Announcing Anaconda for LinuxONE and IBM Z

For many data scientists, having access to AI projects on any data platform is not only more productive, but very important to the success of the technology. In fact, according to the new “Global AI Adoption Index 2021,” commissioned by IBM in partnership with Morning Consult, 90% of IT professionals say that being able to run their AI projects wherever the data resides is key to the technology’s adoption. To address this need, IBM has announced that Anaconda is now generally available for Linux on IBM Z and LinuxONE. This open-source availability promises to bringing open-source AI capabilities to Z and LinuxONE that can support AI decision-making at scale and provide a consistent user experience across the hybrid cloud. 

New Access to Familiar Technology 

Already one of the most popular Python distribution platforms for data science and machine learning, Anaconda is not a new name for many programmers. With its expansion to Z and LinuxONE, data scientists can now grow their open-source data experience while continuing to interface with other key tools and frameworks, such as conda, xGBoost and SciKit-Learn. This allows developers to choose and scale AI frameworks and tooling for end-to-end data science directly to the platform to fit their company’s needs, including development, training, testing and production.

AI Implementation for Workflows 

This scalability, as well as the security capabilities and high availability of the IBM Z and LinuxONE platforms, allows for data scientists to benefit while implementing AI deployments targeting time-sensitive workloads when and where they are taking place. With Anaconda running natively on Linux on IBM Z and through z/OS Container Extensions (zCX) on z/OS, the solution puts open-source data tools near to key workloads to leverage the data gravity capabilities of the LinuxONE and IBM Z platforms. 
 
Anaconda for Linux on Z and the LinuxONE platform’s AI capabilities also extend to AI analysis, no matter where the data might reside. With the help of the provider, organizations can perform AI analysis in close proximity with data, allowing programmers to constantly build and run new AI projects and workloads. This reduces latency to deliver important insights and support digital transactions necessary for modern life, bringing valuable data where and when they are needed across an organization’s cloud. 

Combining Open-Source Capabilities With Enterprise Solutions 

Bringing Anaconda to Linux on Z and LinuxONE is the next step to bringing user-preferred data science frameworks and libraries to open-source enterprise platforms and creating opportunities for scaling the value of data with AI. Customers can incorporate Anaconda Individual Edition and Anaconda Commercial Edition into their workflows beginning May 18, 2021 by downloading the Individual Edition or Miniconda installer, and following the associated installation documentation. For more information on using Anaconda, visit docs.anaconda.com.