IBM announced 10 new software products to help companies lower application management costs by optimizing the System z mainframe for more workloads, such as data analytics, collaborative application development, application maintenance and other key business processes.
Given System z's ability to reduce costs through server consolidation, IBM and the industry have extended the breadth of new workloads for the mainframe via 3,800 z/OS-based and 3,000 Linux-based applications. The ability of the mainframe to host many application services on one system has helped System z achieve one of the industry's lowest application costs per user. Minimal application costs are important for companies which rely on multiple applications to run their business.
The new products span IBM's software portfolio to provide a range of benefits for System z customers. The benefits include optimal application connectivity, productivity, security and data management.
The new offerings complement IBM's recent announcement of seven integrated hardware, software and services packages-IBM System z Solution Editions-to help customers deploy new enterprise workloads, such as data warehousing, electronic payments and disaster recovery.
The new products include IMS 11, which provides direct SQL access to IMS data from any distributed platform. This simplifies and speeds the process of connecting applications and data, while also enabling easier data replication and change capture processes. Enhanced Java support expands the number of developers available to support IMS applications and business services.
IBM also announced new products from WebSphere to enhance business process management, connectivity and integration including: WebSphere Process Server for z/OS V7, IBM WebSphere ILOG Business Rule Management Systems, WebSphere MQ for z/OS V7.0.1, WebSphere Message Broker for z/OS V7.0, and IBM Problem Determination Tools V10. These products are designed to help clients discover insights that enable innovation, maximize the value of business interactions, and optimize productivity and resources.
IBM also announced Rational Developer for System z version 7.6, which provides a modern GUI development environment, to increase developer productivity and lower the costs associated with maintaining and building multi-platform applications. The new offering helps attract next-generation workers, consolidates multi-language development into a single environment and dramatically reduces CPU usage of up to 50 percent, minimizing budget expenditures.
IBM is also shipping Rational Team Concert for System z version 2.0, which uses a new common repository to help teams to work together, share assets, automate processes and deliver software faster. The software expedites response times and cuts costs by consolidating disparate development team infrastructures and automating software development across multiple platforms, which is important for tiered applications.
An enhanced set of IBM Rational Compilers for C/C++, COBOL and PL/I reduce application MIP requirements, while increasing developer productivity and reducing both capital expense and overall development costs.
On the systems management side, IBM announced Tivoli Asset Discovery for z/OS removes unused and obsolete software and helps determine software usage to plan effectively for the future and to run smarter systems. IBM Tivoli NetView for z/OS 5.4 is designed to improve network and automation control for data centers and change management. It provides an understanding of how network availability and events impact the business, helping customers deliver smarter, more automated systems. IBM Tivoli zSecure provides a mainframe security solution for automated analysis and reporting of mainframe events and compliance dashboards that lower auditing costs helping companies run a smarter more cost effective system.
For more information about System z software, visit here.