This executive overview highlights the key messaging of the IBM zEnterprise server and how it fits into today IT strategies.

1. System z Brand: zEnterprise Executive Overview
IBM System z Brand
zEnterprise Executive Overview
July 2010 Update
Document Version: #2010-07-14
Date of this version: 07/14/10
Paul DiMarzio (dimarzio@us.ibm.com)
Jose Castano (castano@us.ibm.com)
Jenna Bucher-Brown (jenna@us.ibm.com)
Reed Mullen (mullenra@us.ibm.com)
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2. System z Brand: zEnterprise Executive Overview
IBM’s 2009 CIO Study highlights what it takes to help grow profits as a CIO today. As technology rises in importance
in the eyes of the CEO, the CIO is becoming a critical partner in achieving an organization’s business objectives.
While each organization sets its own unique strategies, it must address three broad dimensions to succeed. First,
organizations have to manage for value via sustainable strategies that emphasize long-term value. In today’s new
economic environment, organizations have to be able to manage costs strategically as they optimize their operations
for both effectiveness and efficiency.
Second, organizations have to position for the future to achieve growth and capture value. This requires ongoing
innovation with regard to products and services, their customers, markets and –ultimately- their entire business model.
Finally, organizations have to be able to effect change at a faster and faster pace, in an environment that is
increasingly complex and unpredictable.1
A business organizations ability to be successful at managing for value, positioning for the future and
effecting change, will depend heavily on their ability to respond to the emerging trends that are placing
tremendous pressure on IT shops. Globalization, once a cliché, is now a necessity as the emerging globally-
integrated enterprise leverages global markets to access the best capabilities, knowledge and assets from
wherever they reside in the world and apply them wherever required in the world. Savvy web-oriented
consumers, raised on the rich experience delivered by entertainment and social networking sites, expect the
same experience from all their web transactions; this “Web 2.0” generation requires rich content and a highly
interactive experience. Advanced analytics is fast becoming a staple of business processing. Demand for ad
hoc, “what if?” queries and an intense focus on risk management are driving the need for real-time intensive
processing of vast amounts of data.
These and other business trends are driving a new generation of IT workloads that are diverse in their
functional and processing requirements and universal in their insatiable consumption of processing power. A
single business solution might require multiple application architectures (e.g. transactional and analytical) in
the same flow. At the same time, limitations on single-thread performance are causing chip manufacturers to
focus on delivering future performance improvements via throughput computing. These technology trends
will force many IT shops into difficult choices for workloads that do not naturally lend themselves to parallel
processing (e.g. scale-up, CPU intensive).
This shift to parallelism has also opened the door to a wide class of specialty processors and appliances
designed to handle specific tasks better than general-purpose processors. The demand for more real-time
analytics and queries is driving the manufacture of purpose-built engines that can optimize algorithmic
processing. Appliances have emerged to handle a variety of networking algorithms and data transformations
– but they also represent a new hierarchy of devices that need to be configured, managed and maintained.
Workloads that are good candidates for parallelism can take advantage of specialized processors and
appliances, but the drive to specialization will also substantially increase the inventory of cores/threads,
exacerbating the complexity of managing systems and applications, making the maintenance of service level
agreements more difficult, and diminishing the ability to completely secure user information. The
requirement for a “hybrid” computing architecture has emerged due to these trends.
The System z architecture is optimized to provide best-of-breed mission critical data processing for mixed
workloads. Data processing requires exceptional single-thread performance, so System z is engineered with
a strong threading model and robust cache in support of the processing of data – as opposed to a throughput
computing design targeting more generic applications. This balanced design allows System z to deliver
1
IBM Global Chief Information Officer Study, 2009.
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3. System z Brand: zEnterprise Executive Overview
exceptional data management capabilities while also accommodating mixed applications that have close
affinity to this data.
It does not, however, provide the lowest-cost environment for applications that neither have such affinity nor
require System z qualities of service. Most System z shops run their core, data-sensitive business workloads
and applications on System z but also maintain distributed servers to accommodate a variety of processing
that interacts with mainframe resources. The resulting server sprawl can be partially eliminated by re-
centralizing as much workload as possible to System z. To that end, System z supports special-purpose
processors that provide a very favorable environment for Linux (IFLs), Java (zAAPs), and data management
(zIIPs).
But it is not practical to host all applications on System z; there will always be situations where end-to-end
workload logic is best served by a set of closely federated heterogeneous resources that includes System z
and other processor types. For example, there are particular industry processes where a distributed topology
is the de facto standard. Even when most processing is performed on System z, some critical software
element might not be available and must be deployed on a distributed server. And depending on context,
some specialized algorithms (e.g. Web Service processing, XML manipulation, real-time event processing,
media streaming, computational grids, advanced data warehouse queries, etc.) can be more economically
processed by dedicated appliances designed specifically for these purposes.
