IBM unveils first Linux-only mainframes

ARMONK: International Business Machines Corp. on Friday said it is launching

its first mainframe computers that will only run Linux, saying the alternative

operating system is gaining ground as companies tighten purse-strings in the

tough economy.

IBM said the two new machines, the iSeries for small businesses and the more

powerful and costly zSeries, can replace racks of smaller server computers made

by rivals like Dell Computer Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc..

"This is really a first for IBM. It is the first time we are introducing

new mainframe technology designed for Linux and server consolidation. This is

really the first pure Linux mainframe," Peter McCaffrey, director of

product marketing for the machines, said in an interview.

The support for Linux comes as IBM is seeing a resurgence in mainframe sales.

IBM mainframes, large, multi-processer machines, ruled the computing world in

the 1960s and '70s but were usurped by cheaper PCs and servers. Yet IBM says the

business is once again booming as companies find it is costly to link dozens or

even hundreds of servers together to meet their corporate networking needs.

The Armonk, New York-based company says its eServer zSeries mainframes have

been the fastest-growing platform in the industry and the only one to post five

consecutive quarters of growth.

IBM has offered Linux as an alternative platform on its mainframes for some

time, and says Linux accounts for 11 percent of the computing capacity, as

measured in millions of instructions per second, it shipped in its last quarter.

But the new products are its first Linux-only mainframes.

"It (Linux) is becoming an important and growing part of the overall

mainframe business. Many IT organizations are cutting costs, and what they found

is they can use the mainframe to cut costs by sweeping the floor of the

Dell-Intel or Sun-Unix servers," McCaffrey said.

The lower-end iSeries could replace up to 15 regular servers and would cost

around $50,000, while the powerful zSeries could replace hundreds of servers and

would cost about $400,000, McCaffrey said. He said that compares with an average

mainframe cost of about $750,000.

The mainframes would also be configured so technicians with little or no

experience on traditional IBM mainframes could easily set them up, McCaffrey

said. "It does allow us to reach different customer sets and different

audiences that we couldn't reach with traditional full-blown mainframes,"

McCaffrey said. "We've really hidden and eliminated the complexities

sometimes associated with that and made it more of a load-and-go package."

(C) Reuters Limited.