The new IBM LinuxONE 4 Express brings many of the performance benefits of the latest IBM Z mainframe systems to small and medium-sized businesses. It provides support for demanding AI applications and easier roll-out of integrated hybrid cloud strategies while at the same time delivering cost and space advantages.
The LinuxONE 4 Express is the latest IBM server to run on the LinuxONE open-source platform, combining IBM's experience in building enterprise systems with openness of the Linux operating system.
Here are some key things you need to know:
It's built with AI in mind
It uses the same Telum processor that's available on the latest z16 mainframes. By integrating AI acceleration through an on-chip AI coprocessor, the Telum helps to reduce latency and deliver high performance in-transition AI inferencing. Simply put, it's designed to support demanding high throughput, low latency applications of AI that involve deep learning and machine learning.
On-chip AI inferencing means companies can co-locate AI with mission-critical data on a LinuxONE system to enable data analysis to happen where the data is located. IBM cites the example of health insurance companies being able to analyze large volumes of medical records in near real-time to validate claims in order to speed business decision making.
It supports hybrid cloud
It's designed to support hybrid cloud and AI in a simple, easy to use format that fits in many data centres. The emphasis is on helping businesses to plan and build an integrated hybrid cloud strategy from the outset by making it easier to decide which workloads to run on the cloud and which on-premise. Creating a carefully planned and intentional hybrid cloud strategy like this reduces the risk of key data being siloed - it will be for use across the business and easier to incorporate into AI initiatives.
Too often it doesn't happen like this according to IBM. The pace of change of business means new products or services have to be added quickly, resulting in a default hybrid environment with siloed stacks that are difficult to align across the enterprise. With key data locked away in separate siloes it can be harder to use the data to support the business to roll out AI initiatives.
It provides "eight-nines" availability
It provides high availability for organizations with critical workloads that need strict resiliency in order to adhere to internal or external regulations. For example, the IBM LinuxONE 4 Express system is designed to deliver an impressive eight nines (99.999999%) uptime when paired with the GDPS, IBM DS8000 series storage with HyperSwap and running a Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform environment.
It incorporates advanced cybersecurity technology
It offers superior data protection features that are essential for businesses that handle sensitive information. It comes with the IBM Secure Execution for Linux, an advanced hardware-based security technology. By providing isolation for individual workloads, the system helps protect against both external attacks and insider threats. Importantly, it supports protection for data in use, a particularly critical stage of security when data is most vulnerable.
It offers significant TCO reductions over comparable x86 systems
The ability to consolidate several x86 workloads to just one LinuxONE system leads to both cost, space and energy savings as well as helping to simplify an organization's IT operations. In fact, moving Linux workloads from a comparable x86 system to an IBM LinuxONE 4 Express can save over 52% on the total cost of ownership over 5 years.
The energy and space saving advantages of the LinuXONE server range also align with the sustainability goals that businesses are embracing today. Previous research has suggested that consolidating Linux workloads on 5 IBM LinuxONE Emperor 4 systems instead of on comparable x86 servers under similar conditions can reduce energy consumption by 75%, space by 50%, and the CO2e footprint by over 850 metric tons annually.