The new z990 is the result of a four-year, more than $1 billion investment in the zSeries platform involving 1,200 IBM developers. It features IBM's Intelligent Resource Director (IRD) technology, which dynamically moves system resources to the workloads that need them, according to priorities and objectives set by the user.

IBM Global Services has begun deployment of the z990 in its On Demand Data Centers - beginning in Boulder, Colorado - aiming to provide new services for customers seeking mainframe computing power on demand. The new mainframe is intended as a cornerstone of the multi-platform centers, enabling customers of all sizes to acquire computing power and capacity on demand in new ways.

For the first time, with On/Off Capacity on Demand, mainframe customers can power up available additional engines on demand, when they need them, and turn them off when they don't, offering flexibility to help respond to daily or seasonal surges in demand.