Virtual Storage Drives BladeCenter Market catalysts

Most users want to run their bank core solutions on IBM I or mainframes, and they need stable, powerful, and secure system configurations, "Germain explains." This is beyond hardware. You must consider the operating environment. The people in the Bank trust the operating system to be secure and powerful. These operating systems have different characteristics, but enterprises also need other applications.

For us it is Power BAE let IBM i into the mainstream so that we can achieve this transition. We have not discussed putting I in the BladeCenter type of environment. The focus is now on whether I,bladecenter should be composed entirely of Linux servers or a hybrid of special application tools for a particular core environment.

The path to server consolidation is not easy for as/400 users, it is not simply about consolidating multiple os/400 servers into a single platform on a logical partition. This is not a problem that is often encountered. The economic environment does change, and perhaps simplification and cost savings are both the focus of our emphasis.

Germain estimates that thousands of users currently use the platform environment that IBM I and Windows servers want to combine. This is not a motivating figure, and when it comes to server integration, it may not inspire confidence that there is much hope for the future.

If you trust IBM, as Germain emphasized, "advocating hybrid system concepts." But this initiative has little effect, not only is it hard to see the integration of Windows servers on the I platform, but also the number of server consolidations is not very large.

This technology is not designed for large companies that have hundreds of servers, but for businesses with 5 to 10 Windows servers. So the server consolidation plan involves about 6 or 12 servers.

"If you consider the value of combining windows and I together, you will find storage management, which is not for individual server storage, but for storage in virtual environments on the I platform," Germain said. The concept of virtual storage applies only to storage area networks and is limited to large system I users. The current storage Area network technology has infiltrated many smaller IBM I customer groups. What you see today is a variety of comprehensive solutions to choose from. People can use a storage area network on their Windows servers. This is why IBM invests in storage Area network support.

Will the IBM I line of products serve as as/400 for the SYSTEM/38 community service? There seems to be such a possibility. If you are IBM power BAE software manager Ian Jermain, you must be moving from "what happens" to "what's going to happen." The migration to BladeCenter seems to have a lot of work to do, but Germain says the work will be integrated.

IBM I server has always been the practice, usually not in a hurry to put all the cards on the desktop, after all, the community has always disliked sudden changes. Even if the blade is the fastest growing unit in the entire server market, this trend has not had much impact on the mainframe server market, which has always been the higher end of the product line. Although IBM introduced the as/400 naming convention in 1988, many of the server's titles have changed many times, but the blades are still in the early stages of the market acceptance. Recently, in all architectures, about 10% of server shipments are blade servers, so who will be the IBM I platform's fans since as/400 is expected to change in the early days of the data center product lifecycle?

According to IBM Product manager, Power Bae has great potential in the small and medium business market for the I series. Germain stressed that "IBM BladeCenter solution is different in that it can be integrated with commonly used POWER6 blades, and POWER6 blades can be extended to 8 core blades." This has created a huge long-term potential.

Recent market developments have focused on the dynamic infrastructure conference, with several sides saying that, as users, business partners and independent software developers think, the dynamic infrastructure will be bladecenter. Germain says "This means you can use a device to run the resources you need, This is more meaningful than using a decentralized device to run a decentralized workload. We believe that users who favor IBM I small configurations will be attracted to BladeCenter solutions because they run Windows and other types of servers and should be integrated on one platform if possible.

But as virtualization drives the integration of servers more and more common, how much incentive for small and medium enterprise users?

To provide a way for independent software developers to package applications, independent software developers need not be tied to cost sales. BladeCenter, for example, opens a door for independent software developers in the financial environment to provide them with a "bank in the box" application suite, a hybrid that can run multiple platforms in a suite. The system running on the back end will still be the I operating system.

"Many independent software developers are not as focused on an operating system as they were in 20 or 30 years ago, and now they are accustomed to using cross-platform packages," says Germain. They want to compete with other manufacturers. This must provide all of their solutions, whether the user chooses a solution or prefers those that are easy to configure on the back end of a small bank or credit institution. Many independent software developers have BladeCenter as a competitive bargaining chip.

The concept of integration has been repeatedly repeated for many years. Blade server is a kind of innovation that keeps as/400 application software alive. When companies are confronted with it products that are made up of different servers, they are often hard to choose.

If you take a serious look at as/400 's long history of dominance, you will find that users and vendors need to be simple and practical. They want to integrate decentralized platforms and simplify the multiple platform environment.

Some independent software developers are also trying to do this on a software level, unifying the user base on a single platform, encouraging users to abandon as/400 and other platforms. There are also independent software developers who will pay for this purpose. Do you remember when the SSA and JD Edwards started migrating their security platforms from as/400?

Configuring IBM I BladeCenter to consolidate Windows servers still seems to be easier said than done, and the author does not believe that virtual storage will be a catalyst to promote bladecenter market acceptance. Maybe we'll learn more details soon.