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IBM is launching what it calls a "skinny mainframe" for cloud computing. The system is built around IBM z14 mainframe technology, and it features a 19-inch industry standard, single-frame case design, allowing for easy placement into public cloud data centers and for private cloud deployments.
[...] With the mainframe in high demand and more relevant than ever, IBM worked closely on the design with more than 80 clients, including managed service providers, online banks, and insurance firms, to reinvent the mainframe for a whole new class of users.
The new z14 and LinuxOne offerings also bring significant increases in capacity, performance, memory, and cache across nearly all aspects of the system. A complete system redesign delivers this capacity growth in 40 percent less space, standardized to be deployed in any data center. The z14 ZR1, announced today, can be the foundation for an IBM Cloud Private solution, creating a "data center in a box" by co-locating storage, networking, and other elements in the same physical frame as the mainframe server.
The z14 ZR1 delivers 10 percent more capacity than its predecessor, the z13s, and, at 8TB, twice the memory. The system can handle more than 850 million fully encrypted transactions per day.
Source: https://venturebeat.com/2018/04/09/ibm-launches-skinny-mainframe-for-the-cloud/
Also at The Register
Technical Introduction(IBM Redbook)
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Thursday April 12 2018, @05:15PM (1 child)
I've seen them crash several times (mostly z26, I think?) ... but every time because of operator error, which is pretty much the same on all hardware/OS these days (non-Windows) Redundancy gets you that cheaper, and with more power. Data throughput has caught up as well. It's a very bad solution to all but an extremely small set of problems. Even the remaining ones are generally solved in other ways using OTS stuff, especially for availability of people/knowledge.
As I've said before, the worst thing about it in my experience, is the "mainframe attitude". Nothing can change ... ever. There is an *insane* amount of process that has no value other than "because that's the way we've always done it". I think they're having trouble indoctrinating a new generation, but the money is getting temping for working on the dinosaurs.
COBOL ... *shiver*
(Score: 3, Funny) by looorg on Thursday April 12 2018, @05:44PM
I'm unsure where most of them are these days but it's probably still the backbone in banking, finance, insurance and some transaction heavy commerce.
I can't deny the attitude or mindset, it's a lot of "this is how it has always been" which might sound bad at first but there are also positive aspects such as you don't have to jump from trend to trend like some others seem to do. Which naturally might clash with this whole skinny cloud mainframe salesrep talk.
I'm going to wait a decade or two then brush off my ibm-suit before ever thinking about doing it again -- upside being that NOTHING will have changed.