Riyadh, March 25 2007 - IBM and Saudi Business Machines Ltd. (SBM), the General Marketing and Services Representative of IBM WTC, showcased their commitment to the System z Mainframe in a road show held at the Intercontinental Hotel, Riyadh. IBM, the world leader in Power Technology, rearticulated the values of the Mainframe during the event attended by SBM and IBM business partners and customers.

Mr. David Rhoderick, of IBM software group System z Competitive Project Office demonstrated how most of today's existing applications were compatible to perform within IBM Mainframe and service oriented architecture (SOA). System z provides an advanced combination of security, resiliency, reliability, scalability and performance features to enterprises that require high level of application availability and information processing and the capability to reallocate resources to match changing business priorities.

"System z is the latest version of IBM Mainframe and meets the high demand such as online transaction processing which require Ultrahigh availability and hacker-free security. The highly demanded Mainframe is the most relevant and ideal platform this century. It executes the missions of critical business applications and the latest version is empowered with many modern attributes making it a strong hub for SOA, data and security.

Much of the mainframe's success is the result of IBM's investment in critical "new workloads, including Linux, WebSphere, SAP and other leading enterprise business applications, which now makeup more than 75% of mainframe capacity shipped", explained Rhoderick.

With an integrated strategy for high application availability, IBM System z hardware and operating system elements have been designed to work together closely to provide world-class application availability and disaster recovery capabilities. Adding the advanced virtualization technologies and heterogeneous workload management features, the IBM mainframe platform is ideally positioned to handle everyday IT infrastructure dynamics.

System z takes into consideration the total cost of ownership and when properly managed the system offers the most cost effective solution.  Providing higher utilization and automated workload, Mainframes lower all processor software, software management and overall administration related costs.

With regards to the Kingdom, Rhoderick added, "this a fast growing market, with a great potential. The system meets the demands of modern day business and a wide range of sectors such as Banking, Government, Defense, Securities, Utilities, Airlines and Universities. System z extends its offering from the smallest to the biggest models by being scalable thereby maintaining high availability and full portability.  

-Ends- 

About SBM
Based in Jeddah, and with branches in Riyadh, Al-Khobar and Jubail, with over 600 employees and 60 years of experience in the Kingdom, Saudi Business Machines Limited (SBM), has played a leading role in the development of information technology in the Kingdom. SBM continues to power both the private and public sectors in the Kingdom with innovative products, integrated services and e-business solutions. Partnering with the world's technology leader, IBM, further extends SBM's status, positioning it as the most comprehensive information technology solutions provider in the region. 

For further information on SBM or any of its products/services/images please contact:
Wissam Haddad
Public Relations,
Memac Ogilvy
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Tel: + 9662- 651-0704 ext.208
Fax: + 9662- 653-3800
Email: wissam.haddad@ogilvy.com

© Press Release 2007