Announcement Summary - May 09, 2023

The Enterprise NVMe small form factor (SFF) U.2 15 mm SSD is a PCIe Gen4 device. This device supports boot on Power® and can be use in any U.2 15 mm NVMe slot in the system. NVMe is a high-performance architecture and command protocol that can read and write flash memory. Compared to a serial-attached SCSI (SAS) SSD or a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) SSD, the NVMe SSD provides more read and write input/output operations per second (IOPS) and larger throughput (GB/sec).

This Enterprise SSD is rated at three Drive Writes Per Day (DWPD) calculated over a five-year period for 100% (4K bytes or larger) random write workloads. Use for workloads within this rating is fully supported and will maintain high reliability and mean time between failures (MTBF).

The nature of the workload has a great impact on the maximum write capacity. If a high percentage of more sequentially oriented writes is used instead of random writes, the maximum write capacity will be larger. Writes past the SSD's maximum write capacity will continue to work for some period of time, but they will perform much more slowly. Whether the application uses sequential or random reads from the device does not affect the life of the device. A Predictive Failure Analysis message will indicate that it is time to replace the SSD if enabled by the operating system (OS) and system administrator. IBM recommends that you monitor SMART log critical information through the appropriate OS utility to observe drive life remaining information. IBM NVMe SSD failures will be replaced during the standard warranty and maintenance period for SSDs that have not reached the maximum number of write cycles. SSDs that reach this limit may fail to operate according to specifications and must be replaced at the client's expense. Data redundancy on a failed SSD may be provided by OS mirroring or software RAID wherever applicable.

This PCIe4 NVMe device can have 64 namespaces per device and works with the previous generation of NVMe devices that manage the same custom card identification number (CCIN).

Multi-OS server feature number:

Enterprise SSD NVMe U.2	Power10 servers
800 GB	#EKF9 ¹

The Enterprise 800 GB SSD PCIe4 NVMe U.2 module for AIX and Linux module (#EKF9) is available for the IBM Power E1050, IBM Power S1024, IBM Power S1022, IBM Power S1014, IBM Power L1024, IBM Power L1022, and IBM Power S1022s servers.

¹ AIX, Linux, and VIOS supported

Note:

Mainstream NVMe devices contain only one namespace, and Enterprise devices support multiple namespaces.
Not supported in NED24 NVMe Expansion Drawer (#ESR0).

IBM Power E1080 intra-rack connections with copper cable to NED24 NVMe Expansion Drawer

Power E1080 server can use copper cables to support all intra-rack connections with copper up to 32 cables per rack to attach NED24 NVMe Expansion Drawer (#ESR0).

Attributes required: CXP ports on a PCIe4 Optical Cable Adapter (#EJ24 or #EJ2A) and on a PCIe4 module such as a ESM1 in a PCIe Gen4 Expansion Drawer (#ESR0). Both CXP Converter adapters require one 3.0 M CXP x16 Copper Cable Pair (#ECLS) for PCIe4 Expansion Drawer. Other Optical Cable features are optional; see details on NED24 NVMe Expansion Drawer section.

The NED24 NVMe Expansion Drawer is supported with the following requirements:

Firmware 1040
Hardware Management Console (HMC) 10.2.1040

Note: It is required to have a rack extender 5-inch Rack Rear Extension (#ECRK) to use copper cables.

Key requirements

For feature ER64:

An IBM Enterprise Slim Rack (7965-S42)

Planned availability date

May 19, 2023

For feature ER64: June 9, 2023

Availability within a country is subject to local legal requirements.

A23-0196

IBM Storage Networking SAN64B-7 delivers administrative features for IBM Power Private Cloud Rack for Db2

At a glance

Not applicable.

Overview

IBM Storage Networking SAN64B-7 Model P64 is a b-type Gen 7 switch with front, port-side exhaust that provides high scalability with 56 ports in a 1U switch, enabling organizations to scale from 24 to 56 ports for on-demand flexibility. IBM Power Private Cloud Rack for Db2 is an open hybrid cloud offering based on the Power portfolio. It comes preconfigured and ready to use with all you need to optimize the total cost of ownership of your environment.

Key requirements

None.

Planned availability date

June 9, 2023.

Availability within a country is subject to local legal requirements.

A23-0201

IBM FlashSystem 7300 delivers administrative features for IBM Power Private Cloud Rack for Db2

At a glance

Overview

IBM offers clients an IBM Power Private Cloud Rack for Db2 solution indicator, feature ELG0, for IBM 4657 FlashSystem 7300 Control Enclosure Model 924. Use of this feature indicates that FlashSystem 4657-924 is part of a Power Private Cloud Rack for Db2 solution order. Power Private Cloud Rack for Db2 is an open hybrid cloud offering based on the Power portfolio. It comes preconfigured and ready to go with all you need to optimize total cost of ownership of your environment.

Key requirements

For a comprehensive list of supported environments, devices, and configurations, go to the IBM System Storage Interoperation Center (SSIC) website.

Planned availability date

June 9, 2023.

Availability within a country is subject to local legal requirements.

A23-0209

IBM Power Private Cloud Rack for Db2 Warehouse is available for selected IBM Power10 technology-based servers

At a glance

IBM Power Private Cloud Rack for Db2 Warehouse is part of IBM's next generation of on-premises analytics solutions and a follow-on to the IBM PureData® System for Operational Analytics (PDOA) and the IBM Integrated Analytics System (IIAS) appliances based on IBM Db2 Warehouse software. It comes preconfigured and ready to go with everything clients need to optimize the total cost of ownership (TCO) of their environment.

