Technogory

IBM recently announced the next generation of mainframe - z10 - which sports some great new features, more MIPS, and a quad-core processor that now rivals your favorite laptop! But seriously, maybe now we have some hope for real consolidation efforts in the data center. Further, maybe consolidation sprawl can be managed as well!

I attended an IBM tech briefing that is held about once a quarter in Kansas City. The primary purpose of this discussion was to talk about the virtues of Linux on the mainframe, dovetailed into the virtues of the new z10. I was very interested in this, as up to this point, the company that I am associated has been very slow at adopting any level of serious Linux/mainframe implementations. In part due to the slow-to-market mentality of the organization, but also because of the limitations in determining what the “right” application is to run in the zLinux environment. Everyone knows, the mainframe has tons of I/O to dish out. But if you want to run a Java application with some CPU intensive work, forget about it. The mainframe is not designed to handle that type of workload with much efficiency.

Enter z10 -

Now we have some hope that the different types of workloads can live in a zLinux environment and cooperate with each other to provide efficiencies not seen on the mainframe and attain true consolidation! Today, if you are running a z9 platform, you can run basic web applications, databases, and maybe some web transactions without worry of the impact on the CP’s in the mainframe. That equates to cost - remember, the mainframe is a big coin operated meter, the more coin a company tosses at it, the more power IBM turns on! So, a company with limited resources does have to be aware of the workloads it is attempting to run in that environment. So, high CPU bandwidth applications are not a good idea in the z9 class of mainframe.

The z10 gives us a quad-core CPU running at a 4.4 GHz rate! this is phenomenal, and long over due! Further, the MIP capacity has been increased significantly. The I/O is what you would expect, excellent. So, the excitement I have for the z10 is the potential to run those Java applications in a zLinux environment that might require some CPU - but without fear! The 4.4 GHz quad-core CPU will be able to handle the workloads. I hope to be able to review some Java comparisons between a pSeries versus a z10 to find out if it can truly handle the loads.

Consolidation will be put to rest once and for all if the findings are positive. Today, a typical data center may have iSeries, pSeries, zSeries, and a bunch of x86 based pizza boxes. If I can leverage the fault-tolerance of a mainframe, and carry the processing requirements of those environments on a single z10 of some magnitude, viola, now I am consolidating.

IBM is apparently banking heavily on the Linux success it has seen thus far, and looking to the future. It was once reported that the mainframe died around 1996 - due to client-server, due to Unix, due to the death of mainframe programmers - however, Linux has breathed new life into the big iron. I for one hope to see it become successful!