IBM Unveils z17 Mainframe: A Leap Forward in AI-Powered Enterprise Computing

IBM releases a new mainframe built for the age of AI | TechCrunch

IBM is releasing the latest version of its mainframe hardware that includes new updates meant to accelerate AI adoption. The hardware and consulting company on Monday announced IBM z17, the latest version of its mainframe computer hardware. This fully encrypted mainframe is powered by an IBM Telum II processor and is designed for more than 250 AI use cases, the company says, including AI agents and generative AI. Mainframes might seem like old hat, but they're used by 71% of Fortune 500 companies today, according to one source. In 2024, the mainframe market was worth an estimated $5.3 billion, per consulting firm Market Research Future. The z17 can process 450 billion inference operations in a day, a 50% increase over its predecessor, the IBM z16, which was released in 2022 and ran on the company's original Tellum processor. The system is designed to be able to fully integrate with other hardware, software, and open-source tools. Tina Tarquinio, VP of product management and design for IBM Z, told TechCrunch that this mainframe upgrade has been in the works for five years -- well before the current AI frenzy that started with the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT in November 2022. IBM spent more than 2,000 research hours getting feedback from over 100 customers as it built the z17, Tarquinio said. She thinks it's interesting to see that, now, five years later, the feedback they got aligned with where the market ended up heading. "It has been wild knowing that we're introducing an AI accelerator, and then seeing, especially in the later half of 2022, all of the changes in the industry regarding AI," Tarquinio told TechCrunch. "It's been really exciting. I think the biggest point has been [that] we don't know what we don't know about what's coming, right? So the possibilities are really unlimited in terms of what AI can help us do." The z17 is set up to adapt and accommodate where the AI market heads, Tarquinio said. The mainframe will support 48 IBM Spyre AI accelerator chips upon release, with the plan to bring that number up to 96 within 12 months. "We are purposely building in headroom," Tarquinio said. "We're purposely building in AI agility. So as new models are introduced, [we're] making sure that we've built in the headroom for bigger, larger models -- models that maybe need more local memory to talk to each other. We've built in that because we know it's really the approach that will change, right? The new models will come and go." Tarquinio said that one of the highlights of this latest hardware -- although she joked it was like being asked to pick her favorite child -- is that the z17 is more energy-efficient than its predecessor and supposedly competitors, too. "On-chip, we're increasing the AI acceleration by seven and a half times, but that's five and a half times less energy than you would need to do, like, multi-model on another type of accelerator or platform in the industry," Tarquinio said. The z17 mainframes will become generally available on June 8.

IBM boosts mainframes with 50% more AI performance: z17 features Telum II chip with AI accelerators