The solution, which is offered in three base and three expansion configuration sizes, combines an optimised stack of IBM hardware and IBM software to simplify the deployment of warehouse and analytical environments.

The available deployment configurations per rack can include:

Power Private Cloud Rack for Db2 Warehouse solution (#ELG0)
Three IBM Power S1022s (9105-22B) servers
Three to ten IBM Power S1022 (9105-22A) servers
One IBM Hardware Management Console (HMC) (7063-CR2)
One rack-mounted full HD flat-panel console kit (7316-TF5)
One to three IBM FlashSystem® 7300 NVMe control enclosures (4657-924)
Two IBM Ethernet 32 x 100 GbE switches (8831-00M)
Two IBM Ethernet 48 x 1 Gb + 4 x 10 Gb switches (8831-S52)
Two IBM Storage Networking SAN64B-7 switches (8960-P64)
One Enterprise slim rack (7965-S42)
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform for Power, IBM PowerVM® Enterprise Edition, IBM PowerVC for Private Cloud 2.0, and IBM Spectrum® Control Select Edition

Overview

Data explosion is producing 15+ ZB of new data every year and creating new business opportunities for IT solutions--from edge devices to multiple clouds--to glean new insights in real time. With increasing volume, velocity, and variety of data, it is now more challenging than ever for organizations running mission-critical operations to access data to gain insights in real time. To support real-time insights across all of your data, you need a trusted, scalable, and highly performant data warehouse solution that can handle complex workloads.

To help meet this need, IBM launched IBM Db2 Warehouse, an award-winning environment for cloud and container-enabled data warehouses. It supports deployment on-premises, in private clouds, or in public clouds. This high-performance capability leverages in-memory processing of data warehouse workloads and allows for the querying of compressed data.

With Power Private Cloud Rack for Db2 Warehouse, IBM offers clients an integrated analytics system that provides a complete solution for modern, high-performance data warehouse workloads. Power Private Cloud Rack for Db2 Warehouse bundles software, servers, services, and support to enable clients to get a modern warehouse up and running quickly and efficiently.

Power Private Cloud Rack for Db2 Warehouse builds upon the proven IIAS architecture, with hundreds of enterprise warehouses deployed worldwide. Starting with a partial rack, this architecture can scale up and out to multi-rack solutions as your data capacity and performance requirements grow.

Power Private Cloud Rack for Db2 Warehouse has three sizes of base and expansion configurations as follows.

Base Racks

Base Racks contain both data storage and analytics capability, as well as the infrastructure needed to manage this and future additional racks. All Base Rack configurations include three Power S1022s servers running Linux as management nodes. Also included is the high-speed switching needed for 100 G network connectivity, system management, and storage area network (SAN) data access. Like all models in this architecture, the systems are designed for system uptime redundancy in the unlikely event components need maintenance. For example, in all the Base Racks, one included management and analytics server is reserved as a failover unit to ease system maintenance while continuously supporting warehouse workloads.

Base Rack Small is the most fundamental entry rack, with three Power S1022 servers running Linux as worker nodes and one FlashSystem 7300 for data storage. Each Power S1022 includes one terabyte of memory to give maximum performance for the in-memory workloads processing of Db2 Warehouse.
Base Rack Medium is the midrange Base Rack, which provides five Power S1022 servers running Linux as well as two FlashSystem 7300 storage controllers. This provides double the capacity and performance of the Base Rack Small rack.
Base Rack Large is the highest performer of the Base Rack solutions. It combines two FlashSystem 7300 storage controllers with seven Power S1022 servers, providing enterprise-level performance and capacity.

Data Expansion Racks

Data Expansion Racks provide a balanced way of growing a Base Rack installation. Like the Base Racks, these racks each come with the software, storage, servers, and switches needed to grow data warehousing capabilities and workloads in a linear, predictable manner. The Data Expansion Racks leverage the Power S1022s management servers in the Base Rack for control and coordination.

Expansion Rack Small is the base Expansion Rack, which includes four Power S1022 servers as well as one FlashSystem 7300 storage controller, and is configured identically to the Base Rack Small.
Expansion Rack Medium is the midlevel Expansion Rack, which includes seven Power S1022 servers, and two FlashSystem 7300 storage controllers, and is configured identically to the Base Rack Medium.
Expansion Rack Large is the max-expansion rack and includes ten Power S1022 servers and three FlashSystem 7300 storage controllers. It is configured identically to the Base Rack Large.

IBM Technology Expert Labs

As part of each installation of Power Private Cloud Rack for Db2 Warehouse, clients must also order Db2 software and services provided by IBM Technology Expert Labs. Using the knowledge gained from hundreds of installations, Technology Expert Labs can help simplify and accelerate the Db2 Warehouse deployment and one-stop support. Db2 Warehouse software licenses and Technology Expert Lab services are priced separately from the servers and storage, and are required for a complete solution. The IBM business partner or account representative may go to the IBM Software Quote and Order (SQO) tool for Db2 and systems-expert-labs@ibm.com for Technology Expert Labs services.

