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IBM Z

IBM Z

Overview

What is IBM Z?

IBM Z is the company's mainframe enterprise server solution product line.

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Recent Reviews

Honesty about IBM Z

6 out of 10
September 19, 2023
Incentivized
Our team create IaaS solution designs incorporating IBM Mainframe server, DS8000 storage technologies. The implemented IaaS solution used …
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IBM Z is the best among others

10 out of 10
January 02, 2023
Currently, the project we are working on in our team/company uses IBM servers, specifically IBM Z. This is also one of our customer's …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Product Details

What is IBM Z?

The new IBM z15 delivers performance, flexibility, availability, protection, and agility to drive digital transformation. It has changed the footprint of IBM Z with a 19” frame, that scales from one to four frames depending on the configuration, enabling significant floor space reduction.

IBM z15 has the commercial data privacy and security enforcement solution, Data Privacy Passports, that provides off-platform access revocation. Choose who accesses data, and when and at what level to revoke their access. One hundred percent of data, at-rest and in-flight, is protected with no performance trade off or application changes. With Fibre Channel Endpoint Security working with the latest DS8900F, achieve total end-to-end protection and authentication.

IBM z15 provides flexibility, portability and choice for hybrid cloud deployment. Cloud-native development simplifies life for developers as they build new applications and modernize existing ones. IBM Z supports private and public cloud via Linux, Kubernetes and industry-standard tools. With the Red Hat OpenShift support, IBM z15 adds to the user's options for cloud integration.

Instant recovery reduces the impact of planned and unplanned downtime. All systems need downtime for maintenance, and security patching.

IBM Z Features

  • Supported: Data Privacy Passports
  • Supported: IBM Z Data Privacy for Diagnostics
  • Supported: IBM Recovery Boost
  • Supported: Integrated Accelerator for zEDC
  • Supported: Quantum-Safe digital signing algorithms

IBM Z Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise
Operating SystemsLinux, z/OS, z/VSE, z/TPF, z/VM
Mobile ApplicationNo

IBM Z Downloadables

Frequently Asked Questions

IBM Z is the company's mainframe enterprise server solution product line.

Dell PowerEdge M and ClearPath Forward Libra are common alternatives for IBM Z.

Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 9.1.

The most common users of IBM Z are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(135)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-2 of 2)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
September 18, 2023

z/OS - nothing better

Gadi Ben-Avi | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We have two computers at our production site and one at our DR site. All computers run z/OS. One system runs a payroll application, and the other runs a provident Fund Application. Both systems provide services to external customers. The computers are connected to an IBM DS9810F storage system and an IBM TS7770 virtual tape system.
  • Massive I/O
  • Support many users concurrently
  • Very little downtime required.
  • It's hard finding new people with the required knowledge.
  • It seems expensive.
Most business applications are suited to z/OS. It's no surprise that most banks and insurance companies worldwide run on z/OS.
  • Very little down time
  • Massive i/o
  • We've always used z/OS for these applications. Every attempt to even plan using a different system failed very early in the initial stages for various reasons.
We recenetly attepted to evaluate moving an application to the MicroFocus environment.
The initial assessment failed because of cost.
50
Operations, Systems, programmers, Payroll analysts.
5
Systems programmers,
CICS specialists,
DBA's
  • Run monthly payroll calculations
  • Create pay slips with personal messages
  • Importunely, the powers that be want to move us of z/OS
It's still the best solution for us.
No
  • Other
When we started with IBM Z, there weren't any other options.
Along the way, other options have become available, but none were good enough.
Back then, there were no other options.
  • Implemented in-house
Yes
Most the applications we run are 40 years old and have gone the many development stages.
  • None that I know
The implementation was always in-house.
  • Online Training
  • In-Person Training
Over my 33 years on this platform, I attended many in person courses, conferences, and other training opportunities.
There are many online courses from both IBM and other vendors. Most are great. All of the documentation is available online.
Each computer is different.
You can choose how many CPU's you need, what type of CPU's, how much memory you need, how many channels and network interfaces you need.
You can partition the machine into many LPAR's.
The options are endless.
Work with an IBM business partner who is an expert.
Some - we have done small customizations to the interface
IT very easy, if you know how, to add options to ISPF, which is the main interface you use in z/OS.
Some - we have added small pieces of custom code
We have a huge ISPF application that helps non-professionals do things.
no
Support from most of the vendors is great.
We've had the unfortunate opportunities to open Severity 1 problems, and they were always resolved in a timely manner.
THere is other option
No
A while back I was in the process of putting a new computer into production.
I realized the an important function (STP - the function that lets z/OS get the accurate time from the network) wasn't working.
After trying to solve the problem on my own, I opened a Severity 1 issue.
I was online with support teams from around the world until they found a way to bypass the problem so I put the computer into production.
Once you learn how, it easy.
It's different than most other systems.
  • The builtin editor is great
  • Monitoring system activity is easy with SDSF
  • There a products to do anything you would need. Usually more than one option for each task.
  • Configuring a new system.
Yes
There a many options. There is HMC Mobile that lets you control the HMC from your phone.
There are also other options.
If you need more processing power, just add more CPU's or memory.
The largest system can have close to 200 CPU's and 40 TB of memory.