IBM has introduced the z17, its newest mainframe system, designed for mission-critical business transactions with advanced security capabilities enhanced with AI. The system is based on the Telum II processor that offers both 70% higher general-purpose performance over its predecessor as well as 50% improved AI capabilities. For those who need even higher AI performance, IBM offers to install additional Spyre accelerators. IBM's Telum II processor is the heart of the company's new z17 mainframe. The Telum II CPU features eight advanced cores operating at 5.5 GHz, featuring enhanced branch prediction, store writeback, and address translation. The chip is equipped with 36MB of L2 cache, a 40% increase compared to the earlier version. It offers support for virtual L3 and L4 cache levels, expanding available cache to 360 MB and 2.88 GB, respectively. Additionally, Telum II integrates a data processing unit (DPU) to accelerate transactional workloads, which the company says increases overall system responsiveness. The chip is manufactured using Samsung's 5HPP fabrication process and contains 43 billion transistors. However, the Telum II does not only boast enhanced performance. A central element of this processor is its upgraded AI unit, which delivers four times the compute capability of the previous generation, reaching 24 trillion operations per second with INT8 data precision. Perhaps, 24 TOPS wasn't very impressive. However, the NPU is designed for mission-critical time-sensitive application that supports ensemble AI methods (traditional machine learning with a large-language model) to detect suspicious activities and fraud attempts. It should be noted that every AI unit within a processor drawer can accept tasks from any of the CPU cores. This ensures even distribution of processing demands and enables the full use of the available 192 trillion operations per second per drawer when all accelerators are active. IBM understands that some workloads will require more AI performance. Hence, alongside its Telum II, IBM unveiled the Spyre AI accelerator card with a PCIe interface. This 26-billion transistor processor packs 32 AI cores and features an architecture that closely resembles that of the AI accelerator architecture found in Telum II and, therefore, can be used to dynamically expand AI capabilities and performance of z17 drawers. "The industry is quickly learning that AI will only be as valuable as the infrastructure it runs on," said Ross Mauri, general manager of IBM Z and LinuxONE, IBM. "With z17, we are bringing AI to the core of the enterprise with the software, processing power, and storage to make AI operational quickly. Additionally, organizations can put their vast, untapped stores of enterprise data to work with AI in a secured, cost-effective way." To support AI workloads at the system level, IBM intends to introduce its z/OS 3.2 in Q3 2025, an updated version of its mainframe operating system. The new OS is designed to work with hardware acceleration and supports NoSQL and hybrid cloud data. Traditionally, for IBM's z mainframes, the new z17 features robust security capabilities, including a new tool called IBM Vault, originally developed by HashiCorp to handle credentials, keys, and tokens across hybrid environments. The system also includes hardware-level support for data classification and anomaly detection using the inference capabilities of the Telum II CPU. As for storage, IBM's z17 will use the company's IBM DS8000 Gen10 system, which is designed to support high-speed transactions, availability, and scalability for mission-critical operations. The IBM z17 will be available starting June 18, 2025, with the Spyre Accelerator arriving later in the year.

IBM z17 brings multi-model AI to transaction processing

Who wouldn't want predictive business insights in a week like this? (We jest, it can't solve for Trump tariffs) IBM's latest mainframe builds on the platform's traditional attributes of security and reliability for mission-critical workloads, adding AI to support large language models (LLMs), assistants, and agents. The z17 family introduces an improved Telum II processor and Spyre AI Accelerator card, both of which were discussed at the Hot Chips conference in Palo Alto last year, for a claimed speed bump of 7.5 times the AI performance of the z16. While the Telum II offers improved AI inferencing for running fraud detection checks against transactions - as was introduced with the z16 - the Spyre cards provide a way to scale AI handling to support generative AI and LLMs, and the use of multiple models to improve accuracy and reduce false positives, IBM claims. "If you look at data as the new fuel, then infrastructure is the engine that allows organizations to drive their AI journeys to success," said Elpida Tzortzatos, IBM Fellow and IBM Z Architect, referring to the hardware enhancements Big Blue has developed for this latest big iron. The firm says it has spent a lot of time talking to clients about what they wanted to see in the mainframe, and this informed the development of the z17. Modernizing their applications and enabling mainframes to be more AI-driven is apparently what the customers told them. But it isn't a case of just throwing generative AI into the mix, as some other companies may have done. Big Blue claims to have thought this through carefully. "GenAI is very critical and important to our clients, but also not the only AI tool. And although there's a lot of talk around GenAI these days, predictive AI will continue to play a critical role in enterprises," Tzortzatos said. "We'll continue to serve those use cases very, very well, but GenAI opens the aperture for new use cases, such as having assistants and being able to summarize documents, being able to provide support to developers in terms of having copilots that do code autocomplete and so forth." These assistants include the firm's watsonx Code Assistant for Z and watsonx Assistant for Z, for example. A new trend that the firm sees emerging is combining both the strengths of predictive AI with the strengths of large language and code models to extract new features or new insights, and get better and more accurate results out of these AI models, Tzortzatos claimed. She cited an example of insurance where companies are pulling the structured information relating to claims from a DB2 database, then extracting key insights such as the cause of the claim, or the urgency of it from unstructured text and feeding it into a predictive AI model to get better, more accurate results. As detailed at Hot Chips, the Telum II processors in the z17 are eight-core chips, like the previous generation, but running at a higher 5.5 GHz clock speed. Telum II also features a 40 percent increase in cache size and another new capability - an on-chip IO accelerator or data processing unit (DPU), which is designed to offload huge volumes of data that the Spyre AI Accelerator cards will churn through while handling newer AI models. "When it comes to large language models and GenAI, we've seen a factor bigger than a hundred in terms of model complexity and model size increase, and this leads to higher requirements for AI compute," Tzortzatos explained. Those Spyre AI Accelerator cards fit into PCIe slots, and feature up to 32 cores each, said to be a similar architecture to the AI accelerator in the Telum II chip itself. IBM says it is possible for the z17 to have up to 48 of the cards in a single system. Big Blue is also readying z/OS 3.2, the next release of its chief operating system for IBM Z systems, which is planned for the third quarter of this year. This brings support for hardware-accelerated AI capabilities across the system and uses operational AI for system management capabilities. The new platform will add support for modern data access methods, NoSQL databases, and hybrid cloud data processing, according to IBM, to allow AI to tap into a broader set of enterprise data from which to apply predictive business insights. IBM is launching its new big iron at a tricky time for such big-ticket items, with the Trump administration's approach to international trade shaking business confidence. Traditionally, the introduction of a new mainframe sees a spike in revenue for Big Blue as customers with older systems upgrade, but this year could prove a difficult sell. However, Mike Chuba, Managing VP in Gartner's Infrastructure and Operations group, said the company has done its homework on what customers want to see. "If you look at the last several mainframe generation announcements and continuing with this one, IBM is spending a lot more time in its R&D process involving its big mainframe customers," Chuba told The Register. "IBM's R&D efforts now focus on how the new hardware directly addresses the challenges its customers are facing. The focus on AI with the dedicated accelerator they introduced on the z16 and the turbocharged Version 2 coming with this generation directly addresses, for example, the challenge of fraud detection at the point of the transaction." IBM's z17 systems will be generally available June 18, while the Spyre Accelerator cards are expected to be available in the fourth quarter. ®