Key requirements

None

Planned availability date

June 9, 2023

Availability within a country is subject to local legal requirements.

A23-0261

IBM Storage offers certified pre-owned indicator option for select IBM TS7700 models

Overview

IBM Storage certified pre-owned indicator feature for select IBM TS7700 models enables a refurbished device to be offered under the certified pre-owned terms and conditions.

Key requirements

None.

Planned availability date

May 9, 2023.

Availability within a country is subject to local legal requirements.

A23-0279

Revised availability: IBM Power Systems Elastic CoD (4586-COD) will no longer support IBM Power8 servers

Overview

When IBM Power8® servers shift to End of Support (EOS), Elastic Capacity on Demand will no longer be supported. Elastic COD purchased through 4586-COD Machine Type Model (MTM) or Entitled Systems Support (ESS), can no longer be used for provisioning and code generation on these Power8 servers. Any unused Elastic Capacity on Demand resources (Processor or Memory days) not already provisioned to a Power8 server before EOS, can continue to be used on similar IBM Power9 and IBM Power10 servers.

Power Elastic Capacity on demand will generally remove support for servers when they reach EOS and will allow investment protection for N and N-1 (Power9 and Power10 servers only with the existing 4586-COD feature codes). New feature codes will be introduced to support Elastic Capacity on Demand beyond Power10.

IBM Elastic Capacity on Demand (CoD) 4586-COD, which currently supports Power8, Power9, and Power10 servers only, will no longer support the following Power8 servers:

Effective October 31, 2023:

IBM Power System E850 (8408-E8E)

Effective October 31, 2024:

IBM Power System E850C (8408-44E), E880C (9080-MHE), E870C (9080-MME), E880 (9119-MHE), and 9119-MME (E870)

Effective date

October 31, 2023, for 8408-E8E

October 31, 2024, for 8408-44E, 9080-MHE, 9080-MME, 9119-MHE, and 9119-MME

Availability within a country is subject to local legal requirements.

A23-0461

Revised information: Removal of Mid-Range Workload License Charges for IBM z16 A02 and IBM z16 Rack Mount systems when running z/VSE; revised disclaimer information for IBM z16 A02; addition of Secure boot from FCP-attached disks software requirements; IBM LinuxONE Rockhopper 4 removal of publications

Overview

Mid-Range Workload License Charges support removed

IBM z16™ A02 and IBM z16 Rack Mount systems running z/VSE® do not support Mid-Range Workload License Charges, as was previously announced in Hardware Announcement A23-0008, dated April 4, 2023.

IBM z16 disclaimer information revised

Effective immediately, the disclaimer information as announced in Hardware Announcement A23-0008, dated April 4, 2023, has changed.

Previously announced disclaimer information

¹² Measurements were done using a lab workload on IBM z16 A02 and IBM z15® T02. The configuration consisted of two z/OS partitions with 16 GCPs per partition. Coupling facility image(s) had 4 ICFs each running at about 30% utilization. Shared ICA-SR links were used. Your results may vary.

Revised disclaimer information

¹² Measurements were done using a lab workload with two z/OS partitions configured with 16 GCPs each on IBM z16 A01 connected to a coupling facility image with 4 ICFs on IBM z16 A02. Results on IBM z15 T01 and IBM z15 T02 were measured using a comparable configuration. Each ICF was running at about 30% utilization. Shared ICA-SR links were used. Your results may vary.

Addition of software requirements for Secure boot from FCP-attached disks

Secure boot from FCP-attached disks requires at a minimum:

z/VM® 7.3 with PTFs for Guest Exploitation when IPL from FCP-attached disks
Linux: IBM supports:
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server: SLES 15 SP3 with service.
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux: RHEL 9.0 with service and RHEL 8.4 with service.
- Canonical: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS with service and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS with service.
- Note that service is required to continue using this functionality with the current IBM z16 and IBM z15 .

IBM LinuxONE Rockhopper 4 publications removed

The following IBM LinuxONE Rockhopper 4 publications, previously announced in Hardware Announcement A23-0030, dated April 4, 2023, are not applicable for this offering:

Title	Order number
Technical Introduction	SG24-8950-00
Technical Guide	SG24-8951-00
Connectivity Handbook	SG24-5444-21
IBM Z Functional Matrix	REDP-5157-06

Effective date

May 9, 2023

Availability within a country is subject to local legal requirements.

A23-0472

Revised availability: Shipping and Handling Feature Indicators for P9 and P10 Power Servers

Overview

The previously announced availability date for Shipping and Handling Feature for P9 and P10 Power Servers, as announced in Hardware Announcement

A23-0140, dated April 11, 2023

has changed to July 11, 2023.

Effective date

July 11, 2023

Availability within a country is subject to local legal requirements.

Software Announcements

A23-0157

IBM offers subscription term pricing for IBM Rational Developer for i: RPG and COBOL Tool

Overview

IBM® Rational® Developer for i provides an integrated development environment (IDE) to create, maintain, and modernize applications on the IBM i platform.

Now, the IBM Rational Developer for i: RPG and COBOL Tools product edition is available with a new subscription pricing option that enables clients to acquire this licensed program product (LPP) on a term basis.

The new subscription offering is available only through the Passport Advantage® ordering system.

All of the same technical capabilities found in the existing IBM Rational Developer for i: RPG and COBOL Tools are available in the subscription term offering.

