IBM Unveils LinuxONE Mainframes with Virtualization and Container Support

IBM introduced two Linux mainframe servers – called LinuxONE – designed for hybrid clouds and the new era of open systems.  With its new LinuxONE mainframe, IBM will enable open source and industry tools and software, including Apache Spark, Node.js, MongoDB, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Chef and Docker. IBM, which helped pioneer virtualization on the mainframe, will now offer more choices for virtualization by enabling the new LinuxONE systems to be provisioned as a virtual machine through the open standards-based KVM hypervisor.

Some highlights of the announcement:

• LinuxONE is a new portfolio of hardware, software and services solutions, providing two distinct Linux systems for large enterprises and mid-size businesses.
• LinuxONE Emperor, based on the IBM z13, is described as the world’s most advanced Linux system with the fastest processor in the industry. The system is capable of analyzing transactions in “real time” and can be used to help prevent fraud as it is occurring. The system can scale up to 8,000 virtual machines or hundreds of thousands of containers – currently the most of any single Linux system.
• LinuxONE Rockhopper, an entry into the portfolio, is designed for clients and emerging markets seeking the speed, security and availability of the mainframe but in a smaller package.
• SUSE, which provides Linux distribution for the mainframe, will now support KVM, giving clients a new hypervisor option.
• Canonical and IBM also announced plans to create an Ubuntu distribution for LinuxONE and z Systems.
• IBM will contribute a large amount of its mainframe code to open source community – this includes code to help enterprises identify issues and help prevent failures before they happen, help improve performance across platforms and enable better integration with the broader network and cloud.
• IBM is joining the Linux Foundation’s new “Open Mainframe Project,” which brings together a collaboration of nearly a dozen organizations across academia, government and corporate sectors to advance development and adoption of Linux on the mainframe.

“Fifteen years ago IBM surprised the industry by putting Linux on the mainframe, and today more than a third of IBM mainframe clients are running Linux,” said Tom Rosamilia, senior vice president, IBM Systems. “We are deepening our commitment to the open source community by combining the best of the open world with the most advanced system in the world in order to help clients embrace new mobile and hybrid cloud workloads. Building on the success of Linux on the mainframe, we continue to push the limits beyond the capabilities of commodity servers that are not designed for security and performance at extreme scale.”

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