It's alive! IBM unveils its most powerful mainframe yet, which it says is fully engineered for the AI Age

The IBM z17 brings Big Blue in the age of AI but will this be enough to fend off competition? IBM has announced the z17, a new mainframe to address growing AI demands on enterprise infrastructure. Positioned as a foundation for hybrid cloud environments, and with support for real-time AI and enterprise-grade resilience, the IBM z17 is designed to handle transaction-heavy workloads, improve operational efficiency, and address security concerns in industries with stringent compliance needs. Central to the new mainframe is the Telum II processor, which was originally announced at Hot Chips 2024. Developed using Samsung 5nm technology, it integrates an on-chip AI coprocessor to support inferencing tasks, including small language models with fewer than 8 billion parameters. Alongside the processor, Big Blue plans to offer the Spyre Accelerator card (also originally previewed at Hot Chips) to complement the Telum II and extend the AI compute capabilities for unstructured data processing such as text-based generative AI. The z17 can accommodate up to 48 of these accelerator cards, allowing scalability across enterprise workloads. It is expected to be available 4Q 2025 via PCIe card. Security is a big focus for the IBM z17 and includes AI-powered features such as Sensitive Data Tagging for z/OS and IBM Threat Detection for z/OS, both of which use natural language processing to identify and protect sensitive data or scan for potential threats. In addition, it supports NIST-standardized quantum-safe cryptographic algorithms to address future regulatory requirements. The z17 system also incorporates a new data processing unit to accelerate I/O protocols for networking and storage. IBM says it expects application developers to benefit from AI-driven assistants that can automate tasks across the software development lifecycle, improving productivity and reducing skill transition issues in mainframe environments. Transactional AI use cases such as fraud detection, money laundering prevention, and anomaly detection can now be deployed closer to the data source, IBM says, with support for multimodel inference to improve accuracy and reduce false positives. "The industry is quickly learning that AI will only be as valuable as the infrastructure it runs on," said Ross Mauri, general manager of IBM Z and LinuxONE, IBM. "With z17, we're bringing AI to the core of the enterprise with the software, processing power, and storage to make AI operational quickly. Additionally, organizations can put their vast, untapped stores of enterprise data to work with AI in a secured, cost-effective way." Available in configurations that support up to 208 processors and 64TB of memory, the z17, which is the culmination of five years of design and development, is designed to operate at 5.5GHz and comes housed in up to four frames. While aimed at critical workloads, IBM is also positioning it as part of a larger hybrid cloud strategy. IBM also took the wraps off z/OS 3.2, the next version of its flagship operating system for IBM Z systems. This is planned for release in the third quarter of 2025.