Increasingly, a single business workload will reside across a variety of heterogeneous processing platforms,
appliances and devices, and this wide range of resources creates real issues for IT shops trying to meet
business objectives. “Heterogeneous virtualization” has emerged as the best means of providing some relief.
Virtualization is nothing new for System z; it has been an integral part of every IBM mainframe.
Virtualization beyond the mainframe, however, is a more recent phenomenon. As Gartner pointed out,
“most attention has focused on x86 virtualization, with little focus on coexistence and integration with other
platforms … Without attention to heterogeneity, users will struggle with silos and fragmentation.2” A
number of vendors, including IBM, are tackling heterogeneous virtualization by constructing software
veneers across an enterprise’s resources, delivering a logically integrated and managed infrastructure view
that enables virtual machines to be provisioned and managed without concern for the underlying physical
components.
This approach towards enterprise-wide virtualization can deliver a lot of value but it also potentially reflects
a new form of complexity. The any-to-any nature of these solutions dictates that they must be able to deal
with a wide degree of variability because the target deployment environments are inherently unpredictable.
Even with the most carefully constructed estimators, scripts, automation, and tooling there will still be many
do-it-yourself planning, assembling, testing, configuration, and maintenance tasks imposed on the customer.
The nature of any-to-any virtualization also precludes it from exploiting leading-edge capabilities that may
be present in the more advanced underlying platforms. Flexibility is gained at the expense of complexity and
loss of potentially differentiating value.
Within the enterprise there are substantial pockets of heterogeneous resources surrounding and integrated
with System z. It is not practical to bring all this work to the mainframe. But System z world-class
virtualization and resource management can be extended to these closely federated resources, in effect
2
“Preparing for Heterogeneous Virtualization: The Third and Most Challenging Phase”, Garter Research Note G00157506, by
George J. Weiss and John Enck, published 15 May 2008.
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4. System z Brand: zEnterprise Executive Overview
exposing pools of heterogeneous resources as a single highly-optimized virtual container that can plug into
any overarching enterprise virtualization view. System z is unmatched in its ability to consolidate discrete
virtual servers with the highest level of resource sharing. This virtualization is already heterogeneous in
nature, supporting multiple operating systems simultaneously on the same machine (e.g. z/OS and Linux)
and allocating resources between them as dictated by business-driven workload management algorithms. It
makes sense to leverage these capabilities into the world of throughput computing.
The IBM zEnterprise 196 is designed with improved scalability, performance, security, resiliency,
availability, and virtualization. The new 96-way core design delivers massive scalability for secure data
serving and transaction processing for large-scale consolidation. As environmental concerns raise the focus
on energy consumption, the IBM zEnterprise 196 central processor complex (CPC) is designed with new
energy efficiencies that can reduce energy use and save floor space when consolidating workloads from
distributed servers. For clients looking to build green datacenters, optional water cooling and high-voltage
DC power allow a bold step into the future of cooler computing and increased energy efficiency without
changing the system footprint.
In addition, The IBM zEnterpriseTM System is an ensemble of closely federated resources with a common
management, energy, provisioning, configuration, and I/O experience for multiple processor personalities. It
is based on the premise that a well-defined and closely federated set of resources can be more effectively
managed at the machine firmware level because the environment is predictable. A heterogeneous virtual
container can also be better optimized when assumptions can be made about the underlying resources. For
example, zEnterprise is specifically designed to exploit the extreme virtualization capabilities of the z/VM
hypervisor.
zEnterprise represents a significant enhancement of System z virtualization and platform management so that
it can provide a single policy/view across all System z resources and extend this view to a carefully selected
set of non-z environments, logically subsuming them into the System z ecosystem and enabling the customer
to manage a set of closely federated heterogeneous resources as a single, cohesive “computational bazaar”
that supports the way computation works today – requiring no paradigm shift at the application level but
greatly enhancing the ability of IT to respond to the business. The ability to define a single resource pool
that is managed to business requirements is seen as being critical to a number of key IT initiatives, such as
Cloud Computing. zEnterprise does not just satisfy this need but leaps beyond it by including heterogeneous
compute resources in the pool and managing them at the platform level. A zEnterprise – or a cluster of them
– is effectively a complete multi-architecture ensemble that is managed as a single entity.
