IBM: Dinosaurs were green (1-Aug-07)
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Full article: IBM: Dinosaurs were green (1-Aug-07)
IBM has announced that it is to consolidate 3,900 of its data center servers on to just 30 mainframe systems running the Linux operating system on virtual servers as part of its ongoing "Big Green" energy efficiency project. The project will span six IBM data centers in the US, England, Japan and Australia. The consolidated units will run Linux on top of the mainframes' operating system, z/VM.
Comment: "I live a couple of towns away from where IBM got their start (Endicott, NY), and those guys don't exactly have much of a green rep around here. In 1979, 4,100 gallons of methyl chloroform were spilled by IBM. While investigating that, a large plume of trichloroethene, tetrachloroethene, dichloroethane, dichloroethene, methylene chloride, vinyl chloride, and freon 113 was discovered in the groundwater. Later on benzene, toluene and xylene were also found."
Text of Article
And in Computergram:
IBM Bets its Business on Linux on the Mainframe
By Matthew Aslett
IBM has announced that it is to consolidate 3,900 of its data center servers on to just 30 mainframe systems running the Linux operating system on virtual servers as part of its ongoing "Big Green" energy efficiency project.
The company estimated that the new server environment will consume up to 80% less energy than its current architecture and save the company up to $250m over five years in energy, software and systems support costs.
Specifically, IBM said the savings would come from reducing the number of required power supplies, reducing software licensing due to a reduction in the number of processors, and reduced administration requirements.
The consolidation project is the latest installment in IBM's Big Green project to invest $1bn toward making data centers more energy efficient. Announced in May, Big Green saw the company commit to doubling the processing capacity of its data centers with half the number of computers.
Migrating 3,900 servers at six of its global data centers on to 30 System z mainframes running Linux on virtual servers will go a long way to enabling the company to meet that commitment. The company also maintained that the use of virtualization technologies will ensure the mainframes have free processing power for future growth.
Supporting over 350,000 users the data centers impacted by the consolidation project are: Poughkeepsie, New York; Southbury, Connecticut; Boulder, Colorado; Portsmouth, UK; Osaka, Japan; and Sydney, Australia.
IBM Global Service currently owns over 8 million square foot of data center space and has estimated that the average 25,000 square foot data center spends about $2.6m a year on power. The migration project will be carried out by IBM Global Services, while IBM Global Asset Recovery Services will manage the recycling of the existing servers.
IBM: Dinosaurs were green
By Austin Modine in Mountain View
Published Wednesday 1st August 2007 20:36 GMT
IBM loves to put a new spin on the mainframe to keep the legacy platform looking fresh and the doomsayers at bay. And now-a-days nothing makes a technology look brand-new than a fresh coat of green.
In the first move since announcing the $1bn Project Big Green (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/22/ibm_project_big_green/) initiative in May, IBM plans to make good on its eco-friendly promise by replacing a fleet of small servers with a mere flotilla of refrigerator-sized mainframes.
More precisely, it will consolidate 3,900 Unix and x86 servers onto 30 Linux mainframes. The company says the move — which it calls one of the most significant transformations of its data centers in a generation — will save the company enough electricity to power a small town.
"The mainframe is the single most powerful instrument to drive better economics and energy conservation at the data center today," said James Stallings, IBM mainframe general manager. "By moving globally onto the mainframe platform, IBM is creating a technology platform that saves energy while positioning our IT assets for flexibility and growth."
The project will span six IBM data centers in the US, England, Japan and Australia. The consolidated units will run Linux on top of the mainframes' operating system, z/VM. IBM will also chuck its physical servers in favor of a virtual server environment.
In addition to cutting the sheer amounts of units to power, IBM said moving to mainframes will also reduce the cost of software acquisition. Software is often priced on a per-processor basis. Moving to mainframes that have significantly fewer processors than the current 3,900 servers will help minimize software licensing charges.
IBM also predicts the new infrastructure will free up the data center IT staff. The company claims its newly-liberated employees can cast aside the shackles of systems administration in favor the higher-value projects of "designing and building customer solutions".
The company plans to burn the servers on a heap of old tires next to a playground recycle the 3,900 abandoned servers through IBM Global Asset Recovery Services.
Comments on ‘IBM: Dinosaurs were green’Swapping 3,900 servers with 30 mainframes to save the planet
Wondering how valid are the issues brought up here.... Posted Wednesday 1st August 2007 22:01 GMT blogs.sun.com slash jsavit slash entry slash once_again_mainframe_linux_vs
IBM? Green? Posted Wednesday 1st August 2007 22:16 GMT i live a couple of towns away from where IBM got their start (Endicott, NY), and those guys don't exactly have much of a green rep around here.
in 1979, 4,100 gallons of methyl chloroform were spilled by IBM. While investigating that, a large plume of trichloroethene, tetrachloroethene, dichloroethane, dichloroethene, methylene chloride, vinyl chloride, and freon 113 was discovered in the groundwater. Later on benzene, toluene and xylene were also found.