IBM revamps the venerable mainframe to run generative AI workloads and agents - SiliconANGLE

IBM revamps the venerable mainframe to run generative AI workloads and agents IBM Corp. is bringing the mainframe into the modern age with the latest version of its venerable hardware powered by a new processor that supports generative artificial intelligence and AI agent workloads. The company lifted the lid on the new IBM z17 mainframe today, saying it's powered by its most advanced Telum II processor, which gives it capabilities that exceed standard transactional AI. Slated to launch in June, the z17 boasts enormous processing power and can evaluate millions of transactions as they occur in real time, enabling financial services providers to create newer and more efficient applications to counter fraud and perform analytics. The IBM z17 also accelerates AI inference by 50% over its predecessor, the IBM z16. Other capabilities include multimodel support, including IBM's family of Granite large language models. There are also new data protection features, which were introduced based on feedback from more than 100 mainframe customers, IBM said. All told, it supports more than 250 different AI applications, including mitigating loan risk, managing chatbots, analyzing medical imagery, preventing retail crime and more besides. The venerable mainframe computer is a specialized, on-premises server that's designed to handle certain kinds of applications, such as data analytics, enterprise resource planning and large transaction processing, with the utmost reliability. While most organizations have moved at least some of their information technology operations to the cloud these days, mainframes remain popular thanks to advances in their processing power and, more importantly, their high degree of availability. This is why many companies still consider them to be essential for applications where it's critical that downtime is avoided. According to IBM, around two-thirds of the Fortune 500 and 45 of the world's 50 biggest banks are still using mainframes, along with eight of the top 10 insurance firms, seven of the top 10 global retailers and eight of the top 10 telecommunications firms. IBM manufactures the vast majority of mainframes in use around the world today, though some are also made by the Japanese firm Fujitsu Ltd. The continued widespread adoption of mainframes explains why the launch of IBM z17 is considered to be a very big deal, and it's why IBM went to great lengths to enhance its AI capabilities. The company increased anticipation ahead of the launch when it announced the Telum II chip (pictured below) last August, saying it delivers a 40% improvement in cache performance thanks to the inclusion of an I/O Acceleration data processing unit, plus an integrated AI accelerator, known as the IBM Spyre. Telum II is based on eight high-performance cores that run at 5.5 gigahertz, with 36 megabytes of memory per core. That amounts to an increase of 40% in on-chip cache capacity, for a total of 360 megabytes. The Spyre AI accelerator is built to handle low-latency and high-throughput in-transaction AI inference operations, which makes the z17 more suitable for applications such as real-time fraud detection in financial transactions. It also paves the way for generative AI to run on mainframes that utilize retrieval-augmented generation techniques to tap into the data held within. In addition, the chip allows the IBM z17 mainframe to support AI agents such as the IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z and IBM watsonx Assistant for Z. Customers will be able to use the AI Toolkit for IBM Z and LinuxOne to create their own AI agents, too. IBM Z and LinuxONE General Manager Ross Mauri said it has become clear to most companies that AI systems are only as good as the infrastructure they run on, hence the need for such powerful processing capabilities. "With z17, we're bringing AI to the core of the enterprise with the software, processing power, and storage to make AI operational quickly," he insisted. "Only 1% of the enterprise data is part of large language models. With z17, businesses can put their untapped enterprise data to work with AI in a secured, cost-effective way." Other components include a specialized operating system for AI called z/OS 3.2, which will be released in the third quarter, after the z17 mainframe is launched. The software has been revamped to power hardware-accelerated AI across the entire system and provide AI-powered operational insights to streamline system management. Moreover, it supports simple data access methods, NoSQL databases and hybrid cloud processing, enabling z mainframes to work in concert with cloud servers and access even more data. Then there's IBM Z Operations Unite, which is a new tool that allows operational data to be combined in the OpenTelemetry format, simplifying information technology management operations. In more general terms, it will help teams to detect anomalies faster, reduce alert investigation durations by up to nine-times and speed up time to resolution, IBM said, while isolating the impact of any problems. On the security side, new features include a secrets management tool from Hashicorp, which IBM acquired for $6.4 billion earlier this year. It's called IBM Vault, and it relies on identity-based security to authenticate and authorize access to secrets, certificates, security keys and other sensitive information, in both the mainframe and also hybrid cloud environments. In this way, it offers companies a single solution to securely access and manage all of their most sensitive assets. As always, IBM is offering comprehensive support to enterprises to help them manage their mainframe operations. These services, delivered by IBM Technology Lifecycle Services, can help customers to maintain peak performance and minimize risk and disruptions for mission-critical applications. Customers will also get access to IBM Agent Assist, an automated customer service bot that can help them to streamline incident resolutions and get their mainframes back to work faster.

