IBM z13s, Technical Manual

Page: 478 / 588

450
IBM z13s Technical Guide
A.1 What is zACI?
An appliance is an integration of operating system, middleware, and software components
that work autonomously and provide core services and infrastructure that focus on
consumability and security.
Appliances can be implemented as firmware or software, depending on the environment in
which the appliance runs and the function it must provide.
Introduced with z13 and z13s Driver Level 27 servers, the common framework called zACI is
intended to provide a standard set of behaviors and operations that help simplify deploying
infrastructure functions.
A.2 Why use zACI?
Frameworks like zACI are embedded technologies. They are not product deliverables
themselves. They are only delivered as part of the solution that uses them.
The zACI framework reduces the amount of work a team must do to create an appliance, and
enforces a common set of behaviors for operations that all appliances adhere to.
The zACI framework provides a set of utilities to implement common functions that all
appliances need, such as first-failure data capture (FFDC), network setup, appliance
configuration, and so on.
The framework enables you to release a product as software or firmware based on a
business decision, not on a technical decision.
A.3 IBM z Systems servers and zACI
An appliance that is based on the zACI framework has the following features:
򐂰 Encapsulated Operating Systems
򐂰 Remote APIs (RESTful) and web interfaces
򐂰 Embedded monitoring and self-healing
򐂰 Tamper-protection
򐂰 Protected IP
An appliance that is built based on the zACI framework has these advantages:
򐂰
Tested and qualified by IBM for a specific use case
򐂰
Can be delivered either as firmware, platform, or software