IBM Linux on System z Cloud Test Drive

I could tell you a lot about Cloud on System z. When I walk through some IBM presentations, they tell me that a U.S. Bank reduced provisioning time from 45 days to 20 minutes or that there's 79% less TCA vs. leading public cloud or that IBM System z represents both the lowest TCO coupled with industry leading Qualities of Service for deploying private and/or hybrid clouds. Conclusion : "with solutions from Tivoli to automate provisioning and provide broad spectrum of key cloud capabilities, the time is now to start deploying your cloud on System z".

I know, lots of theory and I hardly dare saying it 'marketing talk'. But suppose that you could really take a test drive that offers you

• A free hands on experience using Cloud and Linux on IBM System z powered by z/VM for virtualization, Tivoli Provisioning Manager (TPM) for deployment, and a selection of 5 system images based on SUSE or Red Hat.
• With server images that will provide application server function (WebSphere) and database capabilities (DB2 or Oracle)
  
• Simple remote access over the internet to IBM Systems in Maryland
• Guided exercises for training, then up to 90 days of free access to up to 3 Linux servers running under z/VM

Well you can, it's available now ànd it's free.

You can experience Cloud on System z in different roles. You can access a user self service interface sample application remotely from office or home and deploy, operate, and delete up to three Linux on System z virtual guests. As an administrator you have hands on access to Tivoli Provisioning Manager (TPM) screens.

If you're interested you can apply via your IBM or BP representative or you can contact Mich Green at IBM. You'll see his e-mail address at the end of the terrific demo on Youtube he gives about this offering.



By the way : this is a worldwide offering.

Short takes

Catching up again with some short messages on the New Mainframe Executive Magazine, a definition of Cloud computing, an article on z/OS deduplication, CA May Mainframe madness and SELCOPY/i.

• The New Mainframe Executive Magazine for March/April is out. A couple of articles I liked : The consolidation experiences to Linux on System z by the Italian Gruppo Api, an interview with Reed Mullen with a more high-level approach on Linux on System z plus the various Solutions IBM is offering for it and 'Tape a collapsing star' by Randy Chalfant stating : "(...) tape will die because it can't follow or match current market conditions and requirements (...) users will simply stop writing data to tape; they'll opt for disk instead'. Want to find out more : you can download the .pdf over here.

• This is why I like reading James Governor's Monkchips. The definition of Cloud Computing is actually quite simple : "The next time someone tries to take you through 30 slides explaining the cloud you can just nod sagely, and say… “ohhhh. you mean servers, middleware and apps. Yeah I get it.” A true adherent of cloud computing !

• I wrote a little article on Protectier deduplication in our System z Newsletter and put it also on this blog. If you want to get a little more in-depth insights on z/OS Deduplication and on deduplication workload characterization, the you might want to take a look at this paper in the published papers section of the Performance Associates site : 'z/OS Data De-de-de-de-duplication' by Dr. Pat Artis.

• Perhaps a bit early to already call it a tradition but here's CA May Mainframe Madness 2010. You can register over here.

• It's not my habit to talk about third party products, but this one brought back some nice memories for me. I remember a time when there was ISPF for Windows. Perhaps it still exists and there are still people using it, I wouldn't know. But now I had a mail about a "windows style desktop on the mainframe". So, not familiarizing people with Windows by using ISPF; no, more like familiarizing people with z/OS by using Windows. I'm talking about Selcopy/i. So I took a look at their site and found an overview video. It reminded me of my time as a COBOL programmer in the early nineties. I was working for Dolmen at AnHyp at the time and one of my colleages over there, Frank van Aert, had developed or taken over some kind of self-written ISPF application which was called YP or YPN. The basic principle, though, looked pretty much the same, you edited a file and could start all kinds of operations from there on like editing files, doing listcats, jumping to ISPF 3.4 using wildcards, listing often used files, putting your cursor on it and providing all kinds of actions on it depending on the PFkey you were pressing etc. etc. It definitely saved you lots of time, so I eagerly assisted in further developing it. So far for the memories, Selcopy/i goes further than this of course, presenting it all in some windows like environment young people might like and definitely offering much more functionalities than our little application did. If you're interested, just check it out.
  Oops, not such a short take, this one. Perhaps I should try and contact Frank again, it's been a while . . .