IBM Unveils z17 Mainframe With Telum II and Spyre Accelerator

The z17 is the next iteration of IBM's mainframe systems, which powers 70% of all financial transactions worldwide. IBM, the American computing giant, launched its new enterprise z17 mainframe system on Monday. It features the Telum II processor and the new Spyre accelerator, both designed to enhance on-premises AI capabilities. "In industries where data needs to remain secured but accessible with the lowest latency possible, z17 with Spyre will enable businesses to run generative AI models and agentic AI on-premises," said IBM in the announcement. According to TechCrunch, the z17 mainframe is capable of processing 450 billion inference operations per day, doubling the capacity of its predecessor. It is also reported that HashiCorp, which the company recently acquired, will help implement security features for the z17 mainframe. "The Spyre accelerator is designed to handle the emerging AI workloads that z17 clients will bring to the platform. It is optimised for generative and agentic AI, for example, rather than models that the field is cooling on -- classification models, for example," said IBM. The company also added that the mainframe systems are designed to handle over 250 use cases. IBM also said that the 'z' series of mainframe systems handles up to 70% of the world's financial transactions. The core components of the z17, the Telum II and the Spyre accelerator were announced last August. The Telum II features eight high-performance cores running at 5.5GHz. Telum II will include a 40% increase in on-chip cache capacity, with the virtual L3 and virtual L4 growing to 360MB and 2.88GB, respectively. Spyre, scheduled for release in Q4 2025, is a dedicated 32-core accelerator available as an optional PCIe expansion card, aimed at enhancing efficiency for AI workloads compared to traditional GPUs. On Monday, IBM also announced the acquisition of Hakkoda, a global data and AI consultancy firm. The acquisition is said to expand IBM Consulting's data transformation services portfolio, which will be powered by Hakkoda's strong portfolio of generative AI assets. "With Hakkoda's data expertise, deep technology partnerships and asset-centric delivery model, IBM will be even better positioned to deliver value faster to clients as they transform with AI," said Mohamad Ali, head of IBM Consulting. The acquisition was finalised on April 2; IBM did not disclose the financial details of the transaction.

