Regarding Clouds, Mainframes, and Desktops … and Linux

© 2009 IBM Corporation

Regarding Clouds, Mainframes, and Desktops … and Linux

Bob Sutor – VP, Open Source and Linux, IBM SWG

LinuxCon – 21 September, 2009


Bob Sutor: Regarding Clouds, Mainframes, and Desktops...and Linux

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Abstract

Linux is key to driving innovative new technology as well as business models.

It's shaking up the established view of which operating systems should be used for what workloads, while slipping quietly under some very cool new applications.

In this talk, I'll focus on three areas of great opportunity as well as challenge for Linux: the accelerating market for cloud computing, Linux as a significant operating system for mainframes, and the hope for Linux on the desktop.



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Agenda

The cloud from a user's perspective

Oh, yeah, my mainframe with Linux does that

Possible futures for the Linux desktop

Some 2008 predictions, one year later



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Who is the user for cloud computing?

Could be ...

– A user of a virtualized desktop on a thin or fat client.

– A non-technical end user who accesses services through a browser or via applications such as disk backup to remote storage.

– A “cloud choreographer” who strings together cloud-based services to implement business processes.

– A service provider who needs to handle peak load demands.

– A developer who employs dynamic resource allocation in clouds to speed application or solution creation.

– An IT system administrator who does not build clouds but deploys onto them, probably in addition to traditional managed systems.



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What does a cloud computing user want?

Cloud-friendly applications

Resources: storage, processor, platform

APIs: the more standard the better

Interoperability among clouds (may learn of this need later)

Reduced capital expense

A good, workable pricing scheme

Quality of service, including– Availability– Reliability– Performance– Security– Privacy

I don't think any one of these contradicts the use of Linux, and they all potentially encourage it.



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Case study: IBM internal cloud for developers

Case Study ResultsAnnual savings: $3.3M (84%)

$3.9M to $0.6M

New Development

Software Costs

Power Costs

Labor Costs (Operations and

Maintenance)

Hardware Costs (annualized)

Liberated funding for new

development, transformation investment or direct saving

Deployment (1-time)

Software Costs

Power Costs- 88.8%

Labor Costs - 80.7%

Hardware Costs- 88.7%

Note: 3-Year Depreciation Period with 10% Discount Rate

Without Cloud

With Cloud

100%

Current

IT Spend

StrategicChange Capacity

Hardware, labor & power

savings reduced annual cost of

operation by 83.8%



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What does a cloud computing provider need?

Maximum practical use of resources: processors, memory, storage

A good, workable pricing scheme

Virtualization, virtualization, virtualization

Acceptable licensing of operating systems being used

Highly reusable skills of system administrators

Minimal power used, heat generated, datacenter space needed

I don't think any one of these contradicts the use of Linux, and they all potentially encourage it.



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What special about Linux here?

Linux supports multiple hardware platforms– Implementation span from embedded devices to supercomputers

– Speed of support for new platforms

– Availability of skills, portability of applications

– Scale-out through clustering as well as scale-up through SMP

Linux has an affinity with virtualization and is being used in clouds– Supported on all major hypervisors, from z/VM to VMware and Hyper-V

– Ability to be paravirtualized with Xen

– Inclusion of KVM as part of Linux

Linux is flexible – Modular and customizable, with flexible usage licensing

Linux is developed by an open community– Sharing skills and resources, leading to faster development



9

Agenda







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Why people are using Linux on mainframes

Virtualization was introduced commercially on IBM mainframes in 1972.

Hypervisor is integrated with the hardware– Sharing of CPU, memory and I/O resources– Virtual network and virtual I/O

Reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)– Environmental savings – single footprint vs. hundreds of

servers– Consolidation savings – less storage, fewer servers, fewer

software licenses, less server management/support

Mainframe capabilities complement and enhance those of Linux.



