IBM announced on Wednesday, Sept. 3, that it has upgraded its enterprise class servers and storage systems and released software updates for its zEnterprise EC12 mainframe launched at the end of August.

Both the modular Power 770 and the high-end Power 780 enterprise Power systems are getting the Power 7+, which moves the Power chips to a smaller 32-nanometer production process. The 32nm process enables IBM to push up the clock speed and expand the cache sizes, delivering up to 40 percent more performance, according to Steve Sibley, IBM's director of Power Systems.

The Power 7+ offers the same four, six or eight cores as current chips, but adds "accelerators," including one that supports memory compression in hardware and another for encryption.

"We enhanced the frequency and the L2 cache in our chip so applications will be up to 40 per cent faster than our previous generation," Sibley told IT Pro.

Moreover, IBM's popular 795 system, which is designed to handle complex databases and transaction-oriented systems in commercial environments, has been upgraded as well. The system now packs enhanced scalability, and supports up to 16TB of data.

"Another core new feature for the server systems is Elastic Capacity on Demand (CoD)," Sibley added. "Users will be able to turn capacity on/off, which gives them the flexibility and cost structure of a public cloud, within their datacenter."

Meanwhile, IBM is also beefing up its Power VM virtualization software, which will now allow users to run twice the number of virtual machines (VM) on a single system, i.e. 20VMs. At the same time, PowerSC with Trusted Advisor will watch the VMs to help users manage security environments, making sure they comply with security profiles set up.

The flagship DS8000 enterprise class storage system will be receiving an upgrade to use IBM's Power7 technology. The system will ship with 1TB of usable cache, as well as built-in disk encryption.

"Data continues to explode as usage of social networking sites, together with smartphone/tablet, continues to grow," explained Sibley. "The ability for enterprises to process data remains paramount. The DS8000 will enable users to process data three times faster than before and provide enhanced security."

IBM has also refreshed its Virtualization Engine TS7700 R3, designed for business that need to retain large amounts of data for long periods of time to comply with requirements. According to Sibley, the TS700 R3 will now have the ability to support twice the number of logical volumes, i.e. four million, and twice the physical capacity.

Lastly, IBM is also rolling out a slew of updates to the zEnterprise EC12 Mainframe. The updates will speed up search times, address security issues, and reduce datacenter costs.