Announced at SHARE: IBM Unveils New Mainframe Software
Enhancements
At last week's
SHARE conference, IBM announced a series of enhancements to software
designed to enable professionals to more easily program, manage
and administer a mainframe system - as well as to increasingly automate
the development and deployment of mainframe applications.
The System z
mainframe software upgrades and enhancements cover security, systems
and data management, and virtualization. The announcements follow
IBM's October 2006 announcement that it is investing $100 million
into a cross-company effort to make the IBM System z mainframe easier
to use for a greater number of computer professionals by 2011.
The System z
software enhancements announced at SHARE include the following:
DB2 9 for z/OS:
This new version of the mainframe database enables high-volume transaction
processing with service-oriented architecture environments. It also
improves data warehousing and OLTP reporting. In addition, the full
suite of DB2 tools will both support and exploit DB2 9 at generally
availability - to ensure maximum database optimization. DB2 9 for
z/OS and DB2 Tools will be available in the first half of 2007.
Enhancements
to the IBM Tivoli Monitoring family of availability and performance
management tools: This new release of the IBM OMEGAMON z/OS Management
Console, Version 4.1, will be available at no charge to z/OS customers.
The tool adds new GUI workspaces for monitoring z/OS availability
and health.
z/VM version
5.3: This new release adds expanded scalability enhancements to
z/VM virtualization technology. With this new release, customers
can now host up to 1,000 virtual images on a single hypervisor,
IBM said. Managing z/VM environments especially with Linux on System
z guests is enhanced with the OMEGAMON XE for z/VM and Linux product,
which works in partnership with the z/VM Performance Toolkit and
the IBM Operations Manager for z/VM.
WebSphere Developer
for System z V7.0: This new toolset includes new features, such
as a System z Application Pattern Generator, improved SOA access
to CICS TS V3.1 and IMS V9, and an upgrade to Eclipse 3.2 which
provides an enhanced user interface.
WebSphere Service
Registry and Repository for z/OS, V6.0: This SOA governance tool
provides registry and repository capabilities, and integrates with
IBM SOA Foundation.
Consul zSecure
Suite: As part of the newly acquired Consul security portfolio,
Consul zSecure Suite v1.8 gives z/OS customers a way to generate
and review XML security audit reports on their mainframe data as
well as ensure a more secure operating environment upon migration
to z/OS 1.8. The Consul acquisition closed last month and the Consul
software is currently being integrated into Tivoli Software portfolio.
"These
new software upgrades and enhancements to the System z software
stack represent real progress towards the goal of making the mainframe
easier to use and administer," said Jim Stallings, general
manager for IBM System z. "As System z continues to gain market
share and attract new, non-traditional customers to its current
install base, this focus on simplification will enable them to more
quickly and easily access the mainframe's world-class benefits."
For more information, visit the IBM
Web site.
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Announced at SHARE: EMC Unveils Automated Disaster Restart
Software for Geographically Dispersed Mainframe Environments
EMC Corp., a
provider of storage management solutions, unveiled new software
that automates failover and restart operations in multi-site IBM
mainframe environments at the SHARE conference last week. With EMC
Geographically Dispersed Disaster Restart (EMC GDDR) software, customers
can take a holistic approach to automatically restarting host mainframe
systems, critical applications and Symmetrix DMX storage systems
to enhance information availability and minimize the impact of unplanned
or planned outages.
EMC GDDR software
is intended to improve the availability of host systems, applications,
and storage resources via standardized, parameter-driven software,
protecting multi-site mainframe environments against unplanned outages.
Additionally, customers can leverage EMC GDDR software to automate
failover operations during planned outages such as maintenance operations
and upgrades, and test their disaster restart operations without
writing, verifying, and maintaining custom scripts.
A key advantage
of the product is that it is policy-driven rather than manually
implemented, Bob Wambach, senior director of Symmetrix product marketing,
EMC, told 5 Minute Briefing. Challenges that EMC sought to address
with the solution, said Wambach were the need to be able to test
parts of the functionality "so that meant being able to failover
just certain portions" as well as the need to have no user
intervention to actually restart the application.
