For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Q&A: New Workload Adoption On System z Mainframe

Why Linux, Why Mainframe, What "Best Fit" Workloads?

by Brad Day, November 13, 2009

Over the past six quarters, IBM has been very busy turning out a raft of customer case studies on new workload adoption on its System z mainframe, letting customers tell their feature/function/benefit impetus for deciding on the System z mainframe as . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Q&A: The New Math For New Mainframe Workloads

Can IBM's Solution Edition Series Get You To A Beer Budget?

by Brad Day, November 12, 2009

Justifying the transitioning of a wide variety of application types to a mainframe environment requires substantial upfront investigation. Migrating to a mainframe has become increasingly cost-effective thanks to the refresh to IBM's new quad-core System . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Decoding Mainframe Pricing Mechanics And Metrics

by Brad Day, June 10, 2009

Unraveling the complex pricing metrics and mechanics of IBM System z hardware and software requires tapping your most investigative infrastructure, operations, and procurement specialists. The first order of business is to understand the performance metrics . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Q&A: Consolidating Linux Workloads On System Z

Best Fits For Making The Technology And Business Case

by Brad Day, April 21, 2009

Transitioning Linux workloads to run on a System Z footprint will first require your chief information officer's (CIO) sponsorship — as any step away from convention would entail. Take the shortcut on this assignment by asking him three simple questions: . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Q&A: Choosing IBM's System z10 BC Mainframe

What Selection Criteria Should Make Your Shortlist?

by Brad Day, February 17, 2009

IBM System z10 Business Class (BC) introduced significant functionality improvements over its predecessor generation, the zSeries 890/990 or System z9 BC. Most importantly, IBM preserved all of the big iron functionality introduced from the quad-core . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Lease Or Buy? Funding Server Life Cycles

Technology And Procurement Specialists Must Weigh In Equally

by Brad Day, August 11, 2008

The office of the CIO is under constant pressure to meet the financial expectations of executive management by continually lowering the life-cycle cost of the computing infrastructure without sacrificing any of the expected feature/functionality. When . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Can Specialty Engines Save The Mainframe?

Deploying New Workloads On System z

by Brad Day, April 29, 2008

System z specialty engines are specifically designed to make IBM's System z more attractive for the optimization of new workloads, while helping to significantly lower the life-cycle cost of running those workloads on a System z server. Specialty engines, . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Why Consolidate Linux On IBM System P?

by Brad Day, April 25, 2008

With the evolution of IBM's Power Systems server (formerly known as System p), the core differentiation of its feature/functionality has first and foremost centered on its sustained advantage in scaleable availability and scaleable performance versus . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

The New IBM Mainframe: Should You Make The Move To System z10?

by Brad Day, April 23, 2008

IBM's next-generation mainframe — the System z10 EC — brings an extremely broad, deep, and complex array of feature/functionality enhancements to the table. Whether you're a System z990 or z9 shop, you've probably already taken the first evaluation steps, . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Mainframes And RISC Server Trends For IT Infrastructure Consolidation

by Brad Day, March 27, 2008

In a recent Forrester survey, more than half of the respondents who are consolidating servers as part of an IT infrastructure consolidation strategy are focusing on their mainframe environment. Long thought of as separate and largely untouchable, the . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Virtualization Trends On IBM's System P

Unraveling The Benefits In IBM's PowerVM

by Brad Day, February 5, 2008

IBM's PowerVM (formerly Advanced POWER Virtualization) technology has catalyzed the consolidation of server systems resources and a variety of applications workload types — both AIX- and Linux-led — as virtualized on more powerful multi-core System p . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Consolidating Java Workloads On System Z

zAAP Specialty Engine As The Enabler

by Brad Day, January 30, 2008

Many Forrester clients are considering both the technical and economic benefits of running Java workloads on IBM System z. The technology enabler that makes this compelling is a specialty engine called an IBM zAAP, or System z Application Assist Processor. . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Best Metrics For Java Server Performance

by Brad Day, January 24, 2008

While there are many Java server-side performance tools and benchmark tests, only two standards are comprehensive enough to measure all aspects of Java application workload and accurately represent the real workload environment they simulate. The first, . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