If that is not enough, you can add more physical computers, and connect them using a sysplex.
The Z in IBM Z is for zero down time.
If you configure your system according to IBM's best practices, you can achieve zero downtime.
Performance is a major part when you configure your system.
IBM has many tools to study your system and suggest the appropriate configuration.
With the right contract, you can add processing power dynamically and remove it when no longer needed.
  • Many other systems running Windows or *nix
z/OS connects to the network using TCP/IP.
It can be a web server, a database server, an ftp server, or almost any other kind of server.
It can publish it's features as web services, or as other types of services.
  • Nothing new
  • File import/export
  • API (e.g. SOAP or REST)
Some integrations are more difficult than others.
Know what options available.
If there is more than one option, evaluate more than one.
IBM is usually ok.
THe relationship with IBM is a long term relationship.
I'm not involved with that part.
You usually go through a business partner.
Since we're in a small market, there is only one.
Yes
Our most recent upgrade was a new computer. Once we dod all of the configurations, moving it int production was a simple matter of shutting down the old system, connecting the cables, and starting the new computer.
  • A new system with some new functions
  • Lower software costs.
  • More of the same
No
No
Jesse Garza | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
IBM Z Enterprise is being used across our whole organization and has solved business problems in many server issues that would require continuous maintenance support
  • It handles large amounts of data easily
  • No maintenance required to uphold
  • Ease of deployment and use
  • Access to multiple admin
  • Giving permissions
  • Space to fix issues
IBM Enterprise is great for large housing of information and sorting storing and accessing the information for later use. It is not appropriate for smaller servers that can be managed on site.
  • IBM Z Enterprise servers have improved maintenance costs
  • [Reduced] man hours needed to monitor the servers
  • Offsite housing allows for less space needed
IBM Z Enterprise Servers stacks up well against other servers and the service that is included in cost is worth the investment
100
They represent the IT business function of the company, handling the mainframes and distribution of the data that is collected using various software and hardware to capture the information, then storing and processing with the Z Enterprise Servers to give the metadata needed to perform analysis of the operations.
100
I would describe the types of people that support our IBM Z Enterprise Servers [as having] the required skills in mainframe capabilities and solutions. They are IT professionals that are able to detect and give solutions on demand. They know real time analytics and workload of the mainframe. They are innovative and thrive in an advanced environment
  • mainframe workload
  • large enterprise
  • real-time analytics
  • to house information sent from third party applications
  • for security
  • reliability
  • speed
  • speed
  • reliability
  • security
The IBM Z mainframe capabilities are unmatched for cloud readiness and optimization the learning capabilities are matched perfectly with Watson and the expandability of the cloud makes it a perfect choice.
Not Sure
  • Product Reputation
  • Vendor Reputation
  • Existing Relationship with the Vendor
  • Analyst Reports
  • Third-party Reviews
if we had to do it again, I am sure the company would not change any choices in our evaluation and selection process.
  • Don't know
  • Block count
  • IPL performance issue
  • Programmers not experienced
I do not personally have any key insights regarding implementation of IBM Z Enterprise Servers as that is what our mainframe architects do.
the rating is based on the performance and reliability of the product
IBM has never provided anything except exceptional support for all of its products that are used.
  • Cloud compiling
  • interior lighting
  • real-time insights
  • complexity
  • user interface
  • noise
pay as you go pricing
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