"When Hurricane
Katrina happened and people had to recover those data centers elsewhere,
the folks most familiar with all the technology and how things worked
were busy trying to save themselves, their families, friends, and
homes," said Wambach. "It's really not the time, when
there is a widespread disaster like a hurricane, to expect these
people to be showing up to work, telling people how to restart applications."
The goal with the solution, said Wambach, was to fully automate
it and make it something that was driven by software, and not as
a service delivered on a pay-as-you-go basis consultants.
The EMC GDDR
software, stated the vendor, is faster to deploy, easier to manage
and up to 50 percent less expensive than existing solutions. EMC
GDDR software delivers the high levels of availability and assures
automated restart consistency across applications and implementation
methodologies via a proven, standardized software product, according
to EMC.
EMC GDDR software
for Symmetrix DMX storage system customers with three-site mainframe
configurations will be available in Q1 2007. More information can
be found here.
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Announced at SHARE: Luminex Announces 4-Port PCI-X-Based
Mainframe ESCON Channel HBA
Luminex Software,
a developer of mainframe connectivity products, announced what it
describes as the industry's first 4-port PCI-X-based mainframe ESCON
Channel Host Bus Adaptor (HBA) at last week's SHARE conference.
"ESCON
is an old technology," Art Tolsma, CEO of Luminex, told 5 Minute
Briefing. "There has not been a lot of new development for
modern systems that can use ESCON and most of the tier one vendors
don't even offer ESCON on a lot of their products anymore."
However, "customers still need and want ESCON," he noted.
"With this announcement, we are basically telling the world
that we are continuing to develop ESCON and are likely the only
ones that are capable of developing modern products that use ESCON."
The 8999 represents
many years of development and is certified for the most I/O intensive
processing environments, according to Luminex. Based on perpetual,
fully paid IBM patent licenses and built to meet the RAS and performance
requirements of System z architecture servers and devices, its design
includes features such as dynamic reconnect, multi-pathing and FPGA-based
on-board processors for offload of host processing. Compared to
prior generations of PCI-based ESCON products, the 8999 represents
a significant improvement in terms of channel density (4 ports),
reduced chip-count, reliability and performance, according to the
vendor
The new 4-port ESCON HBA will also be integrated into the complete
Luminex Channel Gateway product family during the second quarter
of 2007. Additional form factors will also be released throughout
2007.
Platform Solutions
will offer the new 4-port ESCON HBA on PSI's Open Mainframe servers,
providing choice for mainframe data centers connecting legacy devices
with open mainframe computers, Luminex announced. PSI has used their
operating system and device compatibility certification tools to
test, qualify and certify the new 4-port ESCON Channel Card to meet
the demands of mainframe data centers. "It was important to
have [Platform Solutions] as part of this announcement just to show
the product is shipping, it's certified; the level of certification
you need to be a true mainframe channel, without any errors and
with all the resiliency, is a pretty high level of certification,"
said Tolsma. "You really can't have a more credible partner
than somebody who says 'we built an IBM-compatible mainframe and
we use your technology to handle all of the ESCON peripherals.'
" For
more information about Luminex, go here.
For more about Platform Solutions, go here.
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Announced at SHARE: CA Unveils Support For IBM Mainframe
zIIP Specialty Engines
At the SHARE
conference last week, CA announced new releases of eight IT management
solutions that evaluate, monitor and exploit IBM's System z9 Integrated
Information Processor (zIIP) by taking advantage of the zIIP's ability
to offload selected computing tasks from a mainframe's general-purpose
processors. CA also plans to enable its IDMS and Datacom databases
to run in the zIIP processor by the middle of next year. "This
demonstrates that we have a real commitment to the mainframe and
developing new products for the mainframe," Ron Higgin, vice
president and principal architect, Office of the CTO at CA, told
5 Minute Briefing.
The IBM System
z9 Integrated Information Processor (zIIP) is designed to help free
up general computing capacity and lower software costs for select
workloads such as business intelligence, ERP and CRM on the mainframe.
