As enterprises continue their journey to hybrid cloud, maximizing the value and insights derived from their core data assets is a critical step toward competitive advantage.

In order to get there, IT leaders must often overcome challenges imposed by a vast data estate, distributed across many servers and multiple clouds. This makes it difficult to collect, organize, analyze and derive meaningful insight from the data.

Transferring and transforming data for analysis involves collecting and copying it, often creating redundant databases requiring the use of extra tooling. Making copies of data and transferring them can incur risks around data currency, privacy and security exposures. The cost and complexity of building a more modern and integrated data infrastructure leaves many companies with challenges in tackling this problem.

Deploy IBM Cloud Pak for Data on IBM Z and IBM LinuxONE

We are helping our clients accelerate their journey to hybrid cloud with IBM Cloud Pak for Data on IBM Z. We’re pleased to announce that Cloud Pak for Data will be generally available Nov 20^th, 2020 on IBM Z and IBM LinuxONE servers.

IBM Cloud Pak for Data is an integrated data and AI platform designed to help organizations modernize how they collect, organize and analyze data, to help unlock additional insight from their existing enterprise data. Built on top of Red Hat OpenShift using Kubernetes, the leading container orchestration framework, Cloud Pak for Data is an open, flexible and modern solution that can help remove obstacles to data management and governance and can enable developers to more swiftly craft new solutions.

“Cloud Pak for Data represents one of the most important advances in middleware on the IBM Z platform that we have seen in a generation. It brings critical new capabilities to our clients, enabling them to bring their mission critical enterprise data into the world’s most advanced hybrid cloud architecture based on Red Hat OpenShift,” said Mark Figley, Director AI, Security, Compliance and Industries for IBM Z.

The initial release of Cloud Pak for Data on IBM Z and LinuxONE supports a containerized infrastructure to provide a flexible, hybrid and secured enterprise platform that can take advantage of your core systems of record data. With Cloud Pak for Data, clients can run Db2 Data Warehouse, Db2 Advanced Enterprise Server Edition, Db2 Management Console, and Db2 for z/OS Data Gate (beta) in a containerized infrastructure based on the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.

Cloud Pak for Data on IBM Z also provides convenient self-service access to enterprise data. Using open source tools and containerized architectures offers multiple deployment options and choices while allowing organizations to use their existing skills. Cloud Pak for Data also allows organizations to build on their investment with an extensible platform designed to support a broad ecosystem.

Why run IBM Cloud Pak for Data on IBM Z?

Cloud Pak for Data fully supports multicloud deployments including IBM Z and LinuxONE. Customers can take advantage of co-location with applications running on z/OS or Linux on Z to help improve performance, especially for applications requiring low latency.

The powerful dedicated I/O processing of IBM Z and LinuxONE are specifically designed for scalable data serving. Customers in highly regulated industries concerned about data confidentiality and protection can leverage the outstanding security, pervasive encryption and confidential computing capabilities of IBM Z and LinuxONE. Enterprises usually require 24/7 availability in today’s digitally driven world, and according to ITIC Global Reliability Report, IBM Z has been cited as the most resilient server in the market.² In addition, applications that depend on Db2 data often already reside on IBM Z, and simplifying application architecture can achieve faster time to value.

Combining these qualities of service with the data-serving strengths of IBM Z using an open, extensible platform enables enterprises to take advantage of the data gravity in their Z and LinuxONE estates.   Cloud Pak for Data on IBM Z provides a foundation for your journey to AI and we are confident it will help you reimagine your data architecture for the hybrid cloud world.

>> Read more about IBM Cloud Pak for Data on IBM Z to learn how these innovative IBM technologies can help you gain greater value, agility and growth from your current investments.