Expanding on its open source cloud policies and activity in the open source community, IBM announced it will be building out its mainframe strategy using open source tools and software along with Ubuntu (News - Alert) Linux. The move is designed to provide variety and high performance to customers interested in tying together corporate analytics and hybrid cloud configurations.

As part of the major mainframe initiative, IBM (News - Alert) rolled out two highly secure Linux mainframe servers. The offerings, dubbed LinuxONE, are designed for the enterprise and offer a bridge to applications and hybrid cloud infrastructure. The first mainframe is dubbed Emperor and runs on the IBM z13, while a smaller version called Rockhopper is geared toward entry-level mainframe customers.

IBM is also unveiling a variety of open source tools that work with the new offerings, including support for Apache Spark, Node.js, MongoDB, MariaDB, PostgreSQL and Chef on z Systems. By supporting open source, the company is aiming to give customers more choice and flexibility in putting together hybrid cloud environments. IBM is using SUSE to offer Linux on the mainframe with added support for the KVM hypervisor.

In yet another open source announcement, IBM is working with Canonical to create an Ubuntu distribution for LinuxONE and z Systems. The goal is to integrate scalability and cloud expertise from Ubuntu to IBM’s z Systems platform.

“For me what is most exciting is that IBM is working through a paradigm shift and looking at z systems and the mainframe, expanding them and deepening open source software enablement,” said John Zannos, VP of Canonical.