP, zIIP and IFL engines, Macro 4 has improved its ability to run multiple independent virtual server environments simultaneously.
	Erie 1 BOCES builds a powerful portal with IBM WebSphere, System z and Linux "With WebSphere on the System z platform, Erie 1 BOCES has a highly automated, scalable and cost-effective solution which can support growth and promote development, providing a higher level of service to our customers," states Carol Troskosky, CIO, Erie 1 BOCES.