IBM plans to trim the prices of its mainframe computers in March when the company unveils a new Linux-only system that will cost about half the price of its current products.
IBM dominates the mainframe market, selling users high-priced but very stable servers capable of running many applications at the same time. For example, customers have been using IBM's top-of-the-line refrigerator-sized z900 mainframe running the z/OS operating system to handle applications such as transaction processing and accounting tasks.
With a Linux-only mainframe, users will find it economical to run operations such as print serving, file serving and Web serving on one mainframe instead of on a number of smaller servers, said Pete McCaffrey, director of zSeries marketing at IBM.
To help make mainframe computing more accessible, IBM will launch the Linux-only system at a starting price under $400,000. This price includes 4 CMOS processors, the ability to make hundreds of virtual partitions and three years of hardware maintenance. IBM would not release specifications of the chips at this time, saying it will launch a new line of mainframe processors when it starts shipping the new Linux-only mainframe. IBM will also provide the official name of the new mainframe at that time, McCaffrey said.
Lowering the mainframe's starting price could help attract a new breed of customers to IBM, said one analyst.
"The most significant shortcoming this system addresses is the price of entry to mainframe computing," said Mike Chuba, an analyst with Gartner in Stamford, Conn. "If you wanted to do Linux on a mainframe today, you would start at over ($1 million). This is IBM's best chance to prove new types of workloads make sense to run on a mainframe."
In interviews, several IBM customers said they have eased their management burden by placing a variety of applications onto one mainframe and ditching some of their older Intel-based servers.
Joe Poole, technical director at Boscov's Department Store, in Reading, Pa., has carved up part of his older IBM mainframe system to handle a number of Linux-based applications. The company has put file servers, print servers, authentication software and some database servers on the one piece of hardware.
Putting a number of applications on one system has helped Boscov's cut down on the hardware space needed in its data center. In addition, the company can focus on keeping one server up and running now, instead of monitoring several smaller boxes.
Poole also likes working with Linux because the open source community involved with the operating system helps keep the environment secure and reliable.
"A big reason Linux has become so popular for us is because it's open source," Poole said. "Your peers help catch bugs and spot security holes very quickly."
Although some customers may be willing to drop a number of older servers in favor of a single system, Gartner's Chuba said IBM will have to prove that scrapping past investments for a new product is worthwhile in the long run.
Some users may have already purchased dozens or even hundreds of Intel-based serves and might find server consolidation a tough sell after already making those purchases.
However, Chuba was impressed with the evangelism effort IBM has put forth thus far, saying the company "has never worked this hard" to prove investment returns to users. IBM is facing competition from the likes of Sun and Compaq in the mainframe market. Sun and Compaq are looking to take part of this lucrative segment, with Sun offering its 106-processor Sun Fire 15K as a mainframe alternative and Compaq pushing customers to cluster servers for more computing power and stability.
The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.
RELATED LINKS