IBM System z: Trends And Drivers Catalyzing The Next Generation Midframe

by Brad Day, November 14, 2007

IBM's System z9 stands at a crossroads. Some IT folks believe System z remains challenged, constrained by a lack of available programming and administrators' skills, legacy application re-use, and perceived higher software license and support costs. Yet . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Evaluating HP Integrity's Systems Architecture — Itanium's Not The Differentiator

by Brad Day, August 3, 2007

During the past several years, both the business and competitive technology environment for HP Integrity business has indeed changed, and yet, HP's two most challenging Unix systems adversaries — Sun Microsystems and IBM — are still on the BAFO ("best . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Demystifying Performance Benchmarks

by Brad Day, February 2, 2007

Server performance benchmarks, and what they attempt to measure, come in all flavors. Most IT infrastructure and operation people want to understand how to interpret select performance benchmark results and their significance as shortlist selection criteria . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Why Choose Linux On A Mainframe?

by Brad Day, January 17, 2007

To build a strong business case for running consolidated Linux workloads on an IBM System z9 architecture, a customer must first understand the core value proposition of the Linux operating system environment. Secondly, the customer must re-examine the . . .

Windows On IBM System i — Short-List It?

When A Hybrid Systems Architecture Can Make Sense

by Brad Day, September 1, 2006

Many IT managers and operational staff in small and medium-sized businesses have been forced to deploy two distinct server environments — one for mission-critical applications and another for standard infrastructure software like Microsoft Exchange. System . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Choosing A Strategic Systems Architecture

New Selection Criteria For Mission-Critical Unix Environments

by Brad Day, June 29, 2006

Most firms build their Unix server systems selection criteria based on the technology feature/functionality of the components — microprocessor type, micro-architecture design, and the server designs — applied against the optimization of select applications . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Preparing For A Server Consolidation Negotiation

Critical Steps In Developing The Art Before the Deal

by Brad Day, February 23, 2006

Careful planning is required to set the stage for the "best and final" bid process before commencing a server consolidation project, but many firms fail to complete the required due diligence ahead of time. The side effect is that the buyer cannot clearly . . .

Answering The Why, What, And With Whom Of Systems Migration

by Brad Day, February 21, 2006

Most IT managers do not want to be forced to go through a server migration. Migrations can be risky — on both a business and personal level — if the migration outcome does not play out as originally planned. Migration can be disruptive to the production . . .

Add SWaP To The Server Benchmark Battlefield

by Brad Day, January 19, 2006

When it launched the new UltraSPARC T1 chip and the CoolThreads server rack design last month, Sun Microsystems also introduced a new metric for measuring server efficiency called space, wattage, and performance (SWaP). SWaP addresses the challenge of . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

OS Choice Plays A Big Role In Server Benchmark Performance

by Brad Day, January 18, 2006

When vendors launch a new server platform — where CPU, memory, and I/O, either in part or collectively, are improved over the predecessor server design in a product road map — it is the new feature/functionality, the improved performance range, and the . . .

Sun Must Cannibalize SPARC/Solaris With x64/Solaris

by Brad Day, October 12, 2005

In September of 2005, Sun released its second-generation x64-based Sun Fire X servers and provided evidence of strong momentum behind its Opteron-based offerings. Sun's first-generation x64 server family started shipping almost a year before the release . . .

The State Of The Corporate PC And Server 2005

by Simon Yates, Brad Day, October 11, 2005

In July 2004 and July 2005, Forrester surveyed IT executives responsible for PC procurement, management, and support in large enterprises about the current state of the PC environment in terms of types of the hardware purchased, vendors used, and operating . . .