IBM LinuxONE Can Uberize x86-Based IT

Uberization—industry disruption caused by an unlikely competitor—emerged as a dominant concern of C-suite executives in a recently announced IBM-Institute of Business Value study. According to the study, the percentage of C-suite leaders who expect to contend with competition from outside their industry increased from 43% in 2013 to 54% today.

These competitors, future Ubers, aren’t just resulting from new permutations of old industries; they also are coming from digital invaders with totally different business models. Consider IBM LinuxONE, a powerful open source Linux z13 mainframe supported by two open communities, the Open Mainframe Project and the Linux Foundation. For the typical mass market Linux shop, usually an x86-based data center, LinuxONE can deliver a standard Linux distribution with both KVM and Ubuntu as part of a new pricing model that offers a pay-per-use option in the form of a fixed monthly payment with costs scaling up or down based on usage. It also offers per-core pricing with software licenses for designated cores.

Talk about disruptive; plus it brings scalability, reliability, high performance, and rock-solid security of the latest mainframe. LinuxONE can handle 8000 virtual servers in a single system, tens of thousands of containers. Try doing that with an x86 machine or even a dozen.

Customers of traditional taxi companies or guests at conventional hotels have had to rethink their transportation or accommodation options in the face of Uberization and the arrival of other disruptive alternatives like Airbnb. So too, x86 platform shops will have to rethink their technology platform options. On either a per-workload basis or a total cost of ownership (TCO) basis, the mainframe has been cost competitive for years. Now with the Uberization of the Linux platform by LinuxONE and IBM’s latest pricing options for it, the time to rethink an x86 platform strategy clearly has arrived. Many long-held misconceptions about the mainframe will have to be dropped or, at least, updated.

The biggest risk to businesses used to come from a new rival with a better or cheaper offering, making it relatively simple to alter strategies. Today, entrenched players are being threatened by new entrants with completely different business models, as well as smaller, more agile players unencumbered by legacy infrastructure. Except for the part of being smaller, IBM’s LinuxONE definitely meets the criteria as a threatening disruptive entrant in the Linux platform space.

IBM even is bring new business models to the effort too, including hybrid cloud and a services-driven approach as well as its new pricing. How about renting a LinuxONE mainframe short term? You can with one of IBM’s new pricing options: just rent a LinuxONE machine monthly with no upfront payment.  At the end of the 36-month rental (can return the hardware after 1 year) you choose to return, buy, or replace. Try that with enterprise-class x86 machines.

The introduction of support for both KVM and Ubuntu on the z platform opens even more possibilities. With the LinuxONE announcement Ubuntu has been elevated to a fully z-supported Linux distribution. Together IBM and Canonical are bringing a distribution of Linux incorporating Ubuntu’s scale-out and cloud expertise on the IBM z Systems platform, further expanding the reach of both. Ubuntu combined with KVM should make LinuxONE very attractive for OpenStack-based hybrid cloud computing that may involve thousands of VMs and containers. And don’t forget a broader range of tools, including an expanded set of open-source and industry tools and software, including Apache Spark, Node.js, MongoDB, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Chef and Coker.

Deon Newman, VP of Marketing for IBM z Systems, can recite the LinuxONE scalability stats off the top of his head: The entry-level, single-frame LinuxONE server, named Rockhopper, starts at 80 virtual Linux machines, and hundreds and hundreds of containers while the high-end double-frame server, Emperor, features six IFLs that support up to 350 virtual machines and can scale all the way to 8,000 virtual machines. On the Emperor server, you can literally have hundreds of thousands of containers on a single platform. Newman deliberately emphasizes that LinuxONE machines are servers.  x86 server users take note. LinuxONE definitely is not your father’s mainframe.

In the latest C-suite study all C-suite executives—regardless of role—identified for the first time technology as the most important external force impacting their enterprise. These executives believe cloud computing, mobile solutions, the Internet of Things, and cognitive computing are the technologies most likely to revolutionize or Uberize their business.

DancingDinosaur is Alan Radding, a veteran information technology analyst and writer. Please follow DancingDinosaur on Twitter, @mainframeblog. See more of his IT writing at technologywriter.com and here.

 

 

 

 

 

2014 to be Landmark Year for the Mainframe

The official announcement is still a few weeks away and the big event won’t take place until April, but the Internet is full of items about the 50^th anniversary of the mainframe. Check some out here, here, and here.

In 1991 InfoWorld editor Stewart Alsop, predicted that on March 15, 1996 an InfoWorld reader would unplug the last mainframe.  Alsop wrote many brilliant things about computing over the years, but this statement will forever stand out as one of the least informed, as subsequent events amply demonstrated.  That statement, however, later became part of the inspiration for the name of this blog, DancingDinosaur. The mainframe did not march inexorably to extinction like the dinosaur as many, many pundits predicted.

It might have, but IBM made some smart moves over the years that ensured the mainframe’s continued relevance for years to come.  DancingDinosaur marks 2000 as a key year in the ongoing relevance of the mainframe; that was the year IBM got serious about Linux on the System z. It was not clear then that Linux would become the widely accepted mainstream operating system it is today.  Last year over three-quarters of the top 100 enterprises had IFLs installed.  There is no question that Linux on the System z has become mainstream.

But it wasn’t Linux alone that ensured the mainframe’s continued relevance. Java enables the development of distributed type of workloads on the System z, which is only further advanced by WebSphere on z, and SOA on z. Today’s hottest trends—cloud, big data/analytics, mobile, and social—can be handled on the z too: cloud computing on z, big data/analytics/real-time analytics on z, mobile computing on z, and even social on z.

Finally, there is the Internet of things. This is a natural for the System z., especially if you combine it with MQTT, an open source transport protocol that enables minimized pub/sub messaging across mobile networks. With the z you probably will also want to combine it with the Really Small Message Broker (RSMB). Anyway, this will be the subject of an upcoming DancingDinosaur piece.

The net net:  anything you can do on a distributed system you can do on the System z and benefit from better resiliency and security built in. Even when it comes to cost, particularly TCO and cost per workload, between IBM’s deeply discounted System z Solution Editions and the introduction of the zBC12, which delivers twice the entry capacity for the same low cost ($75k) as the previous entry-level machine (z114), the mainframe is competitive.

Also coming up is Edge 2014, which focuses on Infrastructure Innovation this year. Please plan to attend, May 19-23 in Las Vegas.  Previous Edge conferences were worthwhile and this should be equally so. Watch DancingDinosaur for more details on the specific Edge programs.

And follow DancingDinosaur on Twitter: @mainframeblog