IBM will not impose software charges on zIIP capacity. The CA solutions
empower IT organizations to optimize application performance, to
extend zIIP eligible workloads to include functions such as network
packet analysis and data encryption, and to gain maximum business
value from their existing data center investments. "This continues
to make the mainframe more cost-effective and will lead to a shift
in the systems management specialty," Chris Craddock, senior
vice president and principal technology strategist in CA's Office
of the CTO, told 5 Minute Briefing. "By delivering this latest
round of zIIP-enabled solutions, CA is uniquely ensuring that customers
enjoy these performance, scalability and cost benefits." According
to Craddock, CA's announcements put it in the lead in taking full
advantage of the zIIP. For more information, visit the CA Web
site.
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Announced at SHARE: New Era and LECG Form Strategic Alliance
NewEra Software,
a leading system software developer for the IBM System z and LECG,
a global expert services firm, announced a strategic alliance to
market LECG's expert services and NewEra Software's Image FOCUS
Control Environment software solution at the SHARE User Event last
week. "In the mainframe environment, typically companies put
the most security in front of the least sophisticated users and
the least security in front of the most sophisticated users,"
Brian Cummings, a System z security and risk management with expert
with LECG, observed.
Image FOCUS
Control Environment rectifies that imbalance. It bridges the gap
between the access needs of systems programmers and the security
and control environment needed for regulatory compliance. "It
is control-oriented without being overly restrictive," Cummings
told 5 Minute Briefing. "If the OS does not have integrity,
then nothing riding on the OS has integrity."
Partnering with
LECG will help NewEra's product development process. "LECG
will tell us what we need to provide now and the requirements for
the future," Glennon Bagsby, president of NewEra, told 5 Minute
Briefing at the SHARE conference. The second major release of Image
FOCUS Control Environment will be unveiled this month, he added.
For more information, go here.
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AXS-One Supports IBM System Storage DR550 Line
AXS-One, a provider
of records compliance management solutions, has announced that the
AXS-One Compliance Platform, a policy-based archiving and electronic
records management system, will fully support the IBM System Storage
DR550 and IBM System Storage DR550 Express products.
"We have
worked on this integration with IBM for some time now," Marie
Patterson, vice president of market strategy for AXS-One, told 5
Minute Briefing. "While we are vendor-neutral, our policy is
also to support the APIs of specialist storage technology."
The combined
solution from AXS-One and IBM is designed to address data retention
and management regulations, as well as litigation requirements,
including recent changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
The single instance storage capabilities of AXS-One and IBM's tiered
storage with WORM tape media also reduce cost.
According to
Patterson, AXS-One and IBM are delivering on all four touch-points
needed for information lifecycle management. "You get tiered
storage management, as well as long-term data retention, lifecycle
management, and policy management," she said. For more information,
click here.
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VMware Announces New Virtual Management Product for SMBs
VMware, a virtualization
solutions vendor, announced a new bundle designed to provide small-to-medium
businesses using the free VMware Server with a cost-effective, easy
way to manage their virtual infrastructures. The bundle includes
enterprise-class support.
"Virtualization
is a useful technology for organizations of all sizes," Ben
Matheson, director of product management at VMware, told 5 Minute
Briefing. In fact, he said, VMware Server, the company's freely
downloadable virtualization product for Linux and Windows servers,
has been downloaded over 1.2 million times since July; of which
70 percent of those downloads were small-to-medium businesses.
"But you
need centralized management to truly reap the benefits of virtualization,"
he continued, "and many of these small companies do not have
the budget for the expensive offerings out there. They do not have
time for the monotonous activities either."
Thus, VMware
VirtualCenter for VMware Server offers centralized management and
rapid server provisioning for a low price of $1,500. For more information,
go here.
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