IBM is aiming to make its System z mainframes more attractive to small and medium-sized businesses. 

The company has included consolidation and security systems to make System z applications easier to use and maintain without a dedicated IT department, and the Destination z programme offering a "comprehensive repository of information and support ". 

The system provides an online meeting place for customers, systems integrators, IBM resellers, software vendors and academic institutions to connect with each other and with mainframe experts, access development tools and the latest mainframe solutions.

Destination z also provides links to tools for calculating total cost of ownership and case histories that reveal financial and business benefits of moving from distributed to mainframe-based systems.

For administrators, the programme provides technical guidance from top systems integrators, workload management tools and academic resources to make mainframe migration faster and easier using standards-based code, such as Java and C++, or popular web services capabilities such as DB2 and WebSphere.

"With the popularity of a service oriented architecture, we are seeing a rebirth for the mainframe," said Jean-Marc Gaultier, vice president at IT services company Sogeti.