Trouble in WinTel World?

NEWS

** Scaling The Heights: A Linux-Only Mainframe

On the eve of the Linux World conference, IBM says it's making
a Linux-only mainframe. IBM execs say they're aiming at
businesses that use numerous smaller servers (read: Wintel
machines). Transferring the computing tasks handled by multiple
servers onto a single mainframe, the company maintains, will
help users lower their overall computing costs without
sacrificing horsepower.

The eServer zSeries for Linux will feature IBM's z/VM
virtualization software, which allows the machine to be
subdivided into hundreds of so-called virtual machines that
operate independently of each other. The Linux-based mainframe
will sell for less than IBM's conventional models, which run on
the company's proprietary zOS operating system. But the new
machine lacks some of its predecessors' high-end security and
transaction processing features. A basic version of the Linux-
only mainframe will start at about $400,000, including three
years of maintenance, while the sticker price on an entry-level
zOS-based mainframe starts at about $750,000.

Bob Sutherland, an analyst with Technology Business Research,
says that by offering a Linux mainframe, IBM is trying to
create a new market for the big iron, which once ruled data
centers but in recent years have given way to less-expensive
Windows and Unix machines. "It may make them more appealing for
users that ordinarily would never have considered buying a
mainframe," Sutherland says.

Despite the overall decline in mainframe use, IBM has managed
to enlarge its mainframe business in recent quarters, though
sales were essentially flat in the company's most recent fourth
quarter. - Paul McDougall

 

What is great about zOS is that you can run two machines as redundant. If they can do that with the new ones, it will be good for many applications. Might take the RS/6000 thunder away...