Over the last few years, we’ve seen seismic shift in enterprise computing. From the rise of machine learning to today’s agentic AI, computing systems have advanced beyond tools into active assistants, requiring new levels of secure, high-powered and efficient infrastructure.

By Skyla Loomis, General Manager, IBM Z Software

One thing hasn’t changed though the decades. IBM Z has been the most resilient server platform in the market with its average yearly downtime as less than a third of a second.¹

This reputation is because as technology has evolved, so has IBM Z. Today, clients have more workloads that may be considered highly sensitive and mission-critical given new sovereignty and regulation requirements, and continue to turn to IBM Z for their core applications.

IBM is continuing to innovate mainframes to address and combat the technological challenges of the future. As part of this mission, today we’re announcing the general availability of three new Z software tools designed to not only meet clients where they are, but to start addressing future challenges such as frontier model attacks. These complement our recent developments with Project Glasswing and our commitment to open-source security with Project Lightwell.

As a leading provider in hybrid cloud, AI and consulting expertise, IBM has developed decades of IBM Z Software to help clients protect themselves for what’s ahead. In cybersecurity, IBM developed IBM Concert for Z last year for enterprises to discover and address vulnerabilities across the entire landscape because we saw the siloed nature of infrastructure and application teams across an organization. Hybrid infrastructure is the reality and we are passionate about giving teams world-class software built to innovate and defend the full stack for the future – IBM Z included.

The following tools are now generally available:

• IBM zSecure Detection – Evolving threats mean enterprises need better ways of monitoring and responding. IBM zSecure Detection monitors IBM Z activity for things like ransomware and suspicious behavior across the system. Enterprises now have a comprehensive tool to detect, investigate and respond on z/OS to strengthen their security posture.
• IBM zSecure Secret Manager – Certificate management can be a burden for infrastructure and security teams. As the lifespan of these certificates shortens, teams need a secure, continuous monitoring for z/OS environments in IBM Z and LinuxONE. Powered by IBM Vault Self-Managed for Z, IBM zSecure Secret Manager gives z/OS teams an automated and cohesive way of addressing certificate management with shortened certificate lifecycle deadlines and fragmented management strategies.
• IBM Z Database Assistant – IBM Z stands apart with its data integrity, but AI has shifted the need from access to intelligence. Now database teams can use agentic AI to optimize DBA performance, accelerate tasks and help ensure your trusted data is continuously available. IBM Z Database Assistant is proactive, autonomous and intelligent, designed for the future of data operations.

With security threats and new ways of working on IBM Z, we’re equipping the teams that work tirelessly on critical infrastructure to build and operate for the future. The bar for resiliency and 99.999999% uptime¹remains the same for our clients, but IBM Z Software will continue to innovate so enterprises can manage and protect their core infrastructure and workloads.

Learn more about the latest Z Software solutions:

• IBM zSecure Detection
• IBM zSecure Secret Manager
• IBM Z Database Assistant

1. ITIC 2025 Global Server Hardware, Server OS Reliability Report, February 2026