Open Source Journal on Ulitzer

IBM has bundled up a new mainframe platform designed for Linux instead of z/OS and is pitting it price-wise against x86 distributed computing - well, maybe more the big Itanium and Solaris multi-core systems used for large-scale consolidation.

IBM is obviously hoping to attract a new non-mainframe clientele. After all, traditional mainframe sales have been off a precipitous 25%-40% with the recession.

With Linux, Blue figures it stands a better chance of moving iron, noting that the Linux capacity it shipped in the last two years was up 100% and that more than 3,000 of the 6,300 applications available on the System z platform are Linux-based.

The two shiny new Enterprise Linux Servers, based on a special Linux processor known as an IFL or Integrated Facility for Linux, start at $212,000 for an entry-level two-processor model with three years worth of maintenance thrown in and go up over a million bucks from there for configurations with 10 or 64 IFLs.

IBM is promising deeper discounts the more incremental capacity a user adds calling it "save-as-you-grow" pricing.

The boxes will run either cut-rate Red Hat Linux or Novell's SUSE Linux operating systems and are fitted out with mainframe systems management software and IBM's z/Virtual Machine mainframe virtualization widgetry.

The standalone boxes are supposed to be optimized to run a lot of Linux virtual machines starting at up to 50 on the base system. Full bore, they are supposed to run thousand of Linux virtual servers on a single physical server. IBM claims way more mainframe VMs than x86 virtualization as well as superior availability, security and management at a lower cost.

In search of green fields, IBM brought out a low-end $100,000 z10 Business Class mainframe a few years ago.

Besides the Enterprise Linux Servers, IBM's got a couple of new Solution Editions, one for Linux, one for Chordiant CRM software. It's got a bunch of these vertical integrated bundles of hardware, software and services now for stuff like clouds, SOA, data warehousing, disaster recovery, electronic payments, application development, security and SAP.

The new Linux mojo is meant for adding capacity to existing systems to deploy new Linux workloads.

The Chordiant Solution Edition provides clients with a z/OS, DB2 and WebSphere-based platform to manage customer data on the mainframe. The packaging supports the collocation of the Chordiant applications with this data on System z.