IBM invests 1 billion dollars to develop new mainframe: targeting mobile platforms

IBM will launch a new mainframe that wants speed and security to help customers in a variety of industries, such as banking and healthcare, respond to a surge in smartphone usage.

IBM says the system, called Z13, can encrypt and analyze data in real time, with 30,000 transactions per second. This will bring faster and more secure transaction processing services to end-users. IBM Engineer Donna Duerenberg (Donna Dillenberger) said the system lasted 5 years, with a cumulative investment of more than 1 billion dollars.

Mainframe is one of IBM's iconic products that can help it sell software and services. While the demand for traditional hardware is down, the company's CEO Rometty (Ginni Rometty) is currently exploring new revenue streams in the areas of mobile, cloud computing and data analysis.

"When we use mobile devices, we can only wait two or three seconds." "These questions prompt us to ask ourselves: ' How can we speed up this kind of analysis? '" Duerenberg said in an interview. ' Z13 can connect the user's mobile device directly to the mainframe. ”

The new system can enhance the machine's own data analysis capabilities, thus speeding up and reducing costs.

IBM declined to disclose the exact price of the mainframe, but this type of equipment is usually priced at hundreds of thousands of dollars.

IBM's revenue shrank as a result of the hardware business decline, down 15% in the third quarter of last year. Martin Schroeter, the company's CFO, said in October last year that part of the reason for System Z's revenue reduction was that the latest system had been on the market for 9 quarters. Today's announcement marks the start of the new product cycle by System Z.

IBM's forecast for its first profit decline in 12 years in 2014 Last October has also put pressure on its executives to look for new sources of growth.

Rometty is trying to transform IBM, hoping to make it a cloud computing service provider. She also needs to upgrade traditional products, including mainframes and other high-end servers, which will help the company's salespeople tie software and services to corporate users.

"The mainframe software business, though an important business for IBM, has grown sluggish." "Steve Mills, executive vice president of IBM Software and systems, said last month at the Credit Suisse conference, Steve Mills.

IBM will announce its fourth-quarter results for 2014 after the U.S. stock market closed on January 20.

(Responsible editor: Mengyishan)