Ten great reasons to run Linux as a guest of z/VM

1. Sharing resources
   Resources can be shared among multiple Linux images running on the same VM system. These resources include: CPU cycles, memory, storage devices, and network adapters.
2. Server hardware consolidation.
   Running tens or hundreds of Linux instances on a single System z server offers customers savings in space and personnel required to manage real hardware.
3. Virtualization
   The virtual machine environment is highly flexible and adaptable. New Linux guests can be added to a VM system quickly and easily without requiring dedicated resources. This is useful for replicating servers in addition to giving users a highly flexible test environment.
4. System z advantages
   Running Linux on VM means the Linux guest(s) can transparently take advantage of VM support for System z hardware architecture and RAS features.
5. z/VM Connectivity
   z/VM provides high-performance communication among virtual machines running Linux and other operating systems on the same processor. The underlying technologies enabling high-speed TCP/IP connections are virtual channel-to-channel (CTC) adapter support and VM IUCV (Inter-User Communication Vehicle). Simplification of the network by using HiperSockets� may provide savings and reduce cabling, hubs, switches, and routers, as well as help to reduce maintenance effort.
6. Minidisk driver
   Linux on zSeries includes a minidisk device driver that can access all DASD types supported by z/VM.
7. Data-in-memory
   Data-in-memory performance boosts are offered by VM exploitation of the z/Architecture.
8. Debugging
   VM offers a functionally rich debug environment that is particularly valuable for diagnosing problems in the Linux kernel and device drivers.
9. Control and automation
   VM's long-standing support for scheduling, automation, performance monitoring and reporting, and virtual machine management is available for Linux virtual machines as well!
10. Horizontal growth
    An effective way to grow your Linux workload capacity is to add more Linux guests to a VM system.
    z/VM V5 supports Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL) processors, the attractively-priced hardware feature for Linux workloads available for System z. IBM introduced a new engine-based Value Unit pricing announced for z/VM V5, replacing the per-engine pricing model that was available with z/VM V4. Engine-based Value Unit pricing is designed to provide a decreasing price curve as hardware capacities and workload grow, which may help improve price/performance.