According to Larry Dignan at ZDNet, IBM is planning to combine Windows applications and it’s zEnterprise mainframe.
Basically, the move is seen as a play by IBM to become more attractive to datacenter managers looking to consolidate more data center infrastructure i.e make more space in the data center.
IBM is also seen as bucking history and trying to redefine the long historical tension between the traditional mainframe and x86 servers. They will be making a big play to customers about how this approach will actually be a cheaper way to go than having tons of different servers. In fact when you think about it, a Windows Server/Mainframe hybrid would be hugely attractive to the Enterprise.
While the article doesn’t name Windows Server 8 by name, the inference is obvious as Microsoft’s server OS will (hopefully) be available next year.
The mainframe-Microsoft Windows concoction will be available on December 16th for both z196 and z114 systems. IBM’s zEnterprise System can run z/OS, Linux, IBM AIX, x86 Linux and Microsoft Windows on the same hardware.