In 2002 the NY department of environmental conservation forced them to reinvestigate, at which time TCE among other contaminants were found in the indoor air of buildings around the IBM complex.
To hear them now tout their "green credentials" sounds just a bit ludicrous to me.
freedom By Leo Maxwell Posted Wednesday 1st August 2007 22:17 GMT I wonder how many of the data centre staff will have the freedom to look for new employment.
10 Start pointless debate: 20 go to 10 By Arnold Lieberman Posted Wednesday 1st August 2007 22:42 GMT Looks like this is one coffin that just can't be nailed down - I've heard the (client/server) vs. mainframe debate for the last 15 years and seen enough consolidate-distribute cycles to know that they're not going to disappear any time soon. Dunno why people can't just accept that they have their place.
One has to wonder why By The Cube Posted Wednesday 1st August 2007 22:44 GMT IBM is not using it's wonderful (and apparently green) ultra high density blade systems for this consolidation??? After all they have lots of processors in a really small box and you can virtualise your machines on those.
Every day another vendor tells us that blades are the solution to all our problems, so long as those problems are how to get the air to plasma temperatures in our data centres. Of course this power density is our excuse to buy the next 'green' solution and deliver in rack water cooling because that is the only way to stop the blades frying. Best not forget the few million for that really expensive box for your disks to live in either, or the floor reinforcements to hold it all up.
A cynic might wonder if this all started when somebody in the IBM canteen said "What are we going to do with all those mainframes nobody wants? It is going to cost us a fortune to dump them now that WEE is in force"
What will IBM Global Asset Recovery Services do with the old machines? By Simon Posted Wednesday 1st August 2007 22:48 GMT Seems to me that if the old machines are just going to be put into service elsewhere that IBM is really ADDING to global warming with this move...
Of course, if the machines are being dismantled and the components recycled, then good on them...:)
What are they on? Posted Wednesday 1st August 2007 23:31 GMT What is IBM on? “In addition to cutting the sheer amounts of units to power, IBM said moving to mainframes will also reduce the cost of software acquisition. Software is often priced on a per-processor basis.” Umm, IBM charges per core for most of their software and if you want to use the Power6 you will have to pay more for the software. “Power6 server software will require 120 Processor Value Units (PVUs) per core.” As can be read here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/02/ibm_pvu_power6/
Way to go IBM.
Redundancy... Posted Thursday 2nd August 2007 01:28 GMT How fun to instantly have 3,900 servers go down when the mainframe breaks down! Day off everybody...
...Redundancy By E Posted Thursday 2nd August 2007 04:59 GMT I have now some large SGI boxes eating up floor space in a small server room. They are up to 10 years old and they won't die. I want them to die. Die! Die! Die SGI boxes! Then I can replace them with inefficient heat generating 1U x86_64 machines and help destroy the planet. Destroy! Destroy! Destroy!
In a past job the IT system ran on an IBM main frame that was perhaps 30 years old. The disk platters were 2 feet in diameter and the disk cases were cast steel tubes with glass sides! For some incomprehensible reason when that mainframe *was* replaced, IBM insisted on the return of the disks. I wanted one to use as the pedestal for a small coffee table.
Seem to me stability is less of an issue with mainframes and minicomputers that PC systems.
Arithmetic By b shubin Posted Thursday 2nd August 2007 05:26 GMT there will be 30 mainframes spread over 6 datacenters, so 5 towers per datacenter on average. probably some fail-over built into that, and the z mainframe is very redundant, self-diagnosing, and just about the top of the IBM line for all the components.
IBM may even have some spares on hand, and maybe a technician or two, to replace anything that the z flags as a potential problem, well before the component breaks and causes a crisis. please note that a zSeries doesn't just break like commodity servers do. if properly maintained, it is very unlikely to fail, except maybe if hit by a car, or submerged, or something equally drastic.
i doubt they would charge themselves for their own software, but even for a customer, replacing 3900 servers having at least 1 core per server (usually 2 to 8 cores per server, these days), with 30 servers having several cores per server, makes financial and administrative sense, not to mention volume discounts, leasing and financing options, 24-hour technical support (the real stuff, not script readers), training and documentation, management and monitoring software, fail-over and replication assistance, and lots of other goodies that IBM would throw into a deal this size (z mainframes are NOT cheap).
IBM possibly knows something about efficient ways to virtualize workloads on mainframes. they will likely share any such knowledge with customers who are willing to buy one or more zSeries boxes.
i would say they're thinking much more clearly than people throwing money at hot, proprietary blades, backed by hot, proprietary storage arrays, connected by hot, proprietary storage switching gear and hot, proprietary gigabit switch/router fabric. add licensing and administrative overhead, and i'd say the zSeries starts to look quite attractive. the z also scales rather well, is upgradeable, and has a potential useful life of up to 20 years (maybe more).
if you're going to go proprietary, at least get the stuff to make life easier.
- Source: The Register
