IBM launches LinuxONE Server, helps reduce energy consumption

IBM unveiled the next generation of its LinuxONE server, a highly scalable Linux and Kubernetes-based platform, designed to deliver scalability to support thousands of workloads in the footprint of a single system. IBM LinuxONE Emperor 4 features capabilities that can reduce clients’ energy consumption. For example, consolidating Linux workloads on five IBM LinuxONE Emperor 4 systems instead of running them on compared x86 servers under similar conditions can reduce energy consumption by 75%, space by 50%, and the CO2e footprint by over 850 metric tons annually.

“Data centers are energy intensive, and they can account for a large portion of an organization’s energy use. But data and technology can help companies turn sustainability ambition into action,” said Marcel Mitran, IBM Fellow, CTO of Cloud Platform, IBM LinuxONE. “Reducing data center energy consumption is a tangible way to decrease carbon footprint. In that context, migrating to IBM LinuxONE is designed to help clients meet their scale and security goals, in addition to meeting sustainability goals for today’s digital business.”

IBM LinuxONE Emperor 4 is an engineered scale-out-on-scale-up system designed to enable clients to run workloads at sustained high density and increase capacity by turning on unused cores without increasing their energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions.2 In addition, clients can track energy consumption with IBM Instana Observability on LinuxONE.

IBM’s portfolio of sustainability technologies includes solutions to design, deploy and manage energy efficient infrastructures and innovations with a hybrid cloud approach. IBM LinuxONE is one solution within the portfolio designed to optimize data centers by reducing energy consumption and improving energy efficiency. IBM LinuxONE Emperor 4 will be generally available globally on September 14, 2022, with entry and mid-range systems to follow in 1H 2023.

Respond to unpredictable demand

Shifts in the global economy have driven volatility and require flexibility in operational and technical decision-making. Built with the same security, scalability and reliability that has been the hallmark of IBM infrastructure, the next-generation LinuxONE also offers cloud-like flexibility. With a system built for rebalancing of resources in combination with on demand capacity, workloads can scale-up and scale-out dynamically and non-disruptively.

At Citi, the bank’s sustainability strategy is driven by a commitment to advance solutions that address climate change and support the transition to a low-carbon economy. Operationally, Citi is focused on reducing the environmental footprint of its facilities, including through improving hosting densities with lower power consumption. Citi is hosting MongoDB on IBM LinuxONE, leveraging the platform’s security and resiliency, as well as elastic capacity to address unexpected demand.

Sustainable without compromising security

The new LinuxONE system also features pervasive encryption to protect data at-rest and in-flight, a priority for clients in regulated industries such as financial services. Building on IBM’s cloud security leadership in confidential computing, IBM LinuxONE Emperor 4 protects data in use while providing end-to-end encryption. This comprehensive data protection profile provides businesses with a data protection strategy that underpins current and anticipated future cyber security protocols.

Hybrid cloud platform for cloud and on-premises workloads

Today’s hybrid and multicloud environments require clients to deploy workloads where it makes the most sense for their business needs. IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Virtual Servers provide a public cloud environment in which the cloud tenant maintains complete authority over Linux-based virtual servers for workloads that contain sensitive data. Built on IBM LinuxONE and running on IBM Cloud, this service provides customers complete authority over their encrypted data, workloads and encryption keys – not even IBM as the cloud provider has access.

IBM LinuxONE Emperor 4 supports a large number of Linux and Red Hat OpenShift-certified workloads, including data serving, core banking and digital assets. IBM LinuxONE Emperor 4 receives support from IBM Ecosystem partners, such as Clari5, Illumio, Metaco, MongoDB, NGINX, Nth Exception, Fiorano Software, Fujitsu Limited, Pennant, SQ Solution, Sysdig and Temenos.

With cloud native development on LinuxONE, teams of developers can deliver portable and agile solutions without having to learn a new operating system. IT managers need a system that is easy to operate that supports common tools and provides a foundation for the future. LinuxONE enables managers to focus on delivering new services, instead of managing complexity across a vast number of servers. Based on Linux and Kubernetes, everyone benefits from open standards and an ecosystem that includes modern DevSecOps and cloud native tools.

Suresh V. Jayanthi, zStack Leader, IBM z & LinuxONE, IBM Technology Sales, India/South Asia

“The new LinuxONE Emperor 4 will greatly aid businesses achieve their sustainability goals, while providing high levels of security, scalability and reliability for deploying both containers and databases. It is a great fit for Indian enterprises and government organisations which are adopting Linux and containers for enterprise workloads. Another significant use case would be prevention of financial fraud as we scale up digital payments in India. The LinuxONE Emperor 4 contains on-chip acceleration for AI inferencing while a transaction is taking place to help address fraud in real-time.”