IBM's latest mainframe knows AI will change everything

IBM's latest mainframe, the z17, is engineered to boost AI adoption with a fully encrypted system powered by the IBM Telum II processor. Unveiled on Monday, this new hardware is designed to handle over 250 AI use cases, including AI agents and generative AI applications. Despite their legacy status, mainframes remain a staple for 71% of Fortune 500 companies. Market Research Future consulting firm valued the mainframe market at $5.3 billion in 2024. The z17 can manage 450 billion inference operations daily, marking a 50% increase from the IBM z16, which launched in 2022. The new system integrates with existing hardware, software, and open-source tools. According to Tina Tarquinio, VP of product management and design for IBM Z, the z17 has been in development for five years. IBM incorporated feedback from over 100 customers, gathered over 2,000 research hours, during the z17's development. Tarquinio noted the alignment between early customer feedback and the current AI market trends: "It has been wild knowing that we're introducing an AI accelerator, and then seeing, especially in the later half of 2022, all of the changes in the industry regarding AI... The possibilities are really unlimited in terms of what AI can help us do." IBM's AI elevates your Masters Tournament experience The z17 will initially support 48 IBM Spyre AI accelerator chips, with plans to increase that number to 96 within a year. Tarquinio emphasized the z17's adaptability: "We are purposely building in headroom... We're purposely building in AI agility. So as new models are introduced, [we're] making sure that we've built in the headroom for bigger, larger models -- models that maybe need more local memory to talk to each other. We've built in that because we know it's really the approach that will change, right? The new models will come and go." Tarquinio highlighted the z17's energy efficiency: "On-chip, we're increasing the AI acceleration by seven and a half times, but that's five and a half times less energy than you would need to do, like, multi-model on another type of accelerator or platform in the industry." The z17 mainframes will be available starting June 8.

IBM Targets Real-Time AI With New z17 Mainframe Rollout - IBM (NYSE:IBM)

Feel unsure about the market's next move? Copy trade alerts from Matt Maley -- a Wall Street veteran who consistently finds profits in volatile markets. Claim your 7-day free trial now. Tech giant IBM IBM stock is trading higher on Tuesday after the company launched its latest mainframe, the IBM z17. The system blends powerful artificial intelligence features across hardware and software to enhance business operations on a large scale. IBM z17 arrives with a range of innovations designed to address AI workloads and real-time processing needs. Built on the new IBM Telum II processor, the z17 is capable of executing over 450 billion AI inferencing tasks per day, achieving a response latency as low as one millisecond. "The industry is quickly learning that AI will only be as valuable as the infrastructure it runs on," said the general manager of IBM Z and LinuxONE, IBM, Ross Mauri. Also Read: Cloudflare Acquires Outerbase To Streamline AI App Development, 'Our Goal Is To Make It Easy And Accessible For Any Developer' "With z17, we're bringing AI to the core of the enterprise with the software, processing power, and storage to make AI operational quickly. Engineered for organizations looking to embed AI deeply into their operations, the z17 supports more than 250 use cases. These include fraud prevention in retail, streamlining customer interactions through chatbots, evaluating credit risk, and aiding diagnostic imaging in healthcare. The new system features a second-generation AI accelerator embedded in its core processor, which significantly increases computing speed and cache memory. Later this year, IBM plans to launch the Spyre Accelerator, a PCIe card to extend AI computing power even further, with a focus on supporting generative AI and intelligent assistants tailored to enterprise use. IBM is pairing the z17 with AI-driven software like Watsonx Assistant and Watsonx Code Assistant. These tools help automate development and IT operations, while integration with IBM Z Operations Unite enables real-time monitoring and incident resolution powered by AI insights. As cybersecurity threats evolve, the z17 addresses data protection through advanced features. This includes integration with IBM Vault powered by HashiCorp for secrets management and tools for automated detection of data anomalies using natural language processing and AI. Clients deploying IBM z17 can expect support through IBM's AI-augmented Technology Lifecycle Services. Meanwhile, the DS8000 storage system has been optimized to match z17's performance, enabling data-heavy industries to manage workloads securely and efficiently. IBM z17 will be available starting June 18, 2025. The Spyre Accelerator is expected to follow in the fourth quarter of the year. Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said IBM is well positioned to benefit from the AI spending phase, which now makes up about 12% of many IT budgets. Price Action: IBM shares traded higher by 1.55% at $229.29 in premarket at last check Tuesday. Read Next: Nvidia, Applied Materials Back Digital Engineering Startup In $115M Round Image via Shutterstock IBMInternational Business Machines Corp$228.331.13%Stock Score Locked: Want to See it? Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Reveal Full ScoreEdge RankingsMomentum87.07Growth77.15Quality65.62Value16.77Price TrendShortMediumLongOverviewGot Questions? AskWhich industries will benefit from z17's AI?How will retail companies leverage AI for fraud prevention?What impact will z17 have on healthcare diagnostics?Which financial institutions might use AI for credit risk?Could cybersecurity firms see growth from z17's features?What companies could utilize Watsonx Assistant for automation?How will cloud service providers adapt to AI demands?Which AI startups may gain from IBM's technology ecosystem?How might the AI hardware market react to z17's launch?Will enterprise software firms benefit from AI spending increases?Powered By This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

