IBM z15 Release: Implications for Infrastructure Operations Leaders

Overview

Key Takeaways

• IBM has innovated across its system-wide design for chip upgrades, focusing on software efficiency and core/cache density for performance. The IBM z15 offers a 14% capacity increase over the z14, exceeding expectations.
• With data protection and privacy compliance being top priorities for most enterprises, IBM has significantly enhanced its data protection capabilities to ensure customers can migrate data securely to other platforms (including public cloud) without concern.
• IBM has made significant changes to its mainframe technology and contracts to help customers recover faster from planned and unplanned downtime.
• IBM's "Tailored Pricing" model offers considerable benefits for mainframe customers who are growing or spending significant time managing workloads to reduce software costs.

Recommendations for Infrastructure & Operations (I&O) Leaders

I&O leaders responsible for building and maintaining reliable data center infrastructure should:

• Collaborate with security and business leaders to identify current risk exposures, protect digital assets, and upgrade to the z15 if appropriate.
• Include IBM's LinuxONE in RFPs to form a highly scalable, highly secure Linux server solution.
• Prepare for the phase-out of current z14 mainframe products, with hardware upgrades expected to cease in H1 2021 and microcode upgrades in H1 2022.
• Plan to deploy the "low-end" z15 version within 12 months to meet IBM's smaller mainframe installation requirements.

Analysis

On September 12, 2019, IBM launched its new-generation z15 mainframe. The two z15 models released (product numbers 8561) are the T01 for traditional mainframes and the LT1 for LinuxONE, featuring 292 capacity settings and supporting up to 190 configurable processor units. IBM highlights the platform's role in the hybrid multicloud world and its ability to protect enterprises' "crown jewels" – their data.

Many enterprises are struggling to keep pace with digital transformation, deploying consumer-facing applications that extract data from mainframes but are hesitant to migrate core enterprise applications. Mainframes have historically been the platform for ensuring the integrity of high-volume transactions – secure and dynamically available. Many surveyed enterprises find the risk of migrating and re-architecting too high, yet worry about being left behind in this digital transformation era. Some customers indicate their mainframe workloads are legacy and difficult to modernize, but Gartner observes that customers investing and continuing to invest in this area have achieved positive business outcomes.

The continued focus on improved security features should resonate in a market where new enterprise security incidents emerge almost weekly. While mainframes may be the most secure platform, they still require appropriate processes to support them. These enhancements continue to lower (but not eliminate) the risk of unprotected data within the enterprise. The inherent security of the mainframe can play a role in protecting valuable enterprise data from internal and external threats.

LinuxONE continues to play a role in attracting new customers, especially in markets where z/OS skills are scarce or nonexistent. This release reiterates IBM's commitment to positioning LinuxONE as a highly secure, highly scalable Linux solution. IBM has achieved some success in the LinuxONE space over the past few years, making it a good option for existing and non-mainframe customers seeking highly scalable Linux server solutions.

Key Technical Changes and Impact on Mainframe Customers

The increase in processor performance (14% over z14) and the rise in the maximum number of processors (from 170 on z14 to 190) result in a 25% increase in total capacity for the z15 compared to the z14's maximum. While Gartner observed a few customers limited by single-processor engine capacity, most users find the 14% increase surprising, as it exceeds the uplift from the previous two generations (see Table 1). The z15's chip clock speed is the same as the z14; performance gains are primarily due to software changes, larger cache sizes, and enhanced system design. Table 2 compares the z15's basic design with the previous three generations of IBM mainframes.

Table 1: Comparison of IBM Mainframe Generations

Source: Gartner (October 2019)

Table 2: IBM z System Design Comparison

Source: Adapted from IBM

A unique aspect of the new models is the use of the industry-standard 19-inch rack form factor (introduced with the z14 ZR1), which significantly reduces the installation space compared to previous generations. This allows for more flexible deployment of the z15 within data centers, helping customers optimize space utilization, cooling efficiency, and energy usage.

Impact

The introduction of the z15 marks the beginning of the countdown for the phase-out of the z14 and z14 ZR1. Hardware upgrades are expected to cease in H1 2021, and microcode upgrades in H1 2022. Gartner also anticipates the release of a "mid-range" z15 version in 2020. These dates are important for existing z14 customers to plan their lifecycle.

