Recently, the IT industry has seen an explosion in applications, architectures, and platforms. With the generalized availability of the internet and the appearance of commodity hardware and software, several patterns have emerged that have gained center stage. Workloads have changed. Many applications, including mission-critical ones, are deployed in heterogeneous infrastructures. System z® design has adapted to this change. IBM® has a holistic approach to System z design, which includes hardware, software, and procedures. It takes into account a wide range of factors, including compatibility and investment protection, which ensures a tighter fit with IT requirements of an enterprise.

This IBM Redbooks® publication introduces the revolutionary scalable IBM zEnterprise System, which consists of the IBM zEnterprise 196 (z196) or the IBM zEnterprise 114 (z114), the IBM zEnterprise BladeCenter® Extension (zBX), and the IBM zEnterprise Unified Resource Manager.

IBM is taking a bold step by integrating heterogeneous platforms under the proven System z hardware management capabilities, while extending System z qualities of service to those platforms.

The z196 and z114 are general-purpose servers that are equally at ease with compute-intensive workloads and with I/O-intensive workloads.

The integration of heterogeneous platforms is based on IBM BladeCenter technology, allowing improvements in price and performance for key workloads, while enabling a new range of heterogeneous platform solutions.

The z196 and z114 are at the core of the enhanced System z platforms, which are designed to deliver technologies that businesses need today along with a foundation to drive future business growth.

The changes to this edition are based on the System z hardware announcement dated July 12, 2011.

This book provides basic information about z196, z114, zBX, and Unified Resource Manager capabilities, hardware functions and features, and associated software support. It is intended for IT managers, architects, consultants, and anyone else who wants to understand the elements of the zEnterprise System. For this introduction to the zEnterprise System, readers are not expected to be familiar with current IBM System z technology and terminology.

Chapter 1. Proposing an IT infrastructure (r)evolution

Chapter 2. Achieving a (r)evolutionary IT infrastructure

Chapter 3. zEnterprise System hardware overview

Chapter 4. Key functions and capabilities of the zEnterprise System

Appendix A. Operating systems support and considerations

Appendix B. Software licensing

Appendix C. Channel options