Highlights: 

  • A robust new tool IBM z16 has integrated on-chip Telum AI accelerators to analyze transactions in real-time to scale.
  • IBM thinks its financial clients should consider shifting to its latest model to deal with fraud.

Isn’t Mainframe and Artificial Intelligence (AI) something similar to a model-T Ford with a Tesla motor?

The answer is no. Mainframes are very much relevant currently as they had been in the 1960s. IBM’s latest IBM z16, with its inbuilt on-chip Telum AI accelerator, is all set to analyze real-time transactions at scale. This makes it an ideal solution for mission-critical workloads like healthcare and financial transactions.

This 21st century’s Big Iron AI accelerator is developed onto its core Telum processor. With the latest dual-processor, 5.2 GHz chip, and 16 cores, it can execute 300 billion deep-learning inferences daily with one-millisecond latency. Can you speak that it’s fast enough? IBM can.

“One of the Telum design’s key innovations is we built an AI accelerator right onto the chip’s silicon, and we directly connected all of the cores and built an ecosystem up the stack. Through the hardware design, firmware, the operating systems, and the software, deep learning is built into all of the transactions,” a senior technical staff member for IBM Z hardware development, Anthony Saporito, said.

“The AI accelerator is a game-changer. The z16 with z/OS has a 20x response time with 19x higher throughput when inferencing than a comparable x86 cloud server with 60ms average network latency,” according to Patrick Moorhead, Moor Insights and amp; Strategy’s chief analyst.

The latest model, z16, has a so-called quantum-safe system to secure organizations from future risks that could crack encrypted files. It is possible because the z16 supports the Crypto Express8S adapter. Developed on a CCA cryptographic coprocessor and a PKCS #11 cryptographic coprocessor, it allows users to build quantum-safe cryptography. Additionally, it performs with classical cryptography. You need to pay attention to this if you want your data and transactions secure today and tomorrow.

Even if you have nothing to do with AI or are afraid of quantum-computing cryptography code breakers, it is still a robust machine to work with the hybrid cloud. The current mainframe business records are self-explanatory. For instance, per the latest IBM-commissioned study by Celent, “Operationalizing Frauds Prevention on IBM z,” IBM z systems execute 70% of global transactions on a value basis.

IBM thinks its financial clients should seriously consider shifting to its latest model to manage fraud. As per the latest IBM and Morning consult study “2022 IBM Global Financial Impact report,” credit card fraud is the most common. Yet, many people believe that financial institutes like banks and payment networks should be most responsible for avoiding fraud. It is easier to say than do it. But by executing deep learning models at scale immediately, fraud detection models can be much more efficient at identifying fraud even in high volume transactions.

A similar anti-fraud technology team can also be utilized to squelch tax fraud and organized retail theft. Additionally, it helps to process real-time payments and cryptocurrencies.

Experts’ view:

“IBM is the gold standard for highly secured transaction processing. With IBM z16 innovations, our clients can increase decision velocity by inferencing right where their mission-critical data lives,” SVP of IBM Systems, Ric Lewis, said.