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Why people are using Linux on mainframes

Utilization often exceeds 90%

Manageability of centralized Linux systems

Typical deployment needs:– High performance transaction processing– I/O intensive workloads– Large database serving– High resiliency and security– Unpredictable and highly variable workload spikes– Low utilization infrastructure applications– Rapid provisioning and re-provisioning

Mainframe characteristics complement cloud user requirements



12 September 17, 2009

IBM's Project “Big Green”

Double compute capacity with no increase in consumption or impact by 2010

IBM will consolidate and virtualize thousands of servers onto approximately 30 IBM System z™ mainframes

Substantial savings expected in multiple dimensions: energy, software and system support costs

The consolidated environment will use 80% less energy and 85% less floor space

This transformation is enabled by the System z sophisticated virtualization capability

1997 Today

CIOs 128 1

Host data centers 155 7

Web hosting centers 80 5

Network 31 1

Applications 15,000 4,700



13

Agenda







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It goes away.

We stop using desktops, so who cares?

The Linux desktop becomes a tactic instead of a strategy.

One Linux desktop distribution ends up with 90% marketshare among those using Linux desktops.

One Linux desktop distribution ends up with 90% marketshare among all desktops.

We reach 33% / 33% / 33% parity with Microsoft® Windows® / Apple® Mac OS® / Linux, plus or minus.



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We stop pretending that it will be a drop-in replacement for the dominant desktop operating system, and make it something better.

The enterprise sweet spot for Linux desktops is virtualized Linux desktops.

We focus on usability, stability, security, reliability, performance, with some cool thrown in.

It's the browser, stupid.



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An application running in a

virtualized Linux desktop on a

Linux rich client.



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Agenda







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2008 Prediction 1“Green” will drive significant initiatives in open source

This is happening as major customers such as banks move to reduce their carbon footprints by consolidating onto mainframes, often getting features such as disaster recovery as a bonus.

Aside from tangential benefits of using Linux, I'm not seeing much yet in the way of open source being applied to green initiatives in a focused and specific way.

Linux will help reduce energy consumption through server consolidation, virtualization, load balancing and more efficient

resources management.



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2008 Prediction 2Linux will not be replaced

I doubt anyone can seriously argue that any other open source operating system has made significant inroads on the growing installed base of Linux in the last year.

Linux will be introduced to thousands more users via implementations in mobile phones, though users may not know it.

Much of the hot technological action is happening on Linux, such as virtualization, and this will be essential for cloud computing.

Linux will increasingly find itself competing against proprietary virtualization technologies.

Linux Inside?



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2008 Prediction 3Linux mindshare will be less x86 focused

In the cloud, users may not know there is Linux Inside, much less x86 Inside.

From a device perspective, users will think less of operating systems and chips, but more of user interfaces, media, connectivity, applications, app stores, and coolness.

Customers are more than capable of choosing the correct hardware platform to match their planned workloads.

The instability and uncertainty in the industry this year is causing customers to re-evaluate their software/hardware platforms and has been a great opportunity for Linux and competitive winbacks.



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2008 Prediction 7Open standards will grab more attention

The Open Document Format (ODF) is being approved for use in more and more countries around the world.

Recent adoptees include Malaysia, Norway, Ecuador, Venezuela, Taiwan, Hungary, and Latvia.

The Open Cloud Manifesto has over 250 companies and groups supporting it.

The industry and users will benefit the most from an emerging technology when open standards are at the core, and there as early as possible.



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Finishing up ...

Linux is at the center of the computing we have today and that which we are building for tomorrow.

I believe the Linux community andleadership will rise to tackleany challenges necessary to meet and exceedexpectations.

Mainframes

Desktops Cloud



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For more information ...

IBM and Linuxhttp://www.ibm.com/linux/

Linux on IBM System zhttp://www.ibm.com/systems/z/os/linux/

IBM Cloud Computinghttp://www.ibm.com/cloud/

Bob Sutor's bloghttp://www.sutor.com/blog

Open Cloud Manifestohttp://www.opencloudmanifesto.org/

http://www.ibm.com/linux/

http://www.ibm.com/systems/z/os/linux/

http://www.ibm.com/cloud/

http://www.sutor.com/blog

http://www.opencloudmanifesto.org/



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NOTES:Linux penguin image courtesy of Larry Ewing ( [email protected]) and The GIMP

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