14 DAY TRIAL // IBM announced that it is rolling out a “business class” edition of the System z10, priced under $100,000. The system was first launched in February as an enterprise class machine, designed for mid-sized companies and emerging markets. The launch of the “baby mainframe”, as Big Blue calls it, was announced at press conferences in Switzerland, South Africa, and Singapore. The IBM System z10 Business Class (z10 BC) (sub-$100,000) comes as an entry-level version of the System z10 Enterprise Class (EC) priced in the $1,000,000 bracket.
The z10 BC comes with about the same hardware innovations as z10 EC, including the Enterprise Quad Processor z10 CPU which features hardware accelerators and cryptographic functions, IBM revealed in a statement. Compared to its predecessor, the IBM z9 BC, the new z10 BC provides 50 percent more total capacity, 40 percent more speed, and four times more maximum memory. Big Blue says it can accommodate the same capacity as 116 x86 servers. The company designed this baby mainframe to come as an easy and cheaper solution for companies wanting to consolidate applications running on multiple PC servers to a much smaller number of mainframe machines.
Like its predecessor, the new sub-$100,000 mainframe has been designed to run both traditional apps as well as newer ones. It uses “specialized engine” processors for Lotus Domino, Linux, Java, SAP, and other apps. At the same time, IBM Global Financing announced it offers a no-interest, no-payment program for 90 days deferral to qualified customers who would buy a z10 BC by the end of this year.
IBM has been heavily relying during the recent few years on its sales revenue from customers outside the US, as many US-based computer hardware and software makers have. Other OEMs have also designed special product line-ups featuring lower pricing to target emerging markets. Although the global economy sees a slowdown, IBM's mainframe division did great with the System z10 EC, and announced a 25 percent increase in revenues for the third quarter of the year compared to the same time frame in 2007. On the other hand, IBM's Systems and Technology group went down 9.5 percent during the quarter.
“System z continued to sell very well, even in a tough environment,” stated Mark Loughridge, IBM's CFO, at a conference call with analysts.