IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe - March/April 2017 - 31


supports that need. But others
are interested in delving into
digital innovations. They're using
DevOps and continuous delivery
models, which IBM supports, as
Linux is the reference platform for
these innovations, Adlung notes.
DevOps embraces and uses
container-based technologies
and builds on microservice
architectures. All of these
are available on Linux on
z Systems. "Clients can use those
technologies one by one just
as they would on distributed
platforms," Adlung says.
IBM's three distribution
partners provide DevOps tools
that are popular with developers
and available on z Systems.
In addition, IBM is constantly
receiving feedback from clients
that bring new workloads to the
platform, Thoss says.
Digital innovation encompasses
cloud, too, with the development
of next-generation, cloud-native
apps. DevOps capabilities using
Linux on z Systems help make
developers' lives easier and give
your company a competitive
advantage, Hosch says.

Workload Efficiency
Every organization relies on its
IT platform to handle diverse
workloads; this is another area
where mainframe excels. Linux
on IBM z gives the data center
the simplicity and efficiency of a
single server that's scalable and
responsive. The reliable platform
can run mission-critical operations
as well as varied workloads such
as analytics and blockchain. Multiapplication workloads can be
handled effectively when Linux is
employed on z Systems.
Analytics workloads have
become central to every business.
With z Systems, data isn't pulled
from another server and replicated. Instead, it resides close to
the workload, thereby reducing

latency. Data lakes that exist in
a distributed environment can't
exist in a z Systems environment.
"We show clients how they can
host their data and analytics in
close proximity to change their
SoRs into systems of insight,"
Adlung says. Any client that
wants to run analytics as a service
can do so using the mainframe.
For a number of years, IBM
has supported Apache Hadoop
and Spark open-source analytics
software offerings, which run on
Linux. IBM also has enabled newer
open-source analytics solutions
such as MongoDB and PostgreSQL,
Thoss notes. Analytics influence
not just software but also the OS
and hardware. "It has to be part of
the stack," he says.
Analytics rely on data serving,
and z Systems hardware boasts
fast processors, large caches
and dedicated I/O coprocessors
to handle these data-intense
workloads. The platform's
design gives users the ability
to implement more complex

analytic algorithms to gain better
insights, faster. A client that
recently evaluated moving its
fraud detection neural network
onto Linux on IBM z described
the latency reduction as "opening
the aperture on innovation,"
Mitran says. "Such improved
insights help our clients make
better business decisions
while enriching the end user's
experience," he remarks.
Mainframes enable tailored
solutions-such as blockchain-
to be created. Blockchain
technology has been available for
many years, but the commercial
interest in it is recent, Adlung
says. For clients looking to
build their own blockchain
environment, IBM can assist with
blockchain on-premises in the
data center. Through Bluemix*
technology, IBM also offers
access to blockchain services
in the cloud so clients don't
need to host them in the data
center. In January, the company
began offering an on-premises
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe - March/April 2017
