Bangalore, Mar 13 (UNI) IBM today launched a broad array of services to help companies, searching for ways to reduce power and cooling costs, capitalise on the potential economic benefits of moving to the System z mainframe.

IBM System z General Manager Jim Stallings, in a release here, said ''the cost and availability of energy are issues all around the world, but they are acutely important in India, making the mainframe especially attractive here.'' Besides, IBM announced it would offer a specially-priced System z entry system for up to five customers in India. Participating customers could try the system free for six months and then have the option of purchasing it at a special price. In India, the services would be delivered via an IBM unit based in Bangalore, the release said.

Boasting economic growth in excess of seven per cent annually, India had many companies that might evolve into globally-integrated enterprises and outgrow distributed IT environments, as the addition of dozens or even hundreds of individual servers drive power and cooling costs to prohibitively high levels, the release said.

By shifting a portion of mainframe development to labs in India, China and Russia, IBM had garnered greater insight into the unique needs of companies in such emerging markets, it added.

UNI