IBM unveils hybrid mainframe

IBM will unveil this week a new hybrid mainframe design that aims to cut datacenter sprawl and be a bridge to other systems.

All of the hardware giants--IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, Dell and Oracle--are producing magic boxes (or armies of them) to modernize data centers and bridge them to cloud computing. IBM is aiming its hybrid mainframe, which is designed to manage other systems too, at the datacenter simplification effort.

The lead-in to IBM's zEnterprise System was interesting as rivals were pooh-poohing the effort before the launch. IBM CFO Mark Loughridge foreshadowed the mainframe launch during the company's earnings conference call.

Read more of "IBM unveils hybrid mainframe; 'System of system' eyes data center consolidation at ZDNet.com.