IBM, having happily extricated itself from the hard drive, printer, and PC markets, this week made a fresh commitment to one of the historic foundations of its business, the enterprise mainframe computer.
And it's a commitment that embraces new capacities for business analytics.
An IBM 704 Mainframe, 1964 (Source: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory).
Announcing the launch today of its new enterprise mainframe system, the zEnterprise EC12, IBM emphasized the environment's "robust support for operational analytics that can help clients efficiently sift
through large volumes of raw data and transform it to gain knowledge that can be
used for competitive advantage."
Of course, IBM (which sponsors Internet Evolution), has been grooming the so-called "dinosaur" of commercial computing systems for its new role for several years now. Improvements in performance and software have solidified the appeal of zSeries mainframes, especially for larger corporations requiring reliability and resilience in handling huge quantities of data processing.
Indeed, so successful has the zSeries been for IBM that -- taking account of additional charges for software, servicing, and storage -- mainframes are estimated to account for 25 percent of IBM's revenue and 40 percent of its profits. So much for the dinosaur.
In the meantime, IBM has carefully re-positioned itself as a vendor of computing services rather than hardware, emphasizing smarter commerce, smarter analytics, and cloud computing. The zEnterprise EC12 is an effort to pull the threads together.
As a mainframe, the zEnterprise EC12 offers 25 percent more performance, and 50 percent more total capacity than its predecessor. Crucially, it boosts performance of analytics workloads by 30 percent, and incorporates the Netezza data warehouse appliance. Netezza is designed to serve multi-channel enterprises by collating and analysing real-time data from point-of-sale, call centers, eCommerce channels, and social media.
The system can also support private cloud architecture through consolidation of database workloads.
While the primary appeal of high cost systems such as the zEnterprise EC12 is to large corporations, some are finding that emerging enterprises also derive value from the investment. The New York Times gives the example of Comepay, a Russian startup that uses an IBM mainframe-based system to handle millions of transactions daily.
There's also little doubt that innovative research at the blue chip level can filter down and inform improvements to systems with more obvious midmarket appeal.
That's right. I just read an IBM manual on Mianframes and it does share similar viewpoints about the supposed strength of Mainframes. This is what it has to say:
"Many of today's busiest Web sites store their production databases on a mainframe host. New mainframe hardware and software products are ideal for Web transactions because they are designed to allow huge numbers of users and applications to rapidly and simultaneously access the same data without interfering with each other. This security, scalability, and reliability is critical to the efficient and secure operation of contemporary information processing."
Who would have thought that the "The roads of the information superhighway often lead to a mainframe."?
Paul, the message right now must surely be that the mainframe is still the best tool for processing truly huge quantities of data with the speed, security, and reliability some large enterprises require. It doesn't mean the mainframe will never be superseded, but it's still a surprisingly big part of IBM's business.
Realistically no it certainly wouldn't be a good idea even though they'd still be profitable. On the contrary its good grounds for expansion of the consulting function of the company.
That makes great sense, Mitch. And, as Kim points out in the article, IBM has masterfully put together an array of technologies that really work.
They are smart to resurrect and upgrade the mainframe line as one of the tools. Doing this, without losing perspective on their positioning as a technology solution provider, is a brilliant strategy. I think they have truly captured the essence of selling the value of technology.
I don't know if we can expect to see IBM become a pure mainframe company. Other parts of their business are very important. But I can see the mainframe becoming more important as cloud computing becomes more popular.
40 percent is a good proportion coming in from mainframe. At some point i thought the mainframe would actually shrink into history but now with cloud computing taking over...looks like IBM could even safely revert to purely mainframe.
That's so true Mitch. But the question we should be asking is why does IBM has so much faith in an old device like the Mainframe? By constantly reinventing it, is IBM sending the message that the Mainframe can't be replaced in its entirety?
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The big announcement at the opening keynotes of IBM's 2013 Smarter Commerce Global Summit is that IBM is putting Watson into companies, and companies are putting Watson to work.
A study of US ecommerce trends in the run up to Mother's Day points to what Jay Henderson, Global Strategy Director for IBM Smarter Commerce, called "a pretty seismic shift" in online shopping habits.
The New York Times made a fuss about the obvious this week, as it so often does, pointing out that Hollywood increasingly leverages big-data to select and hone movie scripts.
State and local government agencies would love to get their hands around big-data. All they lack is adequate data storage and computer power, and enough staff.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling of customer behavior to convert more site visitors into leads, says Brian Baron, director of business analytics, in an interview at the Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
Companies need to take advantage of new technologies to simplify interfaces, improve capabilities, and enhance back-office processes. But they can't upgrade their Websites too often.
Gil Elbaz, CEO of Factual, talks about the importance of data and analytics for marketers and how the technology is evolving to better assist automated, real-time decisions.
Big-data has become a big point of emphasis for many businesses. While the technology is available to deploy these applications, the needed personnel often is not. As a result, analytic engineers' salaries have blown past the six-figure mark, and hiring these experts has become a challenge for IT managers.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
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