IBM To Shift New Mainframe Sales To Solution Providers

IBM is targeting the majority of its z800 family for sale through its solution provider channel, said Lechner. He expects 75 to 80 percent of the total capacity of the new mainframes to be sold through the channel, compared to 30 to 40 percent of the current z900 family.

Big Blue expects its current mainframe VARs to carry the new models, and will consider working with new entrants to the mainframe market.

IBM on Monday at PartnerWorld also introduced the z/OS.e operating system aimed specifically at the e-business market for such Web-based applications as Websphere, DB2 database, Java JDK, and MQSeries.

The company introduced a total of eight new general-purpose z800 entry-level mainframes, code named "Raptor", in a follow-on to its release last month of a mainframe aimed specifically at the Linux market.

The new mainframes are expected to be released in March, said Rich Lechner, vice president of sales and marketing for IBM's zSeries. Pricing will start at less than $350,000 for a three-year lease including hardware, software and maintenance, he said.

IBM's z/OS.e operating system enables the z800 to compete against Sun and Hewlett-Packard servers for what Lechner called "new" workloads, including Web serving, SAP, e-mail, and business consolidations.

For more traditional mainframe applications, the z800 will compete mainly with IBM's Multiprise 3000, Lechner said. The Multiprise 3000 will continue to be offered. But Lechner would not discuss when that series would be discontinued.

Lechner said the z800s, despite the price, are full-fledged mainframes. They are available in one-way to four way configurations, and support the company's OS/390, z/VM, VM/ESA, VSE-ESA, Linux for zSeries, and Linux for S/390 operating systems. The machines support 32-bit and 64-bit applications, 8 Gbytes to 32 Gbytes of central memory, and up to 240 ESCON channels.

The entry-level mainframes can also work with IBM's Parallel Sysplex clustering technology, which ties multiple units together for near-zero downtime as part of a business continuity program, said Lechner. The can also connect to z900 mainframes in clusters as well. In server farms, hundreds of multiple Web, print, file, e-mail, and other single-purpose servers can be consolidated into a single server, he said.

IBM is using the introduction of its entry-level mainframes to unveil a couple of other firsts for the company.

Big Blue is offering its first mainframe packaged solution consisting of a z/800 server and the "Shark" Enterprise Storage Server hard drive array and/or the TotalStorage (stet) Virtual Tape Server.

The company is also allowing solution providers to offer IBM Global Financing's Technology Upgrade Option to customers for the first time. Under the Technology Upgrade Option, clients can take advantage of upgrades to their mainframes at the midpoint of their typical 30-month to 36-month leases, or six months after that date, instead of having to wait until the lease expires.

The new mainframes will help customers running VM and VSE environments to pop on a new server when needed, said Joe Wurtz Jr., vice president of eServers for MSI Systems Integrators, an Omaha, Neb.-based solution provider. "They can keep on adding new hardware so their environments don't stagnate," he said.

Even so, Wurtz said IBM is still the big winner, as increased sales of entry-level mainframes will mean greater long-term revenue from related software compared to its other server lines. "IBM can sell the hardware at a low cost, and make it up on the software," he said.