New innovations unlock capabilities for enterprise-scale AI, including Large Language Models and generative AI. Reimagined user experience through new assistants and agents.
IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the IBM z17, the next generation of the company’s iconic mainframe, designed from the ground up with AI capabilities across hardware, software and systems operations. Powered by the new IBM Telum® II processor, the IBM z17 expands the system’s capabilities beyond transactional AI capabilities to enable new workloads.
IBM Z is designed to redefine AI at scale, enabling businesses to evaluate 100% of their transactions in real time.1 The z17 drives business innovation, delivering the ability to process 50% more AI inference operations per day, compared to the z16.2 The new IBM z17 is designed to drive business value across all sectors of the economy, with a wide range of over 250 AI use cases, such as lending risk mitigation, service management, chatbot, supporting the analysis of medical images and imminent retail crimes, among others.
The IBM z17 is the culmination of five years of design and development, which included the filing of more than 300 patent applications filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office. Designed with direct input from more than 100 customers and in close collaboration with IBM Research and Software teams, the new system introduces multi-model AI capabilities, new security features to protect data, and tools that leverage AI to improve system usability and manageability:
- Bringing AI to Data – The z17's AI inference capabilities are powered by a second-generation on-chip AI accelerator that is integrated into the IBM Telum® II processor, featuring increased frequency, compute capacity and 40% growth in cache, allowing more than 450 billion inference operations to be performed in a day, with a response time of one millisecond.2
- Expanding Acceleration for AI – IBM Spyre™ Accelerator, expected to be available in Q4 2025 via PCIe Card, will provide additional AI computing capabilities to complement the Telum® II processor. Together, they will create environments optimized to support multi-model AI approaches. Spyre™ Accelerator is specifically designed to bring generative AI capabilities to the mainframe, including execution wizards, leveraging enterprise data on the system.
- Leveraging AI to Enhance User Experience – The z17 is designed to bolster the skills and efficiency of developers and IT operations with the use of AI assistants and AI agents, including IBM Watsonx Code Assistant for Z and IBM Watsonx Assistant for Z. Additionally, Watsonx Assistant for Z will be integrated with Z Operations Unite to provide, for the first time, AI-powered chat-based incident detection and resolution services using data from live systems.
“The industry is quickly learning that AI will only be as valuable as the infrastructure it runs on,” said Ross Mauri, general manager, IBM Z and LinuxONE, IBM. “With z17, we are bringing AI to the core of the enterprise, with the software, processing power and storage to rapidly operationalize AI. And organizations can put their vast, untapped stores of enterprise data to work with AI securely and cost-effectively.”
Fully integrated in hardware and software
The IBM z17 is a system designed from the ground up to seamlessly integrate into hybrid environments by tightly uniting hardware innovations, AI software capabilities, and advanced support for open standards and tools. This enables differentiated performance and reliability while reimagining how system developers and operators interact with and manage IBM Z, including:
- Operating System for AI – IBM also introduced z/OS 3.2, the next version of its flagship operating system for IBM Z, planned for release in Q3 2025. z/OS 3.2 is designed to support system-wide hardware-accelerated AI capabilities and insights from operational AI to system management capabilities. Additionally, z/OS 3.2 will provide support for modern data access methods, NoSQL databases, and hybrid cloud data processing. These new capabilities will help AI software mine a broader set of enterprise data and derive predictive business insights.
- Unified IT Operations – Also announced today is IBM Z Operations Unite, which brings together key performance metrics and logs from multiple sources on IBM Z in OpenTelemetry format to optimize IBM Z operations with AI. The new solution is designed to accelerate time to anomaly detection, isolate the impact of potential incidents and reduce time to resolution. Used in conjunction with IBM Concert, operations teams can benefit from intelligent correlation of operational data across the enterprise. IBM Operations Unite will be generally available in May 2025.
- AI Accelerator for Business Efficiency – With expansion options for IBM Spyre™ Accelerator, expected to be available in Q4 2025 via PCIe Card, IBM z17 aims to transform the user experience on the platform. Clients will be able to run IBM’s growing catalog of assistants and agents, based on IBM Granite models, natively on z17 without assuming the additional risk associated with moving sensitive data or business logic off-platform. Together, these solutions are designed to form an optimized stack, enabling clients to increase productivity with security and scale.
Built for Resilience: Cyber Security and Defense at the Center
IBM z17 builds on the platform’s history of strong security and resilience capabilities. New developments in AI have enabled the deployment of additional intelligence across this area of increasing importance to clients as new threats emerge every day. This includes several new capabilities, including:
- Secrets Management – IBM’s HashiCorp, an IBM company, announced capabilities in March are now available on IBM Z to help standardize secrets management across the hybrid cloud. IBM Vault uses identity-based security to authenticate and authorize access to secrets, certificates, keys, tokens and other sensitive data. With the addition of IBM Vault, clients can have a single solution to help protect critical workloads by managing the entire lifecycle of secrets across their IT estate.
- AI-Powered Data Security – IBM intends to deliver new capabilities to discover and classify sensitive data on the platform. This would leverage Telum® II and utilize natural language processing so that mission-critical data can be identified and protected. Additionally, our latest AI-driven security solution, IBM Threat Detection for z/OS, is designed to detect and identify potentially malicious anomalies that could be the result of a cyberattack.
IBM Extends AI-Enabled Support for IBM z17
IBM’s comprehensive and personalized support experience helps IBM Z clients meet demands beyond traditional maintenance. Delivered by IBM Technology Lifecycle Services, IBM Support for z17 helps clients optimize their environments for peak performance to address risks and disruptions in mission-critical operations. IBM AI processes that optimize incident remediation and help improve case resolution times, powered by IBM WatsonX, now support IBM Z systems.
IBM provides secure, agile storage
The IBM Storage DS8000 plays a key role as an integrated storage solution for IBM Z. The latest generation of the IBM Storage DS8000 (10th generation) is designed to harness the full power of IBM z17, providing organizations with access to mission-critical workloads, consistent and optimized data performance, and a modular architecture to adopt the latest IBM research-backed technologies to drive business growth while monetizing data. Together, IBM Z and IBM Storage deliver a modern infrastructure that provides a secure and agile platform for mission-critical workloads.
Availability
IBM z17 will be available on June 18, 2025. For more information, visit IBM.com/z17. IBM Spyre™ Accelerator is expected to be available in Q4 2025.
Statements regarding IBM's future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice, and represent goals and objectives only.
About IBM
IBM is a leading global provider of hybrid cloud and AI, as well as consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, optimize business processes, reduce costs, and gain competitive advantage in their industries. Thousands of government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications, and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to quickly, efficiently, and securely impact their digital transformations. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions, and consulting provide open and flexible options for our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, accountability, inclusion, and service.
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