Just-in-time deployment of IT resources

Infrastructures must be more ﬂ exible to changing capacity requirements and provide users with just-in-time deploy- ment of resources. Having the 16 GB dedicated HSA on the z10 EC means that some preplanning conﬁ guration changes and associated outages may be avoided. IBM Capacity Upgrade on Demand (CUoD) provides a perma- nent increase in processing capacity that can be initiated by the customer.

IBM On/Off Capacity on Demand (On/Off CoD) provides temporary capacity needed for short-term spikes in capac- ity or for testing new applications. Capacity Backup Upgrade (CBU) can help provide reserved emergency backup capacity for all processor conﬁ gurations.

An additional temporary capacity offering on the z10 EC is Capacity for Planned Events (CPE), a variation on CBU. If unallocated capacity is available in a server, it will allow the maximum capacity available to be used for planned events such as planned maintenance in a data center.

By having ﬂ exible and dynamic conﬁ guration deﬁ nitions, when capacity is needed, activation of any portion of an offering can be done (for example activation of just two CBUs out of a deﬁ nition that has four CBUs is accept- able). And if the deﬁ nition doesn’t have enough resources deﬁ ned, an order can easily be processed to increase the capacity (so if four CBUs aren’t enough it can be redeﬁ ned to be six CBUs) as long as enough server infrastructure is available to meet maximum needs.

All activations can be done without having to interact with IBM—when it is determined that capacity is required, no passwords or phone connections are necessary. As long as the total z10 EC can support the maximums that are deﬁ ned, then they can be made available.

With the z10 EC, it is now possible to add permanent capacity while a temporary capacity is currently activated, without having to return ﬁ rst to the original conﬁ guration.

The activation of On/Off CoD on z10 EC can be simpliﬁ ed or automated by using z/OS Capacity Provisioning (avail- able with z/OS® 1.9 and above). This capability enables the monitoring of multiple systems based on Capacity Provi- sioning and Workload Manager (WLM) deﬁ nitions. When the deﬁ ned conditions are met, z/OS can suggest capacity changes for manual activation from a z/OS console, or the system can add or remove temporary capacity automati- cally and without operator intervention.

Specialty engines offer an attractive alternative

The z10 EC continues the long history of providing inte- grated technologies to optimize a variety of workloads. The use of specialty engines can help users expand the use of the mainframe for new workloads, while helping to lower the cost of ownership. The IBM System z® specialty engines can run independently or complement each other. For example, the zAAP and zIIP processors enable you to pur- chase additional processing capacity exclusively for spe- ciﬁ c workloads, without affecting the MSU rating of the IBM System z model designation. This means that adding a specialty engine will not cause increased charges for IBM System z software running on general purpose processors in the server.