IBM today announced that it intends to invest up to $40 million over the next five years to test, enable and support SAP® applications on System z solutions, and to enhance existing SAP technical centers. This ongoing investment in IBM System z Technology Centers for SAP Applications in Germany and the U.S. enables a strong technical relationship between IBM and SAP that continues to be dedicated to the delivery and deployment of SAP® applications on System z.
The Technology Centers help support the new System z9 Advantage for SAP Applications -- a series of offerings designed to provide customers with an advantage in implementing and running SAP applications on the mainframe platform. These offerings can leverage the IBM System z9 mainframe’s just-released specialty System z Integrated Information Processor (zIIP) for data-centric applications, the IBM DB2 database as well as services and offerings from IBM System z9 Technology Centers and IBM Global Technology Services.
The new offerings are intended to help improve price performance and reduce total cost of ownership for a wide range of large and medium-sized customers who look for high levels of system availability, data management, and security.
“Customers in the U.S. and Canadian markets will be among the first that can benefit from incentives up to $250,000, with similar pricing planned to be introduced in Europe in the future,” said Jim Stallings, general manager, System z. "Compelling pricing combined with the mainframe's legendary reliability and security features are attributes that organizations running SAP applications will find very appealing."
IBM System z9 Advantage for SAP Applications is available with both the IBM System z9 Enterprise Class (z9 EC) and IBM System z9 Business Class (z9 BC) servers, which are ideal for SAP environments in both medium and large enterprises. These new offerings can provide benefits to companies wishing to deploy their first SAP application functions on System z as well as to customers running existing SAP application landscapes on System z, especially those planning to install / upgrade to the latest application based on SAP NetWeaver®
As an enterprise data hub, the IBM System z9 can provide customers with a platform that can help manage costs and improve resource utilization. By leveraging DB2 Version 8, the new zIIP specialty processor for data-centric applications and the Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL), this new offering can enable consolidation of SAP application landscapes onto a single system.
"SAP helps customers more easily innovate and adapt to changes in their industry with greater speed and at lower cost than ever before," said Karl-Heinz Hess, senior vice president, SAP Active Global Support, SAP AG. "The latest versions of mySAP ERP and mySAP Business Suite are the milestone releases that every customer should adopt on their journey to enterprise SOA. High availability and resiliency are crucial to handling the workloads of typical SAP customers' applications environments, while they continually seek to drive down operational costs. The new IBM System z9 Advantage for SAP Applications provides an ideal platform to support SAP's strategy."
Customer Testimonials
Endress+Hauser in Germany consolidated 24 separate SAP production systems and 34 SAP test environments to one IBM System z9. Users working in 35 subsidiary companies in 67 locations across the globe enjoy 0.6 second response times for SAP applications. "Our consolidation to System z9 has resulted in what we hoped for enhanced SAP application performance, better system management, improved security and reduced costs. In short, the solution has been, and continues to be, a resounding success," said Werner Hofmann, Executive Board Member, Manager of the Data Centre and Networks division of Endress+Hauser Infoserve.
Electric motor manufacturer, Baldor Electric, consolidated its SAP applications and DB2 databases to a single zSeries 990. While the SAP Database Server runs in IBM z/OS, all SAP applications run in 24 Linux virtual machines on the same server. “The migration of our SAP application servers to Linux on System z produced an immediate increase in performance, and has made it easier to manage and maintain our systems,” said Mark Shackelford, Director of Information Services, Baldor.
”With IBM and SAP, we have achieved our goals of increasing internal efficiency and developing a scalable platform to manage our future growth. SAP has provided the basis needed for this initiative, and the combination of System z and System x gives us the reliability and scalability to approach it with confidence,” said Ignacio Martinez Jorcano, Chief Information Officer, Ferrovial.
Product Details:
The new System z9 Advantage for SAP Applications highlights the natural affinity between SAP, the IBM mainframe and DB2. For example:
· System z with IBM DB2 for z/OS provides functionality to help optimize use of high-end SAP application environments which require business resiliency, with features like concurrent backup and highly efficient reorganization capabilities.
· In a parallel sysplex, the operating system and database maintenance can be done concurrently - with SAP applications running.
· With enterprises going global, and SAP applications increasingly requiring Unicode, it becomes important that Unicode is supported with the solution on IBM System z9. Hardware data compression helps to reduce the additionally required space for Unicode implementations. This feature can be especially valuable for business warehouse data.
· System z9 servers provide customers running business-critical SAP applications an optimal environment which can help to address the infrastructure requirements of the SAP database landscape. Or, a single System z9 can host multiple virtual servers for production, test, quality assurance, and development – which may mean there is no need for standalone servers with all of their associated cabling, power, cooling, and software maintenance costs. This can help reduce complexity in the data center and may additionally help reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) for SAP applications on System z9.
