IBM launches new services

BANGALORE: IBM today launched a broad array of services to help companies capitalize on the potential economic benefits of moving to the System z mainframe.

In addition to the products, IBM also said in a statement that it will offer a specially-priced System z entry system to up to five customers in India. Participating customers may try the system free for six months, and then have the option to purchase the machine at a special price.

“Boasting economic growth in excess of seven per cent annually,” the statement said. “India has many companies that may evolve into globally-integrated enterprises and outgrow distributed IT environments, as the addition of dozens or even hundreds of individual servers drive power and cooling costs to prohibitively high levels.”

By shifting a portion of mainframe development to labs in India, China and Russia, IBM claimed it has garnered greater insight into the unique needs of companies in such emerging markets.

“The cost and availability of energy are issues all around the world, but they are acutely important in India, making the mainframe especially attractive here,” said Jim Stallings, general manager, IBM System z. “The services we are launching today will help companies eliminate the unchecked proliferation of energy-hungry servers in bulging data centers – a problem that is overburdening power grids from Mumbai to Manhattan.”

New IBM mainframe services

Data solutions services include installation, configuration, upgrade, and performance/availability assessment for DB2 and IMS databases on the mainframe’s z/OS operating system and on Linux. In addition, IBM will integrate and tune DB2 with software from Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft, Siebel and other vendors. IBM will also port databases onto DB2 on z/OS and Linux.

Security and Encryption services are to help organizations safeguard information throughout its entire lifecycle. IBM also assists organizations with architecture and implementation of the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) on the z/OS operating system. PKI helps enables Web commerce. The IBM services also enable the setup and use of the Integrated Cryptographic Service Facility (ICSF), which provides the administrative interface and a large set of application interfaces to the mainframe cryptography hardware.

Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) on System z: SOA is a sweet spot for the IBM mainframe, with its huge capacity and ability to manage spikes as they come. By contrast, in distributed environments, SOA transactions can overload network traffic between servers and require the hasty addition of new physical servers to meet increased demand, leading to unplanned downtime. This new services offering incorporates Web services as well as security and production deployment skills for MQ, ESB and the WebSphere Suite of SOA products.

Implementation Services for Linux service product include installation and tuning, high availability clusters and server consolidation, designed to give enterprise and mid-sized organizations a jump start in deploying Linux on System z. These services entail planning and installation of Linux distributions, preparing for software installation, and consolidating a data center into a single System z mainframe. The services represent an efficient path to realizing the benefits of a new System z platform.

In India, the services will be delivered via an IBM unit based in Bangalore.

The IBM System z mainframe environment offers a powerful set of capabilities in the areas of security, scalability, and manageability, providing exceptional total cost of ownership.

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