IBM released its z13 box, configured to tackle the challenges of the growing mobile app and cloud economy. Yet, much of the world – even the IT trade press – greeted the announcement with the same reaction it has delivering for the past 20 years – that is, surprise that the mainframe is still such a commanding presence.
Some pundits questioned whether the mainframe is preferable to cheaper x86-platform systems for running cloud and mobile apps. IBM appears itself to be hedging its bets, with many key functions, such as cloud and analytics, supported on commodity platforms. Still, mainframe systems provide the strong enterprise scalability and security many organizations need.
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