What makes the zEnterprise more than "just another mainframe announcement, " says Forrester analyst Brad Day, is the software that bridges those platforms, what IBM calls its UnifiedResourceManager (URM).
The new systems design combines IBM's new zEnterprise mainframe server with new technology--the IBM zEnterprise BladeCenter Extension and the IBM zEnterprise UnifiedResource Manager--that enable it to manage workloads running across System z, and select POWER7 and System x servers.
For example, using the zEnterprise System with the zEnterprise BladeCenter Extension and IBM zEnterprise UnifiedResourceManager, a financial services company managing credit card transactions on the mainframe using an IBM blade optimized for analytics can gain insights from the information in seconds.