The zEnterprise Unified Resource Manager – controlling hypervisor, virtual server, performance, operations,
network and energy management that spans both System z and attached blade devices – is delivered as new
System z firmware in the next generation System z CPC, the IBM zEnterprise 196. Because there are fewer
variables due to extensive lab integration testing, the zEnterprise Unified Resource Manager can be delivered
as an out-of-the-box, preconfigured, “always on” service by configuring the firmware to bring up the
zEnterprise Unified Resource Manager environment automatically when the machine is powered on. When
one or more IBM zEnterprise BladeCenter Extensions (zBX) are connected to a zEnterprise 196, this
firmware will automatically extend the zEnterprise Unified Resource Manager environment to the zBXs –
effectively extending System z management and virtualization leadership to all blades in those chasses.
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5. System z Brand: zEnterprise Executive Overview
The zEnterprise BladeCenter Extension initially supports Optimizers and IBM Blades that complement
traditional System z processing:
• The IBM Smart Analytics Optimizer, a data analytics optimizer designed to improve the
price/performance of data warehouse queries
• The IBM DataPower SOA appliance in blade form factor, enhancing the manageability of SOA
workloads3
• IBM POWER7 blades running AIX and IBM System x blades running Linux4 for subsets of logic
that are not well suited for z/OS or Linux on System z
The design is flexible enough to accommodate additional blade personalities in the future. For example, a
commercial high-performance computing accelerator to improve the price/performance of computationally
intensive workloads would be an excellent candidate for future zEnterprise support.
System z virtualization leadership is directly extended to the IBM Blades. zEnterprise will deliver
virtualization capabilities to the IBM Blades as system firmware – linking the hypervisors and native
hardware virtualization into a single logical entity that provides federated virtualization between System z
and Blade resources within the context of a seamless management view. This integrated virtualization layer,
effectively driving virtualization into the Trusted Computing Base, is a key enabler for zEnterprise’s
workload management capabilities, allowing the platform’s resources and the deployed workloads to be
dynamically managed within the context of business needs and goals.
zEnterprise allows for the definition of an ensemble of heterogeneous resources managed as a single resource
pool with intelligent provisioning and workload management based on customer service policy and
prioritization for the deployed business workloads.
zEnterprise is an example of true hybrid computing. It provides the option for customers to host optimizers
and POWER7 and System x blades on a pre-tested zBX configuration whose platform management is
integrated with and controlled by System z platform management. System z hardware management
infrastructure, specifically the Hardware Management Console (HMC) and Support Element (SE), has been
extended to control the advanced virtualization management and optimization functions of the zEnterprise
ensemble. Extending the HMC as a full function platform management appliance provides a consistent
approach to hardware and virtualization management across the System z and blade elements of zEnterprise,
simplifying and reducing the range of skills necessary for managing the environment.
Although there is less flexibility than in an any-to-any enterprise solution, the manageability of a subset of
enterprise resources within the System z ecosystem is vastly improved while still allowing these resources to
participate in broader-based enterprise service management initiatives. zEnterprise controls the resources,
but integration with IBM Systems Director, Tivoli’s management software suite, and customer provided
management tools and process automation ensures alignment of zEnterprise with enterprise processes and
procedures. This structure allows the zEnterprise pool of resources to be fully optimized and more efficiently
managed while still enabling broader initiatives to direct the provisioning of the zEnterprise pool. The net
goal is to make a subset of the resources of a Dynamic Infrastructure – those specifically synergistic with
System z – more efficient and more manageable. This strategy provides our clients an opportunity to more
effectively extend the reach of their mainframe systems across the enterprise, and enhance the overall value
proposition of mainframe computing within their company.
3
Statement of Direction
4
Statement of Direction
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6. System z Brand: zEnterprise Executive Overview
The ability of zEnterprise to manage integrated non-z assets must not be seen as an abandonment of z/OS
and System z Linux application initiatives; applications with strong System z data affinity still belong on
System z processors. The zEnterprise 196 contains many enhancements that deliver significant
improvements in the performance, capacity and quality of service available to both traditional and more
CPU-intensive workloads. zEnterprise further enhances the attractiveness of hosting applications on the
mainframe by giving clients the operational ease of selecting the right architecture and OS for their
applications within a common management infrastructure.
zEnterprise makes the System z value proposition even more compelling by offering technology that
simplifies the effort to deploy and manage distributed-system applications that integrate with already-
deployed mainframe systems; technology that physically integrates disparate architectures with unique
functional capabilities that offer compelling business value; and platform and systems management
capabilities that provide operational advantages that cannot be matched by a multi-system, potentially multi-
vendor, “piece parts” approach. It is a solution that makes it easier to integrate, and extend, mainframe
resources with other technologies – increasing the value of the already-existing mainframe assets and giving
clients an opportunity to extend the reach of the mainframe across the enterprise. zEnterprise is a Smarter
System and with built in management capabilities, it is perfectly positioned to meet customers requirements
for Cloud Computing. With its heterogeneous resource pool, scalability, security, and policy driven
autonomics, it really is a cloud in a box!
ZSE03002-USEN-02
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