Subscription licensing enables you to:

Pay for what you need on a term basis, with IBM Software Maintenance (SWMA) included in the price
One-year, two-year, three-year, four-year, and five-year subscription terms available

Key requirements

Not applicable

Planned availability date

May 9, 2023

Availability within a country is subject to local legal requirements.

A23-0186

IBM Cloud Pak for Integration 2023.2.1, IBM API Connect Cloud Service, IBM Event Automation 1.0, IBM MQ for Multiplatforms 9.3.3, IBM MQ Appliance 9.3.3, and Noname Advanced API Security for IBM deliver new integration capabilities, enhanced automated deployment capabilities, and event automation; IBM MQ Statement of Direction

At a glance

IBM Cloud Pak® for Integration 2023.2.1 brings the following improvements and features:

Enhancements to automated deployment capabilities
Enhancements to observability dashboards
Expanded deployment flexibility for Event Endpoint Management
Additional information and statistics options to promote optimization

IBM API Connect® Cloud Service offers a new release with the following enhancements:

API Connect as a Service Advanced is a new tier option for API Connect as a Service, available on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
API Connect as a Service Advanced extends API Connect as a Service to provide the same full API lifecycle management features with additional gateway isolation and support for advanced data transformation policies (XSLT and GatewayScript).
API Connect as a Service Advanced is available for purchase through the AWS Marketplace or through your IBM sales representative.

IBM Event Automation 1.0 brings the following capabilities:

Enable enterprise-grade event distribution rooted in Apache Kafka and Flink to take advantage of flexible, simple, and automated deployment.
Enable authorized users to discover and consume existing events, and manage event sources such as APIs to have a security-rich way to reuse them in other parts of the enterprise.
Enable both business and technical users to put events to work, understand, and react to real-time business situations.
Remove the need to write SQL and help increase productivity.

IBM MQ 9.3.3 offers the following enhancements:

MQ clients can simplify administration through increased visibility into their MQ estate.
MQ Advanced clients can use IBM-supported MQ sink and source connectors to connect IBM Event Streams or Apache Kafka and unlock events in mission-critical systems (support requires active Cloud Pak for Integration or MQ Advanced entitlement).
Improved operational resiliency with Native high availability (Native HA) in Red Hat® OpenShift® and Kubernetes
MQ Appliance supports Secure Shell protocol (SSH) certificate authentication, enhancing the administration experience and enabling improved security.

Noname Advanced API Security for IBM and Noname Advanced API Security as a Service for IBM

Noname Advanced API Security for IBM extends the capabilities of the IBM DataPower® and IBM API Connect solutions to enable organizations to provide advanced security of APIs throughout their lifecycle. This solution provides posture management, API discovery and behavioral threat detection with artificial intelligence (AI).

Overview

IBM Cloud Pak for Integration 2023.2.1

Cloud Pak for Integration offers a powerful integrated platform for deploying containerized integration capabilities as part of a Red Hat OpenShift deployment environment. By making use of Cloud Pak for Integration, an organization can connect applications, systems, and services together quickly and simply, as part of a managed, controlled, scalable, and security-rich environment.

Cloud Pak for Integration 2023.2.1 includes the following enhancements and new capabilities:

Enhancements to automated deployment capabilities include IBM App Connect and IBM API Connect.
Enhancements to observability dashboards include support for IBM Instana™ to provide tracing for API Connect and IBM Event Streams deployments.
Deployment of Event Endpoint Management is possible from the Platform Navigator separately from API Connect.
Note: Event Endpoint Management will not be included in this release of Cloud Pak for Integration on IBM Z® IFL hardware. Clients that want to use Event Endpoint Management on IBM Z IFL hardware must continue to use it in the Cloud Pak for Integration 2022.2.1 release.
Additional information and statistics generated by components of Cloud Pak for Integration could be used by IBM Turbonomic® to suggest optimization updates after deployment.

Deprecations:

The Operations Dashboard component has been removed from Cloud Pak for Integration 2023.2.1.
Deprecation of Grafana provided by IBM Cloud Pak Foundational Services.
The Experimental Flow Generator feature of App Connect which was included in prior releases of Cloud Pak for Integration is no longer shipped as a part of this release of Cloud Pak for Integration.
Note: The Experimental Flow Generator feature of App Connect is available as an early cloud service in the same way as it was previously, providing access to the most recent and up-to-date version of the feature.

IBM API Connect Cloud Service

API Connect Enterprise as a Service Advanced:

Is a component of the existing API Connect as a Service offering on Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Is designed for clients who require advanced data transformation capabilities (XSLT and GatewayScript) or extra API Gateway isolation
Provides the same core full API life-cycle management features as API Connect as a Service
Is available through the AWS Marketplace or through your IBM sales representative

IBM Event Automation

Event Automation enables clients to put events to work across the enterprise. Scale fast by providing a consistent approach to distributing, managing, and working with events for users from different parts of the client's business, and helps clients to become event-driven enterprises, by starting to automate decisions, act in near real time, and potentially optimize revenue potential.

