IBM Monday took the wraps
off its new application server for its zSeries operating system. The new
software comes equipped with the latest support for J2EE and Web services
standards, as well as a variable pricing scheme previously unavailable for
the zSeries.
The first upgrade of its kind since WebSphere V4 was released some two years
ago, WebSphere V5 for the z/OS supports SOAP
supports more than
half of the technologies that will be part of future releases of J2EE,
according to IBM Director of WebSphere Internet Infrastructure Software of
Bob Sutor.
Sutor told internetnews.com the development environment is also
simpler as WebSphere for z/OS’s Eclipse tools can be used to develop once
and deploy to any WebSphere server environment. In the past, extra steps
were required.
Once a fixed, per-processor pricing candidate, WebSphere for z/OS, V5 may
now be purchased through a flexible pricing option, much the same way IBM’s
zSeries machines are. The software is sold as “value units,” which are
calculated based on the millions of service units capacity of zSeries
servers. WebSphere has a tool available to help customers determine how many
Value Units they need, based on their hardware.
The flexible pricing, designated for the z/OS for V4 and V5 platforms, is in
keeping with IBM’s pervasive strategy to let customers pay as they go for
processing power.
Sutor offered the following pricing example as a lesson in “the more you use
it, the cheaper it gets” philosophy: a customer can buy 10 Value Units
starting at $2,300 per unit, or a customer can purchase 100 Value Units and
pay 80 percent less per Unit, based on the same zSeries model. By
comparison, the WebSphere for z/OS, V4 was priced at a fixed $35,000 per
processor and customers were required to purchase licenses for all
processors whether they were being used or not.
Redmonk Senior Analyst Stephen O’Grady said the variegated pricing is certainly a reflection of IBM’s e-business on-demand push, and makes sense for heavy users.
“But it’s not always easy to explain and digest; old line mainframe customers can certainly figure it out, but newer, less mainframe-savvy executives are likely to be a bit
confused, so that would be a concern to me,” O’Grady told internetnews.com. “Despite these concerns, however, the pricing to me is a necessity. As we think about Big Iron underpinning the next generation of on-demand style applications and usage patterns, it’s critical that the pricing reflect
this new style of usage – hence variegated pricing.”
Of course, a new software upgrade from IBM wouldn’t be complete without the
firm’s self-diagnostic, self-healing stamp of approval. Autonomic features
for WebSphere V5 for the z/OS include unique clustering, workload management
and security technologies built into the z/OS operating system and enhanced
by the zSeries platform. With these features, service continues regardless
of applications, system software or hardware failures.
The new software is a kind of appetizer for the delivery of its next zSeries
mainframe, code-named
T-Rex. WebSphere Application Server for z/OS will be ready for the
public May 2.
IBM Unveils WebSphere V5 for zSeries OS
