10th Anniversary of Linux for the Mainframe: Beginning to Today - Owning a Mainframe Isn't Costly (
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Owning a mainframe isn't costly
Mainframes used to be expensive. But not anymore when compared with old prices, the power you get, and how you can use them to save money, time and space in your data center. You can also save on Linux for the mainframe subscriptions from Novell and Red Hat. In 2008, IBM worked with Novell and Red Hat to create a pricing promotion for Linux for the mainframe distributions from the two companies.
Then, in late 2008, IBM created new pricing for the new System z10 Business Class mainframe to make it more economical to use. This amounted to about a 40 percent discount on Linux for System z subscriptions for the System z10 Business Class servers. IBM also dropped its prices for IFLs by more than 50 percent. These pricing promotions make server virtualization on System z servers even more attractive when compared to server virtualization on x86-based servers because it can be much more cost-effective on a mainframe.
To further improve your ROI through server virtualization and workload consolidation on a single mainframe, IBM (working with Novell and Red Hat) has created an IBM System z Solution Edition for Enterprise Linux. The Solution Edition is a packaged offering that brings together key components of hardware, software and maintenance at a low total cost of acquisition. It is built on the capabilities of z/VM and System z10 hardware. The Solution Edition targets smaller customers with stand-alone System z10 Business Class systems.
Save money on software licensing
Many large ISVs such as Oracle have per-processor licensing models for at least some of their software applications. This means you are charged for software based on the number of processors on the server on which the software runs. For example, Oracle Database Enterprise Edition is around $47,500 per processor. Generally, you pay that price regardless of the architecture.
Software running on multiple Linux VMs shares the cost of a single processor license. CPs and IFLs count as a single processor engine with respect to software licensing; that is, one IFL equals one core. Not only do you get a break on software licensing, but also the capacity in a System z10 Business Class machine is many times that of an x86 server.