The System z9 BC and its larger sibling, the z9 EC are the first IBM servers to offer the System z9 zIIP, designed to help free-up general computing capacity and lower software costs for selected workloads. DB2 for z/OS support for zIIP may benefit SAP applications. IBM does not impose IBM software charges on zIIP capacity.
The Technology Centers help support the new System z9 Advantage for SAP Applications -- a series of offerings designed to provide customers with an advantage in implementing and running SAP applications on the mainframe platform. These offerings can leverage the IBM System z9 mainframe’s just-released specialty System z Integrated Information Processor (zIIP) for data-centric applications, the IBM DB2 database as well as services and offerings from IBM System z9 Technology Centers and IBM Global Technology Services.
The new offerings are intended to help improve price performance and reduce total cost of ownership for a wide range of large and medium-sized customers who look for high levels of system availability, data management, and security.
“Customers in the U.S. and Canadian markets will be among the first that can benefit from incentives up to $250,000, with similar pricing planned to be introduced in Europe in the future,” said Jim Stallings, general manager, System z. "Compelling pricing combined with the mainframe's legendary reliability and security features are attributes that organizations running SAP applications will find very appealing."
IBM System z9 Advantage for SAP Applications is available with both the IBM System z9 Enterprise Class (z9 EC) and IBM System z9 Business Class (z9 BC) servers, which are ideal for SAP environments in both medium and large enterprises. These new offerings can provide benefits to companies wishing to deploy their first SAP application functions on System z as well as to customers running existing SAP application landscapes on System z, especially those planning to install / upgrade to the latest application based on SAP NetWeaver®
As an enterprise data hub, the IBM System z9 can provide customers with a platform that can help manage costs and improve resource utilization. By leveraging DB2 Version 8, the new zIIP specialty processor for data-centric applications and the Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL), this new offering can enable consolidation of SAP application landscapes onto a single system.
"SAP helps customers more easily innovate and adapt to changes in their industry with greater speed and at lower cost than ever before," said Karl-Heinz Hess, senior vice president, SAP Active Global Support, SAP AG. "The latest versions of mySAP ERP and mySAP Business Suite are the milestone releases that every customer should adopt on their journey to enterprise SOA. High availability and resiliency are crucial to handling the workloads of typical SAP customers' applications environments, while they continually seek to drive down operational costs. The new IBM System z9 Advantage for SAP Applications provides an ideal platform to support SAP's strategy."
Customer Testimonials
Endress+Hauser in Germany consolidated 24 separate SAP production systems and 34 SAP test environments to one IBM System z9. Users working in 35 subsidiary companies in 67 locations across the globe enjoy 0.6 second response times for SAP applications. "Our consolidation to System z9 has resulted in what we hoped for enhanced SAP application performance, better system management, improved security and reduced costs. In short, the solution has been, and continues to be, a resounding success," said Werner Hofmann, Executive Board Member, Manager of the Data Centre and Networks division of Endress+Hauser Infoserve.
Electric motor manufacturer, Baldor Electric, consolidated its SAP applications and DB2 databases to a single zSeries 990. While the SAP Database Server runs in IBM z/OS, all SAP applications run in 24 Linux virtual machines on the same server. “The migration of our SAP application servers to Linux on System z produced an immediate increase in performance, and has made it easier to manage and maintain our systems,” said Mark Shackelford, Director of Information Services, Baldor.
”With IBM and SAP, we have achieved our goals of increasing internal efficiency and developing a scalable platform to manage our future growth. SAP has provided the basis needed for this initiative, and the combination of System z and System x gives us the reliability and scalability to approach it with confidence,” said Ignacio Martinez Jorcano, Chief Information Officer, Ferrovial.
Product Details:
The new System z9 Advantage for SAP Applications highlights the natural affinity between SAP, the IBM mainframe and DB2. For example:
· System z with IBM DB2 for z/OS provides functionality to help optimize use of high-end SAP application environments which require business resiliency, with features like concurrent backup and highly efficient reorganization capabilities.
· In a parallel sysplex, the operating system and database maintenance can be done concurrently - with SAP applications running.
· With enterprises going global, and SAP applications increasingly requiring Unicode, it becomes important that Unicode is supported with the solution on IBM System z9. Hardware data compression helps to reduce the additionally required space for Unicode implementations. This feature can be especially valuable for business warehouse data.
· System z9 servers provide customers running business-critical SAP applications an optimal environment which can help to address the infrastructure requirements of the SAP database landscape. Or, a single System z9 can host multiple virtual servers for production, test, quality assurance, and development – which may mean there is no need for standalone servers with all of their associated cabling, power, cooling, and software maintenance costs. This can help reduce complexity in the data center and may additionally help reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) for SAP applications on System z9.
The System z9 BC and its larger sibling, the z9 EC are the first IBM servers to offer the System z9 zIIP, designed to help free-up general computing capacity and lower software costs for selected workloads. DB2 for z/OS support for zIIP may benefit SAP applications. IBM does not impose IBM software charges on zIIP capacity.