Event Automation offers:

Enterprise-grade event distribution and processing using established technologies such as Apache Kafka and Flink, providing flexibility and freedom of movement. Automate deployment, connect to your key systems, browse events, monitor key metrics and set up replication for disaster recovery in just a few clicks.
Event sharing and self-service discovery through a common API and event management tools that work across any Kafka distribution. Topic owners can register technical and business details [AsyncAPI], provide example messages, and define access controls. Business and IT teams can then discover these in the portal and access in a self-service way.
Event processing tools suitable for both business and technical users to define and react to near real-time business situations. Users can pull in event sources onto an authoring canvas and work with events without needing to understand Kafka or write SQL Filtering, transforming and combining events to detect business situations. These are built with simple-to-use expressions.

IBM MQ 9.3.3

Messaging middleware from IBM is designed to simplify and accelerate the integration of diverse applications and business data across multiple platforms. MQ uses message queues to facilitate the exchange of information in hybrid cloud, distributed systems, microservices, and serverless applications. By connecting virtually everything, from a simple pair of applications to the most complex business environments, IBM enterprise messaging can help organizations improve business responsiveness, control costs, gain near real-time insight from mission-critical data, and reduce risk by being able to rapidly respond to a sudden increase in traffic or system outage.

MQ has a breadth of deployment options for both public clouds and private data centres to connect applications and data across hybrid and multicloud environments.

MQ 9.3.3 continuous delivery (CD) release is a follow-on offering to the MQ 9.3.2 CD release and includes the following enhancements:

MQ simplifies administration through increased visibility into an MQ estate using the MQ Web Console..
MQ Advanced clients can use IBM-supported MQ sink and source connectors to connect Event Streams or Apache Kafka and unlock events in mission-critical systems (support requires active Cloud Pak for Integration or IBM MQ Advanced entitlement).
Operational resiliency is improved with Native HA in Red Hat OpenShift and Kubernetes.
MQ Appliance now supports SSH certificate authentication, enhancing the administration experience as well as enabling improved security.
Updates are made to the IBM MQ on Cloud service to enable use of version 9.3.3 of MQ.

MQ Non-production environment ordering options: New ordering options for non-production workloads can enable clients to deploy MQ at a reduced cost in development and test environments.

These enhancements are not available with the MQ 9.3 Long Term Support Release (LTSR). The LTSR includes fix packs that only provide fixes; these fix packs do not include new function. For more information about LTSR and CD releases of MQ, see the IBM MQ FAQ for Long Term Support and Continuous Delivery releases web page.

Noname Advanced API Security for IBM

API security has become an area of increased focus for many enterprises because the number of attacks on APIs has risen. APIs provide an entry point to resources, services, and data. While API gateways and web app firewalls provide a level of security, many industries and organizations are starting to require additional security capabilities tailored to their needs for API security.

Noname Advanced API Security for IBM provides additional security capabilities for APIs, which complement and extend the traditional security capabilities provided by API gateways and web app firewalls.

Noname Advanced API Security for IBM extends the capabilities of the IBM DataPower and IBM API Connect solutions to enable organizations to provide advanced security of APIs throughout their lifecycle. This solution provides posture management, API discovery, and behavioral threat detection with AI:

Discovery of unmanaged APIs, using data classification and context-aware analysis
Analysis and assessment of APIs for misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and alignment to best practices, with suggested remediation steps
Detection of abnormal API traffic in near real-time and intelligently block malicious traffic
Available as licensed on-premises software and as a cloud-hosted service

Key requirements

Cloud Pak for Integration 2023.2.1

Cloud Pak for Integration 2023.2.1 is available for deployment on x86, IBM Z IFL hardware, and IBM Power systems. Not all components of Cloud Pak for Integration are available for deployment on all hardware platforms.

For specific requirements for Cloud Pak for Integration, see the Software Product Compatibility Reports website of the respective Cloud Pak for Integration components.

API Connect Cloud Service

Internet connection
Web browser

Event Automation 1.0.0

See the Prerequisites website.

A full runtime for event processing in Flink is provided. If, however, clients want to create their own artifacts, a Java™ development environment is required.

MQ 9.3.3

MQ for Multiplatforms, MQ on Cloud, and MQ Appliances run on a variety of operating systems, appliances, and container runtime environments. For more details, see System Requirements for IBM MQ web page.

Noname Advanced API Security for IBM and Noname Advanced API Security as a Service for IBM

See, Noname Security Documentation Center

Planned availability date

May 9, 2023: API Connect Enterprise as a Service
May 30, 2023: Noname Advanced API Security for IBM
May 30, 2023: Noname Advanced API Security as a Service for IBM
June 16, 2023: Cloud Pak for Integration 2023.2.1
June 20, 2023: MQ for Multiplatforms
June 29, 2023: Event Automation
Continuous Delivery: MQ on IBM Cloud®

Availability within a country is subject to local legal requirements.

A23-0187

IBM Watson Machine Learning for z/OS 3.1 adds IBM Watson Machine Learning for z/OS Enterprise Edition and IBM Watson Machine Learning for z/OS Core Edition to help infuse AI throughout transactions, operations, and applications for improved efficiency and better business outcomes

Overview

IBM Watson® Machine Learning for z/OS® 3.1 is a full-featured machine learning platform that helps organizations operationalize machine learning models. It gives you the flexibility to train your models on any framework and any platform, then readily deploy those models on IBM zSystems™ to gain the unique advantage of inferencing in-transaction, in near real-time, without impacting SLAs. By scoring every transaction as it is taking place, more opportunities can be uncovered and quickly acted on to help increase revenue, decrease cost, and mitigate risk in real time.

