There was also a lively discussion of this topic on the System Z Enthusiasts Discord forums, including some responses from IBMers involved in (or at least close to) the decision-making process on what IBM intends to do in this area.
The general consensus seems to be that it looks like IBM wants to pull back zPDT/ZD&T availability to hardware that they control rather than client on-prem hardware not in IBM control. And pricing (especially for the DASD farm that an ISV needs) is definitely an issue. At least some of the initial DASD offerings seem to be limited to one “unit” of 50Gb “user” DASD (i.e., not counting the z/OS image DASD), with options to increase that allocation in 50Gb increments. ISV’s needing to run multiple levels (including unsupported ones) of z/OS for clients still on those releases was another issue I saw raised on SZE. IBM’s stated rationale for the move so far seems to be that it is in your interest to run the Z emulation under zLinux on real Z hardware provided by IBM rather than on that old x86 server gathering dust in your closet. Many respondents seem to believe that IBM has no clue what ISV development/testing/support processes really look like. Not to mention IBM having no thoughts or intentions at all about how to support hobbyists and new-to-the-mainframe learners. Peter From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Bfishing Sent: Friday, November 28, 2025 10:59 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: zPDT The IBM Champion TechXchange forum has had a pretty lively discussion on this topic, however I have not seen any official replies from IBM that confirmed much. No current support for z/VM or VSE seems to be the biggest issue. A drastic increase for cost would seem to be the 2nd main topic. It will be interesting to see what IBM really comes up with, and if there is any truth to the rumors mentioned above. On Fri, Nov 28, 2025 at 9:50 AM Steve Beaver < [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > Is there any more news out of IBM on zPDT support > > Steve > -- This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If the reader of the message is not the intended recipient or an authorized representative of the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and delete the message and any attachments from your system. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
