IBM announced an updated mainframe server with new, cutting-edge System z capabilities for security and analytics. The IBM zEnterprise EC12 (zEC12) enterprise system is the result of an investment by the IBM Systems and Technology Group of more than $1 billion in IBM research and development primarily in Poughkeepsie, New York as well as 17 other IBM labs around the world and in collaboration with some of IBM's top clients.
The new IBM mainframe is one of the most secure enterprise systems ever, featuring built-in security features designed to meet the security and compliance requirements of different industries. With operational analytics and near real-time workload monitoring and analysis, customers can use the new zEC12 for a variety of workloads, including hybrid clouds that can take advantage of the system's 25% more performance per core and 50% greater total system capacity than its predecessor as well as the world’s fastest chip running at 5.5 GHz
Among its noteworthy features, the zEC12 is the only commercial server to achieve Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level 5+ security classification, providing clients the confidence to run many different applications containing confidential data on a single mainframe. The new mainframe builds on this with features to help protect data at rest or in flight – a critical capability in the age of internet banking and mobile devices. Among other break-through features, the zEC12 includes a state-of-the-art, tamper-resistant cryptographic co-processor called Crypto Express4S that provides privacy for transactions and sensitive data.
The zEC12 advances performance for analytics, increasing performance of analytic workloads by 30% compared to its IBM predecessor. Support for the IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator that incorporates the Netezza data warehouse appliance into zEC12 enables clients to run complex business analytics and operational analytics on the same platform.
The mainframe’s leading virtualization capabilities make it well suited to support private cloud environments. zEC12 is expected to offer a low total cost of acquisition for Linux consolidation of database workloads, and one zEC12 can encompass the capacity of an entire multi-platform data center in a single system. For complete details on the new zEnterprise EC12, go here.