IBM Sets June Date for AI Agent Era z17 Mainframes

'The industry is quickly learning that AI will only be as valuable as the infrastructure it runs on,' says Ross Mauri, IBM Z and LinuxOne GM. IBM will make its new z17 mainframes available June 18, with its Spyre accelerator set for availability in the fourth quarter and a new IBM Z Operations Unite offer for detecting anomalies and reducing resolution times slated for May 30 general availability-not to mention new innovations from recent acquisition HashiCorp. The Armonk, N.Y.-based vendor also revealed Tuesday that its z/OS 3.2 flagship Z operating system is expected to launch in 2025's third quarter. Also becoming GA on May 9 is the IBM COBOL Upgrade Advisor for z/OS, which has the goal of getting businesses to the latest version of the programming language for z/OS 6 with a modern VS Code interface for improved analysis and reporting. IBM positions the z17 as a mainframe for the artificial intelligence era with AI across hardware, software and systems operations, according to a statement Tuesday. z17 brings the ability to use AI assistants and AI agents to developers and IT operations. "The industry is quickly learning that AI will only be as valuable as the infrastructure it runs on," Ross Mauri, IBM Z and LinuxOne general manager, said in the statement. "With z17, we're bringing AI to the core of the enterprise with the software, processing power, and storage to make AI operational quickly. Additionally, organizations can put their vast, untapped stores of enterprise data to work with AI in a secured, cost-effective way." [RELATED: IBM Buys Snowflake-Focused Data, AI Consultancy Hakkoda] CRN has reached out to IBM for comment. In 2025, IBM is working to add more qualified partners, increase the overall percentage of company revenue that comes through the channel and improve partner technical skills, according to CRN's 2025 Channel Chiefs. Tim Kreytak, CEO of Lexington, Mass.-based IBM partner Ironside, told CRN in a recent interview that his IBM customers continue to experiment with the vendor's AI offers and seek services around improving data for AI use. "I definitely think that 2023 was the year of the (AI) experiment," Kreytak said. "2024 was the year of the PoC (proof of concept). And we are hoping 2025 is the year of the production application." The z17 is powered by IBM's Telum II processor and can enable users to score all real-time transactions even in high-volume production environments, according to the vendor. Telum II has improved frequency, compute capacity and a 40 percent growth in cache. It enables more than 450 billion inferencing operations in a day and 1 millisecond response time. Telum II will also allow for natural language processing for identifying and protecting mission-critical data. z17 can process 50 percent more AI inference operations per day compared to the z16. And z17's 250-plus AI use cases include mitigating loan risk, managing chatbot services, medical image analysis support and addressing retail crime. z17 was designed with input from more than 100 IBM clients, according to the vendor. The mainframe has multi-modal AI capabilities, new data protection security features and AI-powered system usability and management tools. The new mainframe offer also seeks to enable developers to use IBM Watsonx Code Assistant for Z, Watsonx Assistant for Z and other AI assistants and agents, according to IBM. Watsonx Assistant for Z will integrate with Z Operations Unite for chat-based incident detection and resolutiuon with live systems data. The Spyre accelerator coming toward the end of 2025 will be available through Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) card, according to IBM. Spyre will allow for more AI compute capabilities and complement the Telum II to support multi-model AI methods. Spyre is designed for running assistants and other AI uses cases that leverage enterprise data in the mainframe system. Spyre will also allow native running of IBM Granite-based assistants and agents without taking the risk of moving data and sensitive business logic off platform, according to the vendor. The upcoming z/OS 3.2 operating system is meant to support hardware-accelerated AI capabilities across the system. The OS also offers operational AI insights for system management, modern data access methods support, hybrid cloud data processing and more, according to IBM. The upcoming Z Operations Unite offer aims to unify performance metrics and logs from multiple Z sources in OpenTelemetry format to better allow AI on operations. Users can leverage Operations Unite with IBM Concert for better operational data correlation enterprisewide, according to IBM. As for HashiCorp, which IBM bought for $6.4 billion in February, Z users have access to the vendor's secrets management capabilities across hybrid cloud. The mainframe news comes just after IBM revealed that it is boosting the Snowflake capabilities of IBM Consulting-No. 6 on CRN's 2024 Solution Provider 500-through the acquisition of New York-based Hakkoda.

