Like the cowboys of the 19^th century, SHARE Fort Worth (Feb. 23-28, 2020) continues the tradition of cattle trading in Cowtown, with a twist: exchanging knowledge through technical education sessions and networking. At this winter event, some sessions will focus on the new IBM z15 system, including its smaller frame. On average, 70% of IBM z13 and z14 clients installing an IBM z15 can reduce raised floor space by up to 50% depending on the configuration, according to Jovanna Hadley, technical client specialist at IBM.

Hadley says that customers are particularly excited about z15 because of its capability for quicker system recovery and greater data compression to help businesses reduce storage requirements. Her session, z/OS Software Support for the New IBM z15, will explore the minimum software levels required to run on a z15, migration actions required to use a z15, and the additional support needed for new z15 functions and features. Hadley says her session is not specifically on the z15 hardware and features, but she will discuss some of the z/OS support for these new features. She will highlight what support z/OS provides to exploit the features and functions of the z15.

For instance, z15’s new System Recovery Boost, she says, will expedite everything needed to get your systems back up and ready for workload execution in scenarios of planned software maintenance, patching, or in case of disaster recovery. Hadley explains, “You can be back up and running to SLAs [service level agreements] in nearly half the time compared to z14, while catching up on your pending workloads and with no increase to IBM software costs.” GDPS with System Recovery Boost, meanwhile, will streamline the recovery scripts necessary to perform the reconfiguration actions during both planned and unplanned operational scenarios. She says these capabilities allow for more testing for site switches, performing business continuity activities more quickly, improving the business’s ability to comply with industry regulation, and many more tasks related to systems management and application implementation.

Stefan Reimbold, development engineer at the Böblingen IBM Research & Development lab, will present Linux on IBM Z - Functional Capability Update Including z15 and Linux on IBM Z - z15 Exploitation Performance Update.

The functional capability update will start with a brief history of Linux and an overview of new features for Linux on Z currently under development by IBM and the open source community. The presentation, he adds, will address both Z-specific features and platform-independent developments relevant to Linux on Z. Reimbold says the presentation “will focus on new functions made available in current distributions, and those that have been released or are going to be released in upcoming distributions to the leading edge Linux kernel. I want to give customers an overview what is coming when and into which Linux distribution.”

For the exploitation performance update session, Reimbold will explore the latest performance results of the current Linux on IBM z15, including performance improvements in CPU, memory, disk, networking, and crypto. “This session is about the new hardware and how the new machine performs with current Linux distributions,” he says. Reimbold plans to offer hints and tips on how workloads benefit from the improvements and which features can be exploited from a Linux environment. In addition to covering Linux exploitation and performance of machine features, this presentation will also show performance examples from real workloads.

Reimbold says that he wants to “show the audience where the new machine improves performance and what kinds of applications can benefit from it.” He adds, “For this, we made a classification of the micro benchmarks we use, so the customer can see which benchmark is delving into which area. We are doing a lot of measurements and collecting lots of data to show the customers in which areas they can expect performance improvements.”

z15 is a hot topic. “We build a new machine roughly every two years. When it finally comes out, everybody is excited to see what new features are delivered and what the performance improvement is like,” Reimbold explains. “It's a lot of work in between, especially the year before the launch.” He says developers may make predictions that are not borne out by the test code, which is when the team realizes they need to push the boundaries to demonstrate the new products benefits to customers.

Whether sharing the latest on z15, or exploring other hot topics like security and cloud technology, SHARE Fort Worth presenters are gearing up to exchange their knowledge with attendees, and help them explore new territory in the ever-evolving world of enterprise IT.