As an enterprise-grade machine learning solution on IBM zSystems, Watson Machine Learning for z/OS provides the following capabilities:

Secure IBM zSystems platform for running machine learning with data in place
Enterprise grade performance and high availability
Flexible choice of machine learning languages
Full lifecycle management of models
User-centric UIs for model development and management, user management, and system administration
Developer-friendly APIs for applications on IBM zSystems

For greater flexibility, Watson Machine Learning for z/OS now includes two editions.

IBM Watson Machine Learning for z/OS Enterprise Edition 3.1 delivers the following usability enhancements:

Leverage embedded Apache Spark Platform for IBM z/OS 3.2 and required Python packages delivered through the Python AI Toolkit for IBM z/OS provided from a secure channel that hardens the open-source environment against attack for organizations with z/OS
Improved scoring performance leveraging the IBM Telum™ Processor and accelerated inferencing enhancements to increase revenue and real-time insights
New version of Spark and Python machine learning runtimes
Support for the new version of Spark, PMML, Python, and ONNX models in scoring service
Can natively leverage new machine learning library for time series models
Enhanced integration with native ONNX scoring engine on z/OS to seamlessly exploit Telum on-chip AI Accelerator
In-transaction scoring support for CICS®, IMS, and Batch COBOL applications
Supports more model types for model monitoring with IBM Watson OpenScale
Trusted AI capabilities delivered through integration with IBM Watson Openscale (explainability, fairness and bias, robustness, and drift)
Contains built-in Jupyter Notebook server for model training
Includes GUI-guided configuration tool
Provides security enhancements through Application Transparent Transport Layer Security (AT-TLS) support

IBM Watson Machine Learning for z/OS Core Edition 3.1 is a lightweight set of REST-API based core AI services that includes on-line scoring, making it easy for applications running on z/OS to leverage Watson Machine Learning for z/OS Core Edition as their AI engine as part of their solution. Watson Machine Learning for z/OS Core Edition helps deliver key AI products for increased decision velocity and operational excellence.

Some of the key features of Watson Machine Learning for z/OS Core Edition include the following:

APIs for user management, model management, and deployment services
Can natively leverage newer machine learning libraries for time series models
SparkML runtime
Spark and PMML scoring services

Depecration of OCP-based IDE

Watson Machine Learning for z/OS deprecates and discontinues shipping the OCP-based IDE. This feature is replaced with an alternative and lightweight training feature that leverages the IBM zSystems training runtime and is available in Watson Machine Learning for z/OS 2.4.

Deprecation of solution template

Watson Machine Learning for z/OS deprecates and discontinues shipping the ITOA (Db2® Anomaly Detection) solution template with version 3.1. Organizations can look at alternate IBM solutions such as IBM Z Anomaly Analytics with Watson and IBM Db2 AI for z/OS.

Key requirements

For details, see the Hardware requirements and the Software requirements sections.

Planned availability date

June 16, 2023

Availability within a country is subject to local legal requirements.

A23-0270

IBM Power9 technology-based servers receive support from Rocket Software packages with GPU Operator libraries

Overview

IBM Power technology-based systems are designed to run AI workloads, and this requires the right libraries built for use by Power. Most of the libraries are open source, so getting the latest level builds and right support is crucial to ensure the successful deployment of Power AI applications.

For clients using Power9 machines with GPUs and Red Hat OCP kubernetes environment, there is a need of a code library to allow the application running in container to see and use the GPUs available on the system: GPU Operator software from RocketCE channel.

To provide technical support to our clients, IBM has partnered with Rocket Software to offer GPU Operator Power9® libraries Support (5639-GPU, 5639-GP2, and 5639-GP3) on selected IBM Power9 machines.

This support offering is priced per system to make it easy to order and consume.

Benefits of GPU Operator on Power9 Support include:

One, two, or three-year support agreement beginning at order delivery through the RocketCE website
Technical support for binaries
Defect support for binaries

GPU Operator library information

The GPU Operator specifically enables you to leverage the GPUs in a Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) for Power9 machines with NVIDIA GPUs, such as the IBM Power AC922 and IBM Power IC922 servers. The GPU Operator uses the operator framework within Red Hat OCP (Kubernetes) to automate the management of all NVIDIA software components needed to provision the GPU. Its components include NVIDIA drivers to enable CUDA, a Kubernetes device plugin for GPUs, NVIDIA Container Runtime, automatic node labeling, NVIDIA Data Center GPU Manager (DCGM)-based monitoring, and more.

The GPU Operator files are also located on the RocketCE channel on Anaconda.

Key requirements

GPU Operator:

Power AC922 or Power IC922 servers with GPUs
OpenShift command-line interface (CLI)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4, or later
Requisite third-party software from NVIDIA (long-term support)

Planned availability date

May 12, 2023

Availability within a country is subject to local legal requirements.

A23-0292

IBM Financial Transaction Manager 4.0.5.1 now offers parallel IBM zSystems parts

At a glance

Not applicable

Overview

IBM Financial Transaction Manager 4.0.5 orchestrates, monitors, and integrates financial transactions. It delivers consistent processing across multiple payment types, enabling banks and financial institutions to converge their payment operations onto a single platform. Financial Transaction Manager can accelerate the delivery of improved financial products and services to customers.

