Business Update: Announcing IBM z/OS V2.5, Next-Gen Operating System Designed for Hybrid Cloud and AI

IBM today announced IBM z/OS V2.5, the next-generation operating system (OS) for IBM Z, designed to accelerate client adoption of hybrid cloud and AI and drive application modernization projects. 

According to an IBM Institute for Business Value study ”Application modernization on the mainframe” released today, 71% of executives surveyed say mainframe-based applications are central to their business strategy; and in three years, the percentage of organizations leveraging mainframe assets in a hybrid cloud environment is expected to increase by more than 2x.

IBM z/OS V2.5 helps drive value for our clients by delivering new capabilities across AI enablement, application modernization, resiliency, enhanced security and an improved developer experience.

AI capabilities on IBM Z

According to the ”Global AI Adoption Index 2021,” conducted by Morning Consult commissioned by IBM, 87% of global IT professionals surveyed report it is very or somewhat important to their company that they can build and run their AI projects wherever the data resides[1]. With z/OS V2.5, IBM is introducing new high performance AI capabilities that are tightly integrated with z/OS workloads, designed to give clients business insights for more informed decision making. 

“IBM is all-in one hybrid cloud and AI, and we are deeply focused on delivering new innovations like AI and new security capabilities on IBM Z to help our clients move forward, more quickly with their modernization journeys,” said Ross Mauri, GM, IBM Z. “For our clients, IBM z/OS V2.5 brings new security and resiliency capabilities to the platform, and enables clients to infuse AI in real-time into every business transaction – imperatives that became more urgent during the pandemic.”

Enhanced security to make client data future ready

Amid recent threats like SolarWinds and the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack against critical infrastructure, there is a continued need for clients to further strengthen their overall cyber security and resiliency posture. IBM z/OS V2.5 is helping to address these challenges by unveiling a broad spectrum of enhancements across authentication, authorization, logging, system integrity, system and data availability, encryption for data in flight and at rest, and overall data privacy including:

• Expanding pervasive encryption to new types of data sets: sequential basic format and large format SMS-managed data sets are now included, providing users with the capability to encrypt data without application changes and to simplify compliance 
• Anomaly Mitigation capabilities that leverage Predictive Failure Analysis (PFA), Runtime Diagnostics, Workload Manager (WLM), and JES2 to help further detect anomalous behavior in near real-time, letting clients proactively address potential problems 

A secured, scalable environment for hybrid cloud

As clients accelerate their journey to hybrid cloud, having a secured, scalable environment is critical for the underlying transformation process. IBM z/OS V2.5 introduces new capabilities that support application modernization and provide a cloud native experience on z/OS:

• New Java/COBOL Interoperability that extends existing application programming models with support for parallel 31-bit and 64-bit addressing, simplifying enterprise application modernization. 
• Enhanced performance and ease of use for z/OS Container Extensions (zCX) to integrate Linux applications and utilities into z/OS. 
• Additional capabilities to integrate cloud storage through transparent cloud tiering (TCT) and the Object Access Method (OAM) cloud tier support to help reduce capital and operating expenses with data transfer to hybrid cloud storage environments for simplified data archiving and data protection on IBM Z.

IBM z/OS V2.5 is expected to be faster and easier to install and upgrade, with one client trial demonstrating the ability to install z/OS more than 30% faster than compared with IBM z/OS 2.3 and 2.4.[2] With a simplified management experience supplied by streamlined and automated tasks, specialty skills may not be required. IBM z/OS V2.5 is expected to be generally available on September 30, 2021.

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