back to article IBM’s first cloudy mainframes scheduled to launch this week

IBM has quietly announced its first-ever cloudy mainframes will go live on June 30. Big Blue in February disclosed its plans to provide cloud-hosted virtual machines running the z/OS that powers its mainframes. These would be first offered in a closed "experimental" beta under the IBM Wazi as-a-service brand. That announcement …

  1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    Alien Chit Chat/NEUKlearer HyperRadioProActive IT Chatter which is neither Chaff nor Fluff

    A Group Captain Lionel Mandrake* type entity might advise quite rightly that the Wazi experimental test development infrastructure/model/cycle is quite perfect for a Nazi Dr Strangelove* character to point out the multi-national IBM Cloud instance is ideal for a practically realisable virtual doomsday machine deterrent with almighty ethereal cyberspace weapons ..... which in the right hands, hearts and minds is a fantastic Greater IntelAIgent Game changer. To imagine it in the wrong hands, hearts and minds is to identify oneself as light years behind those in the fields developed after such a monumental realisation is taken full advantage of and relentlessly exploited for all the best of great reasons.

    * .... this is a page you will need to know details of to make fuller/any sense of the above, which be assured is not a fiction whenever so easily realisable as an undeniable fact ...... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Strangelove

    And IBM are not alone in this Otherworldly Field of CHAOS [Clouds Hosting Advanced Operating Systems]

    Find a life worth enjoying, take risks, love deeply, have no regrets, and always, always have rebellious hope.

    Amen to that. RIP Deborah James.

    1. Peter Gathercole Silver badge

      Re: Alien Chit Chat/NEUKlearer HyperRadioProActive IT Chatter which is neither Chaff nor Fluff

      Wow. That took even more decoding that the normal amfM1 post. I'm glad he included the reference. It's very deep.

      Has the AI been upgraded to include cultural references?

  2. Mainframe Greybeard

    Wazi for Dev/Test

    I wonder if 'blue are only recommending the service for Dev/Test workloads because they're spinning up these z/OS instances as z/VM Guest virtual machines?

    If they are z/VM Guests then z/VM itself becomes the single point of failure so IBM can't, with a clear conscience, recommend it for prime-time prod workload as there's a dependency outside of z/OS's direct control.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Wazi for Dev/Test

      I understand what you are saying, but I don't see this as being any different from Intel cloud deployments, where the hosted OS does not have any control over the hypervisor, and these are never used for production deployments, are they!

      It's also not really that different from z/VM guests running in on-prem. mainframes, with the exception that you can control the z/VM hypervisor.

      It's also not that different from Skytap virtualization of AIX VMs in either Azure or the IBM cloud.

      I understand that it's a foreign country for IBM mainframe practitioners, but it's a changing world out there.

      Also, being cynical for a second, it allows IBM to include mainframe under it's Hybrid Cloud banner, so that it can be seen to moving towards the goal set by the upper management without it's cash-cow being seen as hypercritical.

      1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
        Facepalm

        Re: Wazi for Dev/Test

        it allows IBM to include mainframe under it's Hybrid Cloud banner

        Let me guess - Exec bonuses are riding on this

    2. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

      Re: Wazi for Dev/Test

      If they are z/VM Guests then z/VM itself becomes the single point of failure so IBM can't, with a clear conscience, recommend it for prime-time prod workload as there's a dependency outside of z/OS's direct control. ..... Mainframe Greybeard

      That is more accurately an independency outside of z/OS's direct control, Mainframe Greybeard, which understandably may be of IBM concern ..... but only if z/VM Guests are not Similarly Singularity Minded.

      However, whenever they are so aligned, is everything they do reinforced and secured to an exponential degree .... and that makes/can make their AIdventuring more than just formidable and field leading.

  3. TeeCee Gold badge
    Meh

    ...infrastructure as a service (IaaS)....IBM doesn’t offer that option for mainframes.

    I can't help thinking that's because taking the Golden Goose of mainframe sales out behind the bike sheds and wringing its neck wasn't thought to be a great idea.

  4. zForLife

    Short memories?

    First ever cloudy mainframes? IBM offered z/OS as an IaaS for year under the zCloud banner. The only reason they're creating this now is because zCloud was spun off into Kyndryl late last year, leaving a hole in their offerings.

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