Key Software Pricing Changes and Impact on Mainframe Customers

The "Tailored Pricing" model is IBM's new mainframe software pricing approach, officially launched for the z14 in May 2019 and now available for the z15. This new model essentially moves away from the 4-hour rolling average method, which has been the basis for monthly licensing fees for products like z/OS, Db2, CICS, and IMS for nearly 20 years. Many mainframe customers want to decide when and where to run workloads (and have invested heavily in doing so), attempting to shorten this peak period. Simultaneously, enterprises increasingly want cloud-like pricing models that focus on paying for usage. The "Tailored Pricing" model has two forms: usage-based (similar to cloud pricing) and capacity-based. Gartner believes existing mainframe customers will be most interested in the usage-based version.

For customers looking to reduce their existing IBM mainframe software costs with this model, Gartner advises caution. The model's advantages can be categorized into three areas:

1. Lowering Growth Costs: Can reduce the incremental cost of IBM software.
2. Alleviating Billing Peak Pressure: IBM will look at the customer's Million Service Units (MSUs) used over the past 12 months and adjust the billing structure so that the customer pays monthly an amount equal to the monthly average of their previous annual bill. Therefore, customers whose software bills may be affected by seasonal peaks can find relief.
3. Helping Customers Reduce Resource Investment: With the "Tailored Pricing" model, customers no longer need to perform rolling measurements over a 4-hour period to calculate averages as required by IBM's "sub-capacity licensing charge mode." As a result, relevant staff can be freed up to work on other projects.

Customers with flat or decreasing MIPS may not see licensing cost benefits, although they might gain the third advantage.

Some third-party software vendors have responded by introducing their own versions (e.g., Broadcom [CA Technologies] introduced its "Value-Based, Frictionless Licensing" version), while others have stated full support for IBM's approach; specific developments remain to be seen.

Initially, to address traditional mainframe users' concerns about visibility and predictability, IBM introduced a new pricing model for the z14's application development/test environment, and the "Tailored Pricing" model is a further improvement on that.

A comprehensive strategy for those focused on optimizing software costs should include evaluating the "Tailored Pricing" model, in addition to regularly reassessing the suitability of specialty engines and upgrading to more efficient compiler versions and other technical enhancements.

In addition to "Tailored Pricing," IBM offers "Technology Migration Advantage" software pricing incentives for upgrading to the z15 – 4% to 7% cheaper than the z14 for equivalent capacity; and 50% cheaper than the z13 for equivalent capacity! These cost savings help justify hardware upgrades while offsetting the annual price increase for Monthly License Charges (MLC) announced in August 2019 and effective January 1, 2020.

Impact

Two-year software cost savings data can help persuade hesitant customers to migrate from their existing z platforms to the z15. After enterprises migrate to the "Tailored Pricing" model, they can achieve significant overall cost benefits, including a reduction of more than 50% in per-MSU cost due to increased MSUs, as well as human resource benefits.

Focus Areas of This Product Release

Security and Privacy

Security and privacy depend not only on technical features but also on organizational processes. IBM continues to enhance security capabilities technically while also providing features to help enterprises protect data outside the mainframe. The z15 builds upon the pervasive encryption focus of the z14. Two notable enhancements are provided:

• On-chip compression acceleration: Since the z13, IBM has offered a compression card as a functional component; in the z15, this card is integrated onto the chip itself. This helps significantly improve compression capabilities. Improvements in encryption and compression not only address security concerns but also bring additional benefits, such as improved MIPS utilization.
• Data Privacy Passport: This enhancement helps enterprises gain better control over data access outside the mainframe, theoretically eliminating security risks when data moves between different locations. The core principle of this feature is to limit data access to a "need-to-know" basis – when data is transferred to another party or platform, only the initiator holds the data access keys.

Availability and Recovery

IBM mainframes have a reputation as highly available and perpetual platforms, and Gartner continues to regularly enhance product features to ensure they can handle planned and unplanned downtime. This new product release includes a new feature called "System Recovery Boost," part of "IBM Instant Recovery." IBM aims to help customers accelerate restarts and process any delayed transactions after a failure by adjusting technology and terms and conditions. IBM can now unlock unused additional processors, use zIIP processors as general processors, and allow sub-capacity configurations to run at full capacity speed (all three options are temporary) to accelerate the processing of backlogged transactions without impacting IBM software billing. Third-party software companies express strong support for this, but users still need to go through vendors to directly experience the related benefits.

