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IBM launches Linux-only mainframe system LinuxONE

On Monday, 17 August, 2015, tech company worldwide Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM) proudly announced that, it is launching Linux-only mainframe servers, named as “LinuxONE”.

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The latest “Linux One Empire system” will be based on worldwide Business Machines Corporation (IBM)’s z13 mainframe computer, and it had been specially designed for very high-volume mobile transactions.

The severs include the LinuxOne Emperor for large enterprises and the Rockhopper for midsize businesses.

Emperor will be capable of running up to 8,000 Linux virtual machines simultaneously and now has the kernel-based virtual machine hypervisor, alongside its own z/VM.

The “LinuxOne system” will work with open software, IBM said, such as it is compatible to work with Maria, Apache Spark, Chef and Posture. These additional capabilities won’t just be available to those using the new mainframes; they will be made available to existing z System customers as well. As part of the Linux Foundation’s “Open Mainframe Project” it has contributed some 500,000 lines of code including code related to IT predictive analytics that are on the look out for unusual system behaviour to stop issues becoming failures. By offering an elastic, cloud-like pricing model, it is hoping to land more customers who might have been scared away previously by the up-front cost of investing in a mainframe.

To support this drive, the company is creating the LinuxONE Developer cloud, which will act as a virtual R&D engine for creating, testing and piloting applications.

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IBM has partnered with Canonical Ltd, a UK-based firm, to distribute the Ubuntu flavor of Linux on the LinuxOne and other z systems.

IBM debuts LinuxONE mainframe for all enterprises