Following the announced launch of the z13 in January, IBM is unveiling this week new offerings that combine the power of the all-new z13 mainframe with the flexibility of the cloud.
 
With these new offerings, clients will be able to use the z13 to quickly and efficiently develop, deploy and manage applications regardless of how they want to set up their systems - on-premise, cloud or hybrid - or what types of platforms they decide to use. One of the most powerful and sophisticated mainframes ever built, the z13 delivers new mobile, analytic and cloud capabilities for powering enterprise systems in the digital economy. The new offerings include:

• z Systems Hybrid Cloud Connect Test Drive: IBM is offering a new program called z Systems Hybrid Cloud Connect Test Drive that allows clients to easily connect their on-premise enterprise systems to a public cloud. IBM will provide a resource for qualifying clients to bridge a datacenter network to SoftLayer cloud infrastructure. Clients can continue to run core operations on the mainframe with the flexibility to quickly and seamlessly add new operations on the cloud.
  

For interested clients, IBM will provide this SoftLayer Gateway as a Service capability and one SoftLayer virtual server for three months without charge. IBM also will provide a resource to help set up the network gateway that will bridge the datacenter network with infrastructure in SoftLayer. Clients have no obligation to continue or pay for the services after three months.

• Memory Pricing for Growth: With the new z13, IBM is making it easier and more cost-effective for clients to scale up memory, a key requirement for new applications to efficiently sift through massive amounts of data in real-time.  Qualifying clients that move to the z13 and significantly increase memory can save 33% to 87%, on the cost of additional memory compared to IBM standard memory pricing.
  

• IBM Cloud Manager with OpenStack: IBM z Systems will offer IBM Cloud Manager with OpenStack for the z13, opening up z13 to new platforms and simplifying management of virtualized environments.
  

• IBM Bluemix integration with z Systems:  IBM has made the Dedicate Bluemix environment generally available.  Combined with continued enhancements to connector technology within Bluemix and z Systems software, clients can leverage their own single-tenant version of Bluemix to build applications around their most sensitive data and existing services.