IBM Unveils Breakthrough Business Class Mainframe; Targets Growth of SOA Transactions and Data

IBM Unveils Breakthrough Business Class Mainframe; Targets Growth of SOA Transactions and Data

IBM today launched a new System z9 Business Class mainframe with pricing starting at around $100,000 (1) and designed to tackle the critical computing challenges of our time: the coming wave of automated Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), new heightened expectations for data security and the rapid expansion of emerging markets. The aggressively positioned system features a new specialty engine and capabilities.

IBM also announced a lab in Shanghai that will develop software for System z as well as do related testing. In addition, IBM enhanced its System z9 Enterprise Class server with features that increase the system’s business flexibility. The IBM System z9 Business Class broadens access to the System z9 platform — the world’s most secure commercially available mainframe computer — around the globe, in China and other fast-emerging markets, where firms are rapidly deploying mainframe technology needed to achieve the scale and reliability required to keep pace in a globally integrated economy. The new mainframe is expected to play a growing role in healthcare and retail as it increasingly is used to process sensitive data that is progressively more shared.

The z9 Business Class was introduced at a press conference in China, whose nationwide effort to modernize corporate and government IT infrastructures is uniquely served by IBM’s System z. The rapid expansion of mid-market enterprises in China, as well as the immense pool of potential customers, calls for a system that can start small and scale on demand to meet increased demands of consolidated workloads. According to AMI Partners, there are 8.3 million small- and medium-sized enterprises in China (2).

Read the complete Press Release