Computing giant IBM has unveiled the z13 mainframe computer, which it claims is one of the most sophisticated systems yet built.
According to IBM, the z13 delivers scale and economics as well as real-time encryption and analytics to help meet the speed and safety expectations of consumers for trillions of transactions in the mobile economy.
The z13 system culminates a $1 billion investment over five years of development, exploits the innovation of more than 500 new patents and represents a collaboration with more than 60 clients, it adds.
Though some market watchers believe the mainframe is now obsolete, Gartner says the IBM mainframe market is far from dead, but it is clearly evolving. Vox says 90% of mainframe applications use native IBM mainframe operating systems and run on IBM hardware.
IBM notes the z13 is the first system able to process 2.5 billion transactions a day - equivalent to 100 Cyber Mondays every day of the year. It also points out z13 transactions are persistent, protected and auditable from beginning to end, adding assurance as mobile transactions grow - to an estimated 40 trillion mobile transactions per day by 2025.
It also touts the z13 as the first system to make practical real-time encryption of all mobile transactions at any scale, adding it is also the first mainframe system with embedded analytics providing real-time insights into all transactions.
IBM says the rapid growth of mobile applications has created consumers who expect mobile transactions to be fast and seamless - regardless of which mobile payment platform, retailer or financial organisation is providing the service.
As a result, it says, businesses are being forced to evaluate whether their IT infrastructures can support mobile applications that meet and exceed these consumer expectations - or face the potential of losing clients to competing businesses.
"Every time a consumer makes a purchase or hits refresh on a smartphone, it can create a cascade of events on the back-end of the computing environment," says Tom Rosamilia, senior vice-president, IBM Systems.
"The z13 is designed to handle billions of transactions for the mobile economy. Consumers expect fast, easy and secure mobile transactions. The implication for business is the creation of a secure, high-performance infrastructure with sophisticated analytics."
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