IBM introduced new offerings that combine the power of its recently announced z13 mainframe with cloud-based platforms. The company is rolling out connectors for public cloud applications, cloud application development tools, and special pricing for hybrid environments.
With these new offerings, clients will be able to use the z13 to develop, deploy and manage applications regardless of how they want to set up their systems – on-premises, cloud or hybrid – or what types of platforms they decide to use, IBM said.
The z13 mainframe was announced in January. The new system is designed to deliver new mobile, analytic and cloud capabilities.
The new offerings include z Systems Hybrid Cloud Connect Test Drive, intended to help companies connect on-premises enterprise systems to a public cloud. IBM said it will provide a resource for qualifying clients to bridge a data center network to SoftLayer cloud infrastructure. Clients can continue to run core operations on the mainframe with the flexibility to add new operations on the cloud.
For interested clients, IBM said it will also provide this SoftLayer Gateway as a Service capability and one SoftLayer virtual server for three months without charge. IBM also will provide a resource to help set up the network gateway that will bridge the data center network with infrastructure in SoftLayer. Clients have no obligation to continue or pay for the services after three months.
IBM said it is also offering memory pricing for growth within cloud settings. The goal is to make it easier and more cost-effective for clients to scale up memory, a key requirement for new applications to efficiently sift through massive amounts of data in real-time.
IBM also announced it was offering IBM Cloud Manager with OpenStack for the z13, potentially opening up z13 to new platforms and helping to simplify management of virtualized environments.
IBM also said it has made its Bluemix environment generally available for mainframe shops. Combined with continued enhancements to connector technology within Bluemix and z Systems software, clients can leverage their own single-tenant version of Bluemix to build applications around their most sensitive data and existing services.
More details are available at the IBM website.