Mainframe business and IBM are more like made for each other combination that has been the most harmonious and the perfect match throughout the history. IBM seems to strengthen the relationship with every possible move that it can take and one of the similar ones is the launch of the new generation mainframes last week. The mainframe generation is targeting corporate and government data centers above all other fronts.
IBM’s New Generation Mainframes
The new machines are faster, more powerful and more energy efficient as stated by most of the people. The main development has been made in the other computer that connects to the mainframe for data center management yet the combination seems as if it were just a single computer. The mainframe design has certainly been revolutionized by IBM as this accounts for all the major changes that has come in the way that mainframes have been made for almost around a decade or so. The mainframe is certainly an excellent move in the battle that has the market turn towards system compatible with the UNIX operating systems.
Market State
IBM and HP are trying all their moves to rule the UNIX based machines and both the companies are trying to dominate Oracle that has taken control of Sun Microsystems this year. The economic conditions have set companies to rely on smaller data centers computers that are usually powered by Intel and Advanced Micro Devices. Intel and IBM reported a hike in the sale of standard server computers. IBM faced a rise of almost 30% in the second quarter.
There has been no trend justifying that users spent money on bigger machines, mainframes and UNIX based servers but it seems that the last half of the year will certainly come up with something better in this regard with the products like IBM’s new generation mainframe models will rise. IBM is recently playing in the market dominating as many of the competitions have forfeited years ago. None from Amdahl, Fujitsu and Hitachi is in the market anymore.
Possible competition is IBM itself
The only competition that IBM is going to have is IBM’s previous models only. The new series termed as the Z series runs 40% faster than the fastest predecessor while it gives a remarkable energy efficiency of 90% compared to the best available in the predecessor range. The new mainframe series also conserves energy and space at the same time just to make sure that the corporate clients need not to add in their real state or their power bills to run such powerful machines.
Market response
IBM is relieved by the response that the product has generated in the market so far. One can expect the product to give them excellent features compared to any other available in the market. Even the predecessors are not as good as this one. The managing director at Citigroup has stated that they are going to adopt the compact new mainframe computers where the power bills are expected to cut short by 60% as per their statement. They plan to adopt the water-cooled model that is said to cut short the power bills by another 12 percent.
