RE: System i recast as nimble, high-performance computer for Linux, business and web-based programs

They also had the Z10 guy on CNBC's squawk box on I think Monday...

Gee....think we can get Mark to show up on CNBC??? Maybe take Frank and Al
with him?

Don in DC

=======================================================

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Michael Ryan
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 1:53 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: System i recast as nimble, high-performance computer for
Linux,business and web-based programs

This is the difference....

"broad campaign by I.B.M."

On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 9:32 PM, jde iSeries <jde.iseries@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[sigh ] I wish that the System i could get this kind of news coverage.
This article would be just as accurate if "System i" were substituted

for

"mainframe".




I.B.M. to Introduce a Notably Improved MainframeThe mainframe, the aged

yet

surprisingly resilient survivor of computing, is getting a face-lift. A
model called the

I.B.M.<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/international_b
usiness_machines/index.html?inline=nyt-org>

z10,
which is being introduced Tuesday, is far faster and has three times the
data-juggling memory of its three-year-old predecessor, the z9.

But the significance of the new machine, analysts say, is that it is a

big

step in a broad campaign by I.B.M. to make the mainframe computer a
high-performance, energy-efficient engine for running all kinds of
nonmainframe software.

The goal, according to I.B.M. executives and analysts, is to recast the
mainframe as a nimble supercomputer in corporate and government data
centers, running Web-based programs, Linux, advanced data mining and
business intelligence software.

To do that, I.B.M. has refined its mainframe hardware and come up with

new

software tools, as part of a five-year, $1.5-billion overhaul.

"The mainframe's ability to survive is only as good as its ability to
innovate and compete for these new computing workloads of the future," an
analyst atForrester

Research<http://www.nytimes.com/mem/MWredirect.html?MW=http://custom.marketw
atch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=FORR>,

Brad Day, said. "And I.B.M. is starting to succeed at that."

The stakes are high. Though the sales of mainframes account for less than

4

percent of I.B.M.'s revenue, the sales of mainframe software, storage and
services are a big, profitable business. The overall business dependent

on

mainframes represents about 25 percent of company revenue and nearly half

of

its profit, said A. M. Sacconaghi, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein &
Company.

At Hannaford Brothers in Scarborough, Me., a supermarket chain with

stores

in five states, the company has consolidated many programs onto its two
mainframes. They include its consumer Web site, its Web portal for

tracking

shipments from suppliers and store and customer data that were once

housed

on computers in individual stores.

"The mainframe has become very flexible and very scalable for us," said

Bill

Homa, Hannaford's chief information officer.

Robert Woeckener, a senior technology manager at Nationwide Insurance in
Columbus, Ohio, said his company had consolidated more than 1,300

programs

onto 480 virtual computers - software that emulates a machine - that run

on

two mainframes.

Nationwide began the program more than two years ago, projecting savings

in

energy, administration and other costs at $15 million over three years.
"We're probably running ahead of that," Mr. Woeckener said.

I.B.M. competitors say that some individual success stories among

mainframe

users do not change the reality that the mainframe is in retreat.

In 2004,

Microsoft<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/microsoft_co
rporation/index.html?inline=nyt-org>

founded
the Mainframe Migration Alliance, a group of technology companies that

helps

corporations move software applications from mainframes to smaller

computers

powered by low-cost microprocessors and typically running Microsoft's
Windows server operating system. Microsoft tracked 85 mainframe migration
projects last year, and the company says 55 more are under way.

I.B.M., to the contrary, says that the mainframe is in the midst of a
revival. It is adding customers in developing nations, the company
maintains, as banks, corporations and government agencies expand and need
the kind of reliability and security that the mainframe delivers.

I.B.M.'s

mainframe revenue in India, China, Brazil and Russia grew 18 percent last
year.

Six hundred software applications, it says, were introduced on the

mainframe

last year.

Rising energy costs and environmental concerns are putting pressure on
growing computer data centers, with their voracious appetites for
electricity. The z10, I.B.M. says, delivers the computing power of 1,500
industry-standard servers, running on personal computer microprocessors,
while consuming 85 percent less energy and covering 85 percent less floor
space.

So the mainframe, it argues, has become the low-cost data center

technology,

although the machines cost $1 million and up.

"The market economics are moving in our direction, and we're seeing a

return

to the mainframe," said James Stallings, general manager of I.B.M.'s

System

Z division.

Traditionally, mainframe computers run at utilization rates of 85 percent
and more. PC-style servers, by contrast, have had utilization rates of 15
percent or so, because they have been less able to run many computing

chores

at once, as if mimicking the work of several machines - a capacity the
mainframe has had for decades.

But this so-called virtualization technology is increasingly coming to
industry-standard servers, led by the software company

VMware<http://www.nytimes.com/mem/MWredirect.html?MW=http://custom.marketwat
ch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=VMW>

.

Several computer makers, including

Dell<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/dell_inc/index.ht
ml?inline=nyt-org>

and

Hewlett-Packard<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/hewlet
t_packard_corporation/index.html?inline=nyt-org>,

are announcing Tuesday that they will embed VMware's basic software into

the

hardware of the server computers, with shipments to begin within 60 days.

"We can get up to 80 and 85 percent capacity utilization now," Diane

Greene,

chief executive of VMware, said in an interview from a company gathering

for

partners, attended by 4,500 people in Cannes, France.

url is http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/technology/26blue.html?

Copyright 2008

<http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html>

The New York Times Company <http://www.nytco.com/>
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