IBM and Oracle Agreement Strengthens Mainframe Computing, IDC Says

ARMONK, NY - 26 Jan 2007: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that independent analyst firm, IDC, believes the commitment by IBM and Oracle to co-market Linux solutions on the mainframe will effectively answer increasing customer demand to run enterprise Linux applications and databases with granular controllability and manageability -- and that it will attract new IT experts to the mainframe.

In recent years, IBM has driven new workloads to the mainframe through design features including the zIIP (System z9 Integrated Information Processor), zAAP (System z Application Assist Processor), and IFL (Integrated Facility for Linux).

As reported in its paper, “Oracle and IBM Agree to Co-Market Oracle’s Linux Solutions on IBM System z Mainframes [1],” IDC expects many benefits to derive from the IBM-Oracle relationship:

* IBM will gain another set of open systems applications for its Linux-optimized processors on System z;
* Oracle will gain an opportunity to expand software sales for IBM System z servers;
* More developers, system programmers, and system administrators will gain expertise on the System z as more workloads can be supported with open systems skill sets associated with Linux deployments; and
* More Oracle software products will be certified to run on the IBM System z IFLs, making this announcement a foundation for future enterprise Linux deployments on the mainframe.

“Our agreement to co-market Oracle Linux solutions on the mainframe is a significant step in unleashing the power and value of the mainframe in the enterprise,” said Jim Stallings, general manager, System z for IBM. “Ultimately, customers will be the big winners as they seize the opportunity to run their open system applications on the world’s most trusted, secure and reliable computing platform.”

The Initiative

IBM and Oracle announced this initiative to collaborate on the sales and marketing of a series of enterprise business solutions with Oracle applications and technology for Linux on System z on October 24, 2006. It targets the business requirements of large and medium size enterprise customers and meets growing market demand, complementing a series of investments IBM and Oracle have made in support of Linux as an enterprise application platform.

Specifically, Oracle and IBM will co-market the Oracle Database-tier products running on the IFL feature of IBM’s mainframe to support mission-critical Oracle-on-Linux databases. The IFL-enabled databases are available on IBM System z9 Enterprise Class (z9 EC) and IBM System z9 Business Class (z9 BC) servers.

For more information about IBM, please visit www.ibm.com.

1 [1] “Oracle and IBM Agree to Co-Market Oracle’s Linux Solutions on IBM System z Mainframes,” IDC Document #204251, November 2006.

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Contact Information

Bruce McConnel

IBM Media Relations

IBM

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