IBM's AI Mainframe Will Boost Revenue This Year | The Motley Fool

While International Business Machines (IBM -2.19%) generates most of its revenue from software and consulting services, the company's hardware business is still an important piece of the puzzle. IBM's mainframe systems, known for their extreme reliability, remain a workhorse in certain industries. Of the world's 50 top banks, 43 use IBM's mainframes to handle mission-critical workloads. Every two to three years, IBM refreshes its mainframe lineup with a new model that brings improved performance and expanded capabilities. IBM works with its clients to push the mainframe in the right direction, and lately, that direction has been toward artificial intelligence (AI). IBM announced its latest mainframe system, the z17, on Tuesday. The z17 is powered by the IBM Telum II processor, which the company detailed last year. In addition to general performance improvements over its predecessor, the Telum II features an on-chip AI accelerator capable of churning through 450 billion AI inferencing operations per day. Response times are around one millisecond, making the system ideal for use cases that need near-instant results. One example IBM noted was running a credit card fraud-detection model in real time as transactions are being processed. On top of the AI capabilities of the Telum II processor, IBM plans to launch its Spyre Accelerator in the fourth quarter of this year. Spyre is an AI expansion card that can be plugged into the z17 to provide more computational horsepower. With Spyre, clients will be able to make use of AI assistants and agents built on IBM's Granite models, bringing generative AI to the mainframe. Each time IBM launches a new mainframe system, sales temporarily boom as clients upgrade from older models. The z16, which is nearly three years old at this point, delivered a strong product cycle for IBM. As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2024, the z16 was the most successful mainframe cycle in company history. In terms of MIPS, a metric IBM uses to measure a mainframe system's processing power, the z16 install base increased by about 30% over its predecessor. The z17 launches in June, so IBM will see a meaningful increase in mainframe revenue during the second half of the year. In the third quarter of 2022, the first full quarter of z16 availability, mainframe revenue soared 88% year over year. IBM doesn't break out mainframe revenue directly, but hybrid infrastructure, which includes mainframes and other hardware products, generated revenue of $8.9 billion in 2024. Beyond an increase in hardware sales, the new mainframe can drive software and consulting sales, particularly related to AI. IBM has booked more than $5 billion worth of generative AI-related business so far, and the bulk of that came from consulting signings. As mainframe clients upgrade to the AI-enabled z17, other parts of IBM could get a boost. The new mainframe is one reason IBM was able to guide for revenue growth of more than 5% this year, an acceleration, compared to 2024. Achieving that outlook could prove challenging, considering the recent U.S. tariffs and the potential for a broad economic slowdown. However, IBM's mainframes are mission-critical systems, and the z17 delivers AI capabilities that are likely to be in demand from its clients. With the z17, IBM continues to evolve the mainframe and maintain its relevance. With a focus on AI, the z17 should drive another strong mainframe cycle for IBM.