IBM Announces New Storage Solution for IBM Z
IBM has announced the launch of its next generation of IBM Storage DS8000, available starting October 25, 2024. The latest innovation in enterprise-class storage for IBM Z mainframe architectures, IBM Storage DS8000 is designed to fully leverage the full power of IBM Z, delivering robust data protection, security, and business continuity features.
According to the company’s announcement, IBM Storage DS8000 will provide organizations access to critical workloads, consistent and optimized data performance, and a modular architecture to adopt the latest IBM research-backed technologies to fuel business growth while monetizing data.
Key features of the new IBM Storage DS8000 (10th Generation) include:
Reliability and up to eight 9s availability for uninterrupted business operations
- Ensure critical business operations run smoothly without interruptions with improved reliability and higher availability of up to 99.999999%.
- Achieve near real-time autonomous operational failover at metro distances, with DS8000 coupled with IBM Z’s GDPS (Geographically Dispersed Parallel Sysplex, mainframes potentially located in different locations). For distances greater than metro areas (such as remote locations or regional datacenters), organizations can return to full operations in less than an hour with GDPS and DS8000.
- Protect against cyber-attacks with a storage solution built to protect the very data which critical systems and AI models are built on. The DS8000 is FIPS 140-3 certified and offers immutable Safeguarded Copies, ensuring the availability of critical data.
- Prevent data loss and recover from verified and validated points of restore with application consistent recover points using integrated systems management with IBM Z Cyber Vault.
Performance to meet the most demanding workloads
- Improve application responsiveness by providing an average of 20% improvement in latency reduction using ZHyperlink with PCIe Gen4 compared to R9 with same configuration, particularly in high-volume scenarios like airline and credit card transactions.
- Provide 2.5X the throughput of 48KB with PCIe Gen4 and zHyperLink for write only testing compared to previous generation.
- Accelerate the maximum application responsiveness providing up to 73% more IOPS for high volume transaction processing with new HPFE Gen 3 flash enclosure, compared to HPFE Gen 2 in the previous generation of DS8000.
Innovation and sustainability to fuel data center efficiency
- Store 2X the storage capacity in the same physical space when using IBM FlashCore Module 4 compared to previous generation.
- Improve capacity utilization and protect critical information at bus-speed performance with inline compression and data encryption based on IBM’s industry leading computational storage – the FlashCore Module.
“Cyber-resilience has become a must-have for mission-critical storage,” says Scott Sinclair, Practice Director with the Enterprise Strategy Group. “And, with the 10th generation of IBM Storage DS8000, enterprises receive the integrated security features, such as secure boot and immutable safeguarded copies, combined with a boost in efficiency from the integration of NVMe technology and IBM’s FlashCore modules. IBM is delivering a platform that can support a business’s most critical workloads while also offering the efficiency for larger scale consolidation.”
Source: IBM
Kyndryl Survey Shows Businesses Adopting AI to Accelerate Mainframe Modernization
Kyndryl’s second annual State of Mainframe Modernization Survey has been published, and it highlights 2024 as a pivotal year for AI adoption on mainframes. The survey, conducted among 500 business and IT leaders, reveals that despite modernization yielding significant financial benefits, skill shortages still hinder the transformation of complex systems.
Facing various challenges, business leaders are focusing on extracting new value from their IT infrastructure, including mainframes. The survey found that 86% are adopting AI and generative AI to accelerate modernization, with a third using the mainframe for AI-enabled workloads and nearly half aiming to leverage generative AI to unlock critical data insights.
According to survey respondents, IT modernization efforts are delivering significant business returns, with one-year ROIs ranging from 114% to 225% and annual savings of $11.9 billion. Most organizations have adopted a hybrid IT strategy, combining mainframe modernization with cloud integration. Additionally, 96% of respondents are migrating an average of 36% of their workloads to the cloud.
Another insight of the survey is the importance of enterprise-wide observability for managing hybrid IT environments, with 92% of respondents emphasizing the importance of a single dashboard for monitoring operations—though 85% find it challenging to do this properly. Kyndryl Bridge, an AI-powered integration platform, is designed to address this need by enhancing observability, orchestration, and operational efficiency across technology environments.
“Mainframes continue to occupy a central role in the hybrid world and are evolving to serve new use cases, with AI and security increasingly influencing modernization plans. Kyndryl is at the forefront of this trend, providing mission-critical expertise to help customers achieve their goals,” said Petra Goude, Global Practice Leader for Core Enterprise & zCloud at Kyndryl.
To learn more about Kyndryl’s survey results, go to Kyndryl’s 2024 State of Mainframe Modernization Survey Report.
Source: Kyndryl
VirtualZ raises $2.1 Million in Funding Round
Minneapolis-based software startup, VirtualZ Computing, has raised $2.1 million in a new funding round. The company specializes in software that converts data from IBM mainframes to cloud systems, supporting the modernization of long-standing data repositories used by governments, banks, and large corporations.
VirtualZ’s suite of products helps companies face the issues of data access that arise in hybrid cloud environments, and that can introduce added costs, time, data inaccuracies, and security risks.
“Mainframe computers run the world,” said VirtualZ CEO Jeanne Glass told the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. “Anytime you talk on your cellphone, use a credit card, make a payment online, do a transaction online, you’re using a mainframe.”
Moving into 2025, VirtualZ, the first woman-owned, Native American-founded mainframe startup company, plans to build its existing customer and partner relationships, expand direct and indirect sales, and further its product roadmap.
Source: Minneapolis/St.Paul Business Journal
Sonja Soderlund is an Oregon-based B2B freelance writer. Whether writing about mainframe computers, educational technology, or sustainable retail, she strives to bring clarity to complex issues. Connect with her at sonjasoderlund.com or LinkedIn.