IBM is going to offer the Z mainframe platform through the IBM cloud. The offering takes the form of virtual machine and is intended primarily for developers.
IBM wants to give developers and testers access to its Z-mainframes via the cloud. IBM calls the offering IBM Z-as-a-Service or Wazi-aaS and is targeting developers and testers. The technology giant will roll out virtual machines running z/OS on them. This will allow developers to get started with the benefits of a development environment in the public cloud. These include variable amounts of computing power and a payment model based on consumption. The solution comes with automatic provisioning and runs in a secure cloud environment.
Let the offering IBM aims to bridge the gap between the outdated mainframe architecture and the benefits of the modern cloud. In doing so, IBM hopes to ensure that developers can build, test and deploy applications significantly faster.
Dinohardware vs. dinobabies
Although obsolete, mainframes remain relevant especially with older large companies. For IBM, the market for older devices is quite lucrative. This is somewhat ironic, since it just became known that the company does not view its older personnel in the same way. The company reportedly described them as Dinobabies who must quickly become extinct. For older hardware, IBM does look for modern solutions; older personnel are allowed to draw their plan. For completeness, IBM denies those allegations, even though they come from leaked emails.
IBM is currently making its z/OS offering in the cloud available to select testers as an experiment. Wider availability is planned in the second half of 2022.