Cloud

The previous notion that all workloads running locally would migrate to public cloud has now been replaced by a more realistic view: enterprises will operate in a hybrid environment for the foreseeable future. Therefore, IBM remains committed to enhancing mainframe capabilities to help enterprises navigate the challenges of hybrid environments, such as managing various new cloud-native applications, properly modernizing legacy applications, and continuing to provide rock-solid support for core business-critical workloads. IBM recently announced plans to bring Red Hat's OpenShift to both IBM z and LinuxONE, and they have been working to convince customers that "mainframe DevOps" is not an oxymoron, by striving to hide the complexity of the z/OS environment and make it more accessible to all developers. While the largest and most loyal IBM mainframe customer base may view these developments positively, IBM still needs to convince more existing and potential customers that it is at the forefront of helping manage hybrid environments.

Using Gartner MIPS Scoring Model

Many enterprises use Gartner's performance scoring models for various purposes, including performance comparisons and transaction evaluations for IBM and IBM-compatible mainframe vendors. Since the late 1990s, it has also been used for software cost calculations. A single-digit processor capacity score always carries some risk, especially for capacity planning where workload dependency can be a significant factor. However, a simple single-digit score is sufficient for many high-level needs. While Gartner's scoring model can reflect performance at a high level, detailed capacity planning should always be performed when comparing the performance of the z15 with previous IBM mainframes. IBM's Large Systems Performance Reference (LSPR) benchmarks, which include workloads closest to actual customer workloads, along with related IBM tools, are the best methods for planning capacity growth for a specific enterprise environment.

The z15 itself does not have a MIPS score; however, its 292 capacity settings, ranging from 1 to 190 general processors, have MIPS scores. The capacity setting for the base single processor, the fundamental building block of this product family, is 701.

Gartner considers the design changes in the z15 to be relatively moderate (in terms of general processor performance). Therefore, the performance difference between product generations like the z13 or z14 and the z15 will not be substantial. However, users who skip several generations, for example, from before the z13 directly to the z15, may experience significant performance improvements. For enterprises, it is essential to use the IBM Processor Capacity Reference (zPCR) tool for the most accurate capacity planning.

Tables 3, 4, and 5 in the appendix show Gartner MIPS scores for various capacity settings. IBM MSU values are also provided for reference (Gartner does not specify MSU scores). IBM uses IBM MSU values for software pricing (whether for MLC or one-time charge zIPLA software pricing options, this metric is the basis), while third-party software vendors use a wide variety of pricing and licensing metrics, such as MSU, MIPS, and tier group levels.

Customers using IBM Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL) to run Linux workloads on the mainframe should be aware that the processor value unit score for z15 IFLs is 120. This is the same as the z14 IFL (and earlier generations dating back to the z10), even though the z15's IFL capacity is much larger. Therefore, IBM is effectively offering much larger capacity at the same price (hardware and software) to drive sales.

Impact

Gartner still recommends that enterprises obtain contractual commitments that specify the level of performance uplift relative to their existing processor environment after an upgrade. This helps determine mutually acceptable performance metrics and clearly define remedies in the contract if performance requirements are not met.

Enterprises should always analyze the impact of IBM and third-party software costs when performing demand forecasting and capacity planning for all mainframe hardware upgrades/additions/replacements, as well as when developing negotiation strategies and other relevant decision criteria. This is particularly important when working with third-party vendors that offer multiple methods and pricing models (such as group level, workload-based, MIPS-based, or MSU-based).

Appendix: MIPS and MSU Data

Gartner is often asked why MIPS scores used across the industry are inconsistent. MIPS scores are no longer simply a calculation of instructions actually executed per second; they have evolved into a figure that reflects relative performance. Because IBM modifies the scores of existing equipment more frequently than Gartner does, Gartner's scoring results often differ from IBM's MIPS scoring results. This creates pricing challenges for third-party software vendors and end users (although IBM does not change existing systems during this cycle). Gartner is committed to providing more stable and consistent scores to address issues related to end-user contracts with third-party software vendors.

Table 3: z15 Sub-capacity settings: MSU and MIPS

Source: Gartner (October 2019)

Table 4: z15 Full-capacity settings: MSU and MIPS (1 to 96 paths)

Source: Gartner (October 2019)

Table 5: z15 Full-capacity settings: MSU and MIPS (97 paths and higher)

Source: Gartner (October 2019)