System z eLearning for IBM Customers

Welcome to the System z® eLearning for IBM® customers site. We're glad you're here!

This site is dedicated to providing eLearning courses that will help you - our valuable IBM customer - understand how System z can help you to better position your organization for future growth and competitive advantage in today's ever-changing business environment. You will find four eLearning offerings below: The Value of Business Analytics on System z (January 2013),The Value and Differentiation of System z (October 2012), The Value of Linux on System z (March 2013) and The Value of Could Computing on System z (March 2012).

Be sure to bookmark this page and check back frequently for newly added or updated courses.

CIOs have identified Business Analytics (BA) as their number one priority for several years running, and IBM has responded to this need with new solutions that can help lead organizations into success in this area.

Customers who understand the basics of BA and how the offerings in this area can help their business have a distinct advantage to position their organization for growth. Many customers are unaware of how System z is positioned to set the standard as the optimal platform for BA and Predictive Analytics.

System z brings with it a distinct opportunity to change the game within the BA world. To help you understand how the mainframe is an ideal platform for BA, IBM offers a free, online course for customers, The Value of Business Analytics on System z. The course modules explore BA, its key components, and how System z and zEnterprise™ are the ideal analytics platforms. During the course, you will learn the answers to the following questions:

• Why is BA right for the mainframe?
• What is BA and how does it help IBM customers?
• What is the value of running BA on System z?
• Where do IBM customers go to learn more about BA?

Download the course now to learn why the timing is right for your organization to consider BA on the System z platform!

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Mainframe myths abound in today's IT environment.

Your organization's IT architects and other professionals might believe that the mainframe is "old, expensive, and hard to use." If this is the case, then The Value and Differentiation of System z (z101) eLearning course for IBM customers will prove that today's System z is not the mainframe of the past that people often imagine it to be.

The course delves into the myths and realities of the mainframe and explains why and how IBM System z can help you strategically position your company for future growth. Did you know that...

• In a fair comparison, IBM System z often has the lowest total cost of ownership?
• IBM System z can help you "go green" by addressing the spiraling IT costs associated with space, power, and cooling?
• Through IT efficiencies, scale-up and scale-out capabilities, support of new workloads, advanced virtualization capabilities, and security and systems management, IBM System z can help your IT organization balance the need to move quickly while managing risk and costs?
• Other organizations are willing to share their experiences with how IBM System z is helping them maintain a competitive edge and stay on course with their strategic direction?

These topics - and many others - are addressed in the course so that you can get a clear picture of how the mainframe is "modern, cost effective, and easy to use" in today's environment.

As you complete the course, enhance your learning experience by playing the games, watching the videos, listening to the audios, and self-testing your knowledge. Visit the Resources section for additional material that will help you to better understand how the mainframe can benefit your organization. Refer to the Glossary if you are stumped on a technical term. In addition, an overview of the key learning points in the course - a Quick View - is provided as a download option.

Above all, enjoy the course!

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If you want to learn about the benefits of using Linux® on IBM System z, then this course is for you.

Linux on System z exploits the strengths and reliability features of System z hardware while preserving the openness and stability of Linux. You can leverage Linux on System z to take control of your IT infrastructure and its spiraling costs. You can move from a large server farm situation to a "data-center-in-a-box" environment. A single System z mainframe can scale up to millions of transactions per day or scale out to manage tens to hundreds of virtual servers. Consolidation savings include less storage, fewer servers, fewer software licenses, and less server management and support.

The combination of the Linux open-source operating system and the comprehensive range of IBM and ISV software over multiple hardware platforms enables customers to respond quickly to market changes with flexible, reliable, secure, and cost-effective solutions.

As you complete the course, enhance your learning experience by playing the games, watching the videos, and self-testing your knowledge. Review Module 6: Getting Help with Linux on System z for additional material that will help you to better understand how the mainframe can benefit your organization.

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Cloud computing is a trend in computing whose time has come. Analysts predict that by 2013, cloud-based services will account for more than 50% of the new demand for managed IT infrastructure services. Enterprises of all sizes already have or soon will be adopting cloud services in some fashion. Cloud adoption is already pervasive when factoring in Software as a Service (SaaS), which has been the focus for hundreds of thousands of enterprises long before the "cloud" terminology was conceived.

Cloud computing promises to deliver computing infrastructure at lower cost, improve flexibility, and provide higher levels of scalability than ever before. The benefits of cloud computing are primarily built on the notion that cloud environments allow you to achieve results by virtualizing the different workloads that you run and deploying them within an environment that can automatically scale up or down as workload demands change over time. The System z family of products has supported a 'cloud-like' infrastructure for decades, but this course shows you how System z continues to provide the adaptability in supporting the latest cloud advances.

Why the move to cloud computing? Organizations choose to adopt cloud computing for several reasons:

• Cost savings. Organizations can save 50% or more when deploying applications in cloud environments.
• Speed. Many cloud deployments can go from start to production in days, rather than the lengthy deployment cycles of traditional infrastructure implementations.
• Reduced overhead. Organizations can eliminate the time and expense of hardware and software procurement and ongoing maintenance, support, and upgrades.
• Flexibility. Organizations can accommodate spikes in computing demand without over-provisioning during non-peak periods and only pay for resources used.

This course answers the following questions:

1. What is cloud computing?
2. How are customers adopting cloud computing?
3. What makes System z special for cloud computing?
4. What solutions are available to enable cloud computing with System z?
5. How can customers develop a cloud computing strategy that fits their business?
6. Where do IBM customers go to learn more about cloud computing on System z?

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