IBM and CSC joined together on Tuesday in an alliance that will have IBM provide its Cloud Managed Services for z Systems — IBM Cloud for z — and associated mainframe hardware, software, monitoring and governance support to CSC clients who are moving to the cloud and want a more secure, scalable, flexible information technology infrastructure at reduced operational costs.

IBM Cloud Managed Services for z Systems provides resilient IBM z Systems to run business and application workloads. A securely designed system is provided by isolating clients from each other using z Systems virtualization logical partitioning technology. This cloud infrastructure is housed within the company’s global data centers, helping enable customers to avoid capital outlays for hardware and to reduce software expenditures.

The expanded alliance further advances CSC’s vision of the ” Service-Enabled Enterprise” and IBM’s “as-a-service” strategy, both designed to increase client choice and innovation in adopting emerging technologies. The as-a-service strategy provides consumption-based pricing for the IBM z Systems environment to give clients’ greater capital investment flexibility.

The agreement builds on an announcement earlier this year that the IBM Cloud is available to CSC clients as an option through CSC’s next generation IT services. Integration of the CSC Agility Platform with the IBM Cloud will enable clients across multiple industries, including healthcare, insurance and finance, to leverage the benefits of the hybrid cloud and deploy some 10,000 applications that deliver rapid proof of value.

The IBM Cloud delivers fast, easy and automated access to public, private and hybrid cloud services to help drive digital transformation. IBM Cloud is a growing collection of services including analytics, mobile, networking, storage, Internet of Things and cognitive computing. With over 40 global cloud data centers, IBM offers CSC clients advanced mainframe technologies and skills needed to run their most critical business

applications no matter where they reside.

IBM Cloud Managed Services for z Systems allows users to provision the right level of computing resources and dynamically adjust capacity levels as needs change; provide a predictable pricing model that offers increased flexibility; offer high levels of secure computing, coupled with configurable options of high availability that reduce business risk. It also delivers access to advanced technologies that enable innovation and future growth; reduce total cost of computing by using a shared infrastructure for software, server, disk and tape needs; and provide a managed service environment by leveraging IBM’s 6,500 mainframe experts and experience managing more than 1,000 systems, globally.

IBM’s Cloud for z support of CSC will enable the right level of computing resources and dynamically adjust capability levels as client needs change; provide a predictable pricing model offering increased flexibility; offer high levels of secure computing, coupled with configurable options of high availability that can help reduce business risk; and reduce total cost of computing and IT operations by using a shared infrastructure for software, server, disk and tape needs.