Financial Transaction Manager 4.0.5.1 now provides parallel IBM zSystems ordering options.

Key requirements

For complete information about system requirements, see the Detailed hardware and software requirements for IBM Financial Transaction Manager offerings website.

Planned availability date

May 11, 2023

Availability within a country is subject to local legal requirements.

A23-0296

Revised withdrawal information: IBM Watson Explorer Enterprise Edition

Overview

The effective end-of-market date of April 19, 2019, for the following part numbers as announced in Software Withdrawal A18-0220, dated April 10, 2018, , has been changed.

IBM Watson Explorer Enterprise Edition reinstates the following part numbers:

Part number	Part number description
E0IYWLL	IBM Watson Explorer Enterprise Ed RVU Annual SW S&S Rnwl
E0IYXLL	IBM Watson Explorer Enterprise Ed System z® RVU Annual SW S&S Rnwl

Effective date

May 9, 2023

Availability within a country is subject to local legal requirements.

A23-0453

Statement of direction: IBM intends to release an EDR solution for on-premises deployments

Overview

IBM intends to release an end-point detection and response (EDR) solution for on-premises deployments. This solution is planned to be offered in two variants. The products are intended to be run on IBM Security® Cloud Pak running Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and Red Hat OpenShift operating systems and to support endpoints running Windows™, Linux , and MacOS operating systems.

IBM's statements regarding its plans, directions, and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice at IBM's sole discretion. Information regarding potential future products is intended to outline our general product direction and it should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision. The information mentioned regarding potential future products is not a commitment, promise, or legal obligation to deliver any material, code or functionality. Information about potential future products may not be incorporated into any contract. The development, release, and timing of any future features or functionality described for our products remains at our sole discretion.

Effective date

2Q 2023

Availability within a country is subject to local legal requirements.

Withdrawal Announcements

A23-0193

Hardware withdrawal: Select IBM FlashSystem features - Replacements available

Overview

Effective May 9, 2023,

IBM will withdraw from marketing the following products. On or after the effective date of withdrawal, you can no longer order these products directly from IBM.

For new orders, the client-requested arrival date (CRAD) can be no later than June 9, 2023.

You can obtain the products on an as-available basis through IBM Business Partners.

If you have a continuing need for this machine/model type, go to the IBM Certified Pre-owned web page to check on availability or utilize the request a quote to communicate your specific requirements. IBM Certified Pre-owned Equipment has the largest inventory of used IBM systems that are refurbished, tested, and warranted for a minimum of 90 days.

A23-0194

Hardware withdrawal: Select IBM Tape shipping and handling features - Some replacements available

Overview

Effective May 9, 2023,

IBM will withdraw from marketing the following products. On or after the effective date of withdrawal, you can no longer order these products directly from IBM.

You can obtain the products on an as-available basis through IBM Business Partners.

A23-0205

Hardware withdrawal: Select IBM Power Systems features

Overview

Effective May 9, 2023, May 19, 2023, and August 11, 2023, IBM will withdraw from marketing the following products.

On or after the effective dates of withdrawal, you can no longer order these products directly from IBM.

For new orders, the client-requested arrival date (CRAD) can be no later than June 9, 2023, June 19, 2023, and September 11, 2023.

A23-0214

Software withdrawal and support discontinuance: IBM ESSL for Linux on Power, 6.3 and Spectrum MPI 10.4; Software support discontinuance: IBM Select Support for xCAT 2.x

Support and access discontinuance

Licensed program software

Effective on the date shown, IBM will discontinue support for all currently supported versions and releases of the following programs licensed under the IBM International Program License Agreement:

Program number	Program name	VRM	Discontinuance of support date
5725-G83	IBM Spectrum MPI	10.4.0	April 30, 2025
5765-L61	IBM ESSL for Linux on Power	6.3.0	April 30, 2025

Effective on the date shown, IBM will discontinue support for releases of the following programs licensed under the IBM International Program License Agreement:

Program number	Program name	VRM	Discontinuance of support date
5724-V63	IBM Enhanced Support for xCAT	2.x	April 30, 2025
5724-V64	IBM Elite Support for xCAT	2.x	April 30, 2025

These programs are also withdrawn from marketing. For the related end of marketing information for build to plan, see the Build-to-plan licensed program end-of-marketing section. For the related end of marketing information for build to order, see the Build-to-order program and feature number withdrawal section.

Downloadable or recorded media will remain available to clients of record until the discontinuance of support date.

A23-0216

Software withdrawal and support discontinuance: IBM Observability by Instana (5641-INS), Turbonomic Application Management (5641-TBN), and Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps (5641-CWA)

Support and access discontinuance

Licensed program software

Effective on the dates shown, IBM will discontinue support for all currently supported versions and releases of the following programs licensed under the IBM International Program License Agreement:

Program number	Program name	VRM	Discontinuance of support date
5641-INS	IBM Observability by Instana® APM	All	May 9, 2023
5641-TBN	IBM Turbonomic Application Resource Management™	All	May 9, 2023
5641-CWA	IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps	All	May 9, 2023

These programs are also withdrawn from marketing. For the related end-of-marketing information, see the Build-to-order program and feature number withdrawal section.

A23-0225

Hardware withdrawal: Select IBM Storage Networking SAN shipping and handling features - Some replacements available

Overview

Effective May 9, 2023,

IBM will withdraw from marketing the following products. On or after the effective date of withdrawal, you can no longer order these products directly from IBM.

