|
Keeping it simple, do more with less
Linux on System z can help to remove complexity from your IT infrastructure: reducing server sprawl, keeping a lid on software licensing fees and minimizing the need for human intervention in managing and maintaining your infrastructure.
While Linux brings advantages to all the platforms that it runs on, choosing the IBM mainframe for Linux applications adds the mainframe core strengths that distinguish the mainframe from the other platforms.
Here are the key capabilities of Linux on System z that make this possible:
|
 |
|
Virtualization technology, built into every System z server, offers a world-class virtualization for the business. It allows you to create and manage discrete virtual processors and communications, storage and I/O devices in a single System z server. These resources can be dynamically shared or reconfigured, helping to simplify the demands placed upon you.
The System z servers also offer software virtualization through z/VM. With z/VM’s extreme virtualization capabilities, which have been perfected since its introduction in 1967, up to hundreds of distributed servers can be virtualized on a single System z server. z/VM allows you as well to create and deploy virtual Linux servers in minutes rather than days. This can help accelerate your time to market. Consider also the potential gains in software licensing, because the pricing model for many distributed software products is linked to the number of processors or processor cores.
IBM itself is conducting a very large consolidation project named Project Big Green, which aims at consolidating approximately 3,900 distributed servers into approximately 30 mainframes using z/VM and Linux on System z. It expects to achieve reductions of over 80% in the use of space and energy. Similar results have been publicly presented by some clients, and these reductions directly translate to significant monetary savings.
|
|
|
|
Virtualization technology is today’s answer to increase energy efficiency. The replacement of many servers and networks into one server helps to improve cost efficiency and reduce power consumption. The ultimate infrastructure would allow sharing all resources – processors, memory, network adapters and storage – permitting movement, control and balance of workload and data. IBM mainframes are designed to share resources and direct them, according to user defined policies, virtually and dynamically whenever and wherever they are needed.
The System z virtualization technologies – hardware and software – deliver the industrial-strength, extreme virtualization capabilities that allow easy consolidation of workloads from up to a few hundred stand-alone distributed servers (x86/UNIX) onto a single, compact and secure server. The differences are quantum – a refrigerator size box versus a full room of servers – there is not any choice when a realistic analysis is done.
The modular design, efficient dense packaging, high efficiency power supplies, resource sharing and leading virtualization all assist System z’s enablement of energy efficient computing.
|
|
|
|
Advanced System z system management tools are designed to provide the proper amount of resource to the most important applications when needed. The VM Resource Manager lets users assign performance goals to help ensure that your on-demand business meets demands for service. And, Linux together installed with z/OS allows you to take advantage of the z/OS Workload Manager, which can manage the logical partition that Linux is running in, and in concert with the Intelligent Resource Manager to dynamically balance your computing resources to your workloads, to help you to be prepared for spikes in demand.
Big jobs get the muscle they need, and small jobs only what they need, keeping utilization and availability high. Virtualization software gives you a single point of system management control, helping to minimize errors and, by extension, effort and costs. And innovative self-configuring, self-healing, self-optimizing and self-protecting features built into every System z server can keep your system running at peak performance with a minimum of human intervention.
System z allows for integrated visibility, control and automation across all of the business and IT infrastructure components that support differentiated service delivery and accelerated business growth.
|
|
|
|
Linux, built on open standards, provides the flexibility to make it easier for multiple applications and middleware to work together to deploy new solutions more quickly, and process transactions and data more efficiently. The leading-edge System z technology and coexistence with z/OS, z/VSE and z/VM is designed to provide high-speed connections among heterogeneous applications in the same server. These high-speed connections, called HiperSockets, can be described as an in-storage implementation of a TCP/IP network. By reducing the need for an external network, HiperSockets helps you reduce costs, and complexity, and since all of the communication takes place within the System z server, security is improved as well.
Additional integration capabilities of System z are based on support for open standards, such as the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), J2EE, Web services and Web 2.0. These are leading-edge technologies can provide extremely high speed, security-rich connections between applications in the same physical server.
The result is a highly integrated environment designed to be free of barriers to information sharing, allowing your infrastructure to become more responsive, flexible and efficient.
|
|
|
|
Business resilience can be considered the ability of an enterprise to continue to function effectively in the face of natural and man-made problems and disasters affecting its IT. Over the years, resiliency technologies have evolved and become deeply embedded into System z design. The System z product line is designed to offer layer upon layer of fault tolerance and error-checking features. If a failure occurs, the redundancy that is built into the platform shifts the work from failing components to ones that work to prevent the application and user service from being interrupted. In addition, failed components may be removed and replaced while applications are active and continue to run, eliminating downtime.
Resiliency in the System z platform goes far beyond the hardware. The System z resiliency design point focuses as well on the applications, which results in an integrated environment where hardware, firmware, operating systems, and middleware work together to provide application and data availability and resiliency.
Resiliency is imperative to a business’ bottom line, and business strategists usually consider the System z environment to be the most resilient platform.
|
|
|
|
System z provides a highly secure Linux platform. System z servers today are the result of over forty years of innovation. The System z environment allows running multiple applications concurrently on the same server by isolating and protecting each application environment. Linux on System z solutions also incorporate several industry-leading security features, such as those for the cryptographic function implemented on each central processor, delivering support to the System z platform for encryption and decryption of data, and for scaling up the security throughput of the system.
As well, all components of the Linux on System z environment have received a high level of security certifications: the Linux distributions are certified at EAL 4+ (e.g.: Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP1, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 5), z/VM Version 5 Release 3 is certified at EAL 4+ and System z10 EC and System z9 EC & z9 BC are certified at EAL 4.
Linux, leveraging the mainframe strength, is evolving to an even higher level of quality.
|
|
|
| |
IBM z/VM virtualization technology
|
|
|
|
|
Easy access to Linux on System z information |
|
|
|
|
