15 Reasons the IBM System z13 Just Might Succeed

by Brenda J. Christie

IBM System z13

Following some of my recent articles on the IBM Mainframe, Continuance of the Mainframe Evolution (6/10/14), Elasticity in the Mainframe Environment (7/22/14), and Mainframe Goes Mobile (9/9/14),  IBM recently launched a new zSeries Mainframe. Admittedly, I was a little skeptical about IBM's announcement last week concerning the launch of its new System z13 mainframe.  Initial thoughts centered around why would a company spend potentially millions of dollars to purchase a new mainframe instead of fortify its existing mainframe inventory?  Granted, the new System z13 comes with a lot of bells and whistles including:

1. Encryption for online and mobile transactions
2. Ability to process 2.5 billion transactions a day
3. Integration with real time analytics monitoring in order to spot potentially fraudulent transactions
4. Use Analytics to send a product offer to the customer during a transaction 
5. An application programming interface that will allow developers to quickly create apps
6. Enhanced support for Java and Websphere workloads
7. Closer proximity of data to Analytics engines
8. The System z13 supports (SIMD) technology which allows a single micro instruction to operate on multiple data items thereby improving performance by 80%
9. Improved CPU performance
10. Improved Memory capacity
11. Improved bandwidth capacity and reduction of throughput restrictions
12. Ability to reduce data center footprint when expanding to accommodate growth in online and mobile transaction growth 
13. Consolidation of core functions (analytics, encryption,) in one place
14. Reduction in the need to synchronize copies of the same data in multiple places
15. Negates the need to and cost of shifting vast quantities of data around among smaller servers for performance and growth reasons.

Who Does the IBM System z13 appeal to and why?

The reasons for all the buzz and interest can be see in the infographic below.  These reasons are largely attributable to the growth of Mobile and Online Transactions.

The IBM System z13 has a wide appeal to banks, most of whom already have mainframes.  Use of the System z13 will allow banks to tap into the multi-billion dollar mobile and online business and in the process not only stay better in touch with its customer base, but also leverage the mobile, online platform to push products which may be of appeal to its customers.  Indeed, Citigroup has already purchased the IBM System z13 mainframe.  Citigroup has always been at the forefront of technology use and deployment, and as such, it is a reasonable expectation that many of its banking competitors will follow suit.

The insurance industry also has a strong interest in the System z13 as its Analytics capabilities, combined with SPSS monitoring and scoring capabilities facilitate quicker fraud detection.

Summary

In summary, there are many reasons to be excited about the launch of the System z13.  The new mainframe represents the opportunity for organizations to more fully and quickly engage with their customers while ensuring security of online data and take advantage of the billions of dollars produced by disruptive technologies such as the Cloud and analytics and most importantly, mobile transactions.  It is, however, also a risk for IBM in the sense that there is potential to tarnish the mainframe's long-held reputation of being safe and secure.  Indeed, IBM's coupling with Apple's, Chome's cryptography is a risk.  To the extent that these new encryption algorithms and logic are effective, the risk to tarnishing the idea of mainframe security will be intact.  The opposite, is equally true.  With regards to increased revenue attributable to the System z13, it is likely that the large banks and insurance companies will purchase the System z13, similar to how System 360, System 370, System 390 mainframes ultimately replaced each other.  Then again, it may also be the case that some companies remain skeptical and decide (probably to their detriment) to go with their existing machines.  Time will tell.

Bye for now,

Brenda J. Christie