You can obtain the products on an as-available basis through IBM Business Partners.

A23-0232

Hardware withdrawal: IBM DS8900F shipping and handling features - Some replacements available

Overview

Effective May 9, 2023,

IBM will withdraw from marketing the following products. On or after the effective date of withdrawal, you can no longer order these products directly from IBM.

You can obtain the products on an as-available basis through IBM Business Partners.

If you have a continuing need for this machine/model type, go to the IBM Certified Pre-owned Equipment website to check on availability or utilize the request a quote to communicate your specific requirements. IBM Certified Pre-owned Equipment has the largest inventory of used IBM systems that are refurbished, tested, and warranted for a minimum of 90 days.

A23-0252

Hardware withdrawal: Select Power 9 technology-based servers

Overview

IBM Power System AC922

Effective August 9, 2023, IBM will withdraw from marketing the following products:

IBM Power System AC922 (8335-GTH)
IBM Power System AC922 (8335-GTX)

On or after the effective dates of withdrawal, you can no longer order these products directly from IBM.

For new orders for 8335-GTH and 8335-GTX, the client-requested arrival date (CRAD) can be no later than September 9, 2023.

IBM Power System S914, IBM Power System S924, and IBM Power System E950

Effective October 20, 2023, IBM will withdraw from marketing the following products:

IBM Power System S914 (9009-41G)
IBM Power System S924 (9009-42G)
IBM Power System E950 (9040-MR9)

On or after the effective dates of withdrawal, you can no longer order these products directly from IBM.

For new orders for 9009-41G, 9009-42G, and 9040-MR9, the client-requested arrival date (CRAD) can be no later than November 20, 2023.

IBM Power System S922

Effective October 20, 2023, IBM will withdraw from marketing the following product:

IBM Power System S922 (9009-22G)

On or after the effective dates of withdrawal, you can no longer order these products directly from IBM.

For new orders for 9009-22G, the client-requested arrival date (CRAD) can be no later than November 20, 2023.

IBM Power System H922S, IBM Power System H924S, S922 Healthcare Solution Edition, S924 Healthcare Solution Edition, E950 Healthcare Solution Edition, and E980 Healthcare Solution Edition

Effective October 20, 2023, IBM will withdraw from marketing the following products:

IBM Power System H922S (9223-22S)
IBM Power System H924S (9223-42S)
S922 Healthcare Solution Edition
S924 Healthcare Solution Edition
E950 Healthcare Solution Edition
E980 Healthcare Solution Edition

On or after the effective dates of withdrawal, you can no longer order these products directly from IBM.

For new orders, the client-requested arrival date (CRAD) can be no later than November 20, 2023.

A23-0267

Hardware withdrawal: Select IBM Cloud Object Storage shipping and handling features - Some replacements available

Overview

Effective May 9, 2023,

IBM will withdraw from marketing the following products. On or after the effective date of withdrawal, you can no longer order these products directly from IBM.

You can obtain the products on an as-available basis through IBM Business Partners.

A23-0294

Software withdrawal and support discontinuance: IBM Watson Explorer 11.x.x, 12.0.0, 12.0.1, and 12.0.2

Support and access discontinuance

Licensed program software

Effective on the date shown, IBM will discontinue support for specific versions and releases of the following program licensed under the IBM International Program License Agreement:

Program number	Program name	VRM	Discontinuance of support date
5725-I17	IBM Watson Explorer	11.x.x, 12.0.0, 12.0.1, 12.0.2	April 30, 2024

Downloadable or recorded media will remain available to clients of record until the discontinuance of support date.

Trade-marks

IBM Instana, zSystems, IBM Telum, Turbonomic Application Resource Management and IBM z16 are trade-marks of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

IBM, Rational, Passport Advantage, AIX, Power, IBM Cloud Pak, IBM API Connect, DataPower, IBM Z, Turbonomic, IBM Cloud, IBM Watson, z/OS, CICS, Db2, IBM FlashSystem, IBM PureData, PowerVM, IBM Spectrum, Instana, Power9, Power8, System z, IBM Security, z/VSE, z15 and z/VM are registered trade-marks of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

The registered trade-mark Linux® is used pursuant to a sublicense from the Linux Foundation, the exclusive licensee of Linus Torvalds, owner of the mark on a world-wide basis.

Red Hat and OpenShift are registered trade-marks of Red Hat Inc. in the U.S. and other countries.

Oracle and Java are trade-marks of Oracle and/or its affiliates in the United States, other countries, or both.

Windows is a trade-mark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

Other company, product, and service names may be trade-marks or service marks of others.

^tm Trade-mark owned by International Business Machines Corporation and is used under license by IBM Canada Ltd.

® Registered trade-mark of International Business Machines Corporation and is used under license by IBM Canada Ltd.

(**) Company, product or service name may be a trade-mark or service mark of others.

Terms of use

IBM products and services which are announced and available in your country can be ordered under the applicable standard agreements, terms, conditions, and prices in effect at the time. IBM reserves the right to modify or withdraw this announcement at any time without notice. This announcement is provided for your information only. Additional terms of use are located at

For the most current information regarding IBM products, consult your IBM representative or reseller, or go to the IBM worldwide contacts page

http://www.ibm.com/planetwide/ca/