IBM’s latest addition its mainframe product line is the zBC12, which was recently released to the market. The zBC12 is aimed at customers looking to reduce running costs.
The system can be used with virtual Linux servers and running cost equate to as little as one dollar a day per server, with a starting purchase price of just $75,000 or monthly instalments of $1,965 on a lease. With a 4.2GHz 64-bit z/Architecture processor and a maximum 498GB of RAM, the zBC12 is faster than its predecessor, the z114.1
According to IBM, the Linux-only version of the zBC12, dubbed the Enterprise Linux Server’ or ‘ELS’, can run 520 virtual Linux servers at the same time. The ELS system comes with the z/VM virtualisation hypervisor.
Two extensions are available. The first is the ELS for Analytics, which includes Cognos and SPSS software which will facilitate business analytics applications. The second is the Cloud-Ready for Linux on System z, which can be used to transform the ELS into and Infrastructure-as-a-service platform.
[1] https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/07/ibm-unveils-new-mainframe-for-the-rest-of-us/