As we’ve said before on this blog, the IBM mainframe just keeps evolving.

About a year ago, IBM introduced the z16 mainframe with an amazing collection of advanced features. Now, the company has moved a step further.

To quote the company’s news release, “IBM today unveiled new single frame and rack mount configurations of IBM z16 and IBM LinuxONE 4, expanding their capabilities to a broader range of data center environments. Based on IBM's 7nm Telum processor, the new options are designed with sustainability in mind for highly efficient data centers, helping clients adapt to a digitized economy and ongoing global uncertainty.”

The new IBM z16 and LinuxONE 4 offerings are built for the modern data center to help optimize flexibility and sustainability, with capabilities for partition-level power monitoring and additional environmental metrics.

For example, consolidating Linux workloads on an IBM LinuxONE Rockhopper 4 instead of running them on compared x86 servers with similar conditions and location can reduce energy consumption by 75 percent and space by 67 percent. These new configurations are engineered to deliver the same hallmark IBM security and transaction processing at scale.

Designed and tested to the same internal qualifications as the IBM z16 high availability portfolio, the new rack-optimized footprint is designed for use with client-owned, standard 19-inch racks and power distribution units. This new footprint opens opportunities to include systems in distributed environments with other servers, storage, SAN and switches in one rack, designed to optimize both co-location and latency for complex computing, such as training AI models.

Installing this footprint in your data center can provide these advantages:

• Sustainable design: Easier integration into hot or cold aisle thermal management data center configurations with common data center power and cooling
• Optimizing AI solutions: With on-chip AI inferencing and the newest IBM z/OS 3.1, whether rack mount, single frame or multi frame configurations, clients can train or deploy AI models very close to where data resides, allowing clients to optimize AI
• Data privacy: Support data sovereignty for regulated industries with compliance and governance restrictions on data location, routing local transactions through local data centers with optimized rack mount efficiency
• Edge computing: Enable more efficient rack utilization in limited rack space near manufacturing, healthcare devices, or other edge devices

Tina Tarquinio, VP, Product Management, IBM Z and LinuxONE, wrote in a blog post, “The new offerings are built for the modern data center to help optimize flexibility and sustainability, particularly for small- and medium-sized businesses. For IBM Ecosystem partners, the new rack mount configurations open more business opportunities to reach new audiences with specific data center design requirements. With capabilities for partition-level power monitoring and additional environmental metrics, the single frame and rack mount configurations can potentially help reduce a client’s carbon footprint.”

More evolution is on the horizon: IBM will soon be announcing z/OS 3.1, with general availability this fall.

If you’re interested in the advantages these latest products can provide, please contact us. Our mainframe experts will be happy to talk with you.

Keep evolving.