IBM zEnterprise System Technical Introduction

Recently the IT industry has seen an explosion in applications, architectures, and platforms. With the generalized availability of the Internet and the appearance of commodity hardware and software, several patterns have emerged that have gained center stage. Workloads have changed. Many applications, including mission-critical ones, are deployed in heterogeneous infrastructures. System z design has adapted to this change. IBM has a holistic approach to System z design, which includes hardware, software and procedures. It takes into account a wide range of factors, including compatibility and investment protection, which ensures a tighter fit with IT requirements of an enterprise.This IBM Redbooks publication introduces the revolutionary scalable IBM zEnterprise System, which consists of the IBM zEnterprise 196 (z196), the IBM zEnterprise BladeCenter Extension (zBX), and the IBM zEnterprise Unified Resource Manager (zManager). IBM is taking a bold step by integrating heterogeneous platforms under the proven System z hardware management capabilities, while extending System z qualities of service to those platforms. The z196 is a general-purpose server that is equally at ease with compute-intensive workloads and with I/O-intensive workloads. The integration of heterogeneous platforms is based on IBM BladeCenter technology, allowing improvements in price and performance for key workloads, and enabling a new range of heterogeneous platform solutions. The z196 is at the core of the enhanced System z platform, which is designed to deliver technologies that businesses need today along with a foundation to drive future business growth.