IBM Reaches Out to Smaller Users With New Mainframe

Computerworld - IBM last week introduced an entry-level mainframe that it said gives lower-end users a chance to upgrade and run Linux applications alongside traditional workloads.

But the steep third-party software pricing associated with mainframe hardware upgrades makes it unlikely that many small users will find the scaled-down box all that appealing, analysts said.

In a move that builds on its efforts to make mainframe hardware more affordable, IBM last week rolled out its z800 OE1 model, the smallest member of its z800 series.

The system comes standard with a 40 MIPS engine for running traditional mainframe workloads and a separate 185 MIPS partition for running Linux applications.

Colette Martin, an IBM product manager, said the new system offers users of small mainframes - those with less than 40 MIPS - a chance to upgrade their hardware while gaining the flexibility to run Linux applications.

Most of the users in this category run older IBM mainframe operating systems such as VM, VSE and OS/390. Many have been stranded on their hardware for several years because of the prohibitive software fees involved in migrating to IBM's newer, very large mainframes, analysts said.

In fact, until the release of the z800 OE1 model last week, the smallest upgrade option available for small mainframe users was IBM's 60 MIPS Multiprise mainframe.

For such users, the z800 OE1 offers a new upgrade option, Martin said. "We have reduced the size of the box to allow customers to move those smaller workloads," she said. IBM is also offering its zSeries entry-level licensing model, which will result in a 20% cost savings for companies running qualified IBM mainframe software on the new system.

Even so, the prospect of shelling out more money for third-party software is going to keep many users with small mainframe workloads right where they are, said Phil Payne, president of Isham Research in Cambridgeshire, England. "A vast majority of these users are in a relatively ossified situation," Payne said. "They haven't been able to grow for such a long time, they are stuck in old [third-party] software pricing groups" that make it too expensive for them to upgrade.

As a result, expect to see the new model being used more to run pure Linux applications by larger mainframe shops, said David Floyer, an analyst at IT Centrix Inc., a consultancy in Framingham, Mass.

The goal here would be to use the new mainframe models for running front-end Linux applications and linking them back to applications running on larger mainframes.

"A lot of people would be very happy to keep their Linux stuff separate from their mainframe applications," Floyer said. The new model appears to give them a way to do that while still taking advantage of traditional mainframe horsepower, he added.