IBM has released a new z/OS Platform for Apache Spark which will allow accessing and analyzing data on zSystems mainframes simpler and faster.
IBM says that the new platform will make it easier for data scientists and developers to apply advanced analytics on the rich data that is available for real-time insights.
IBM z/OS Platform for Apache Spark enables Spark to run natively on the z/OS mainframe operating system.
Spark is an open source analytics framework, without which data scientists and developers will have to extract, transform and load data to break the tie between analytics library and underlying file system.
IBM says that in the cognitive era computer systems are able to understand, reason and learn from data sets or data trends, which creates a good opportunity for businesses to be able to create systems which can capitalise on these insights before the data becomes irrelevant.
With this offering, organisations and business partners can easily take advantage of changing trends and market conditions, in addition to having the ability to individualise client needs and make business adjustments in real time.
zSystems is an advanced system with, IBM claims, the industry’s fastest commercial microprocessor which can perform in-transaction analytics in just milliseconds.
Organisations can now use this capability by applying in-memory analytics through Spark without having to move or download data from the mainframe. This saves time and money.
IBM Fellow, Emerging Internet Technologies Rod Smith said: "As businesses of all sizes transform into real-time digital organisations, they must be able to get a clear picture of all their enterprise data without the excessive time and risk of ETL."
"With Apache Spark enabled natively on IBM platforms – now including z Systems – customers can perform analytics alongside the transactional systems that house key data, while drawing contextual insights from other data sources, enabling them to engage with customers and generate revenue in real time."