Book excerpt: In a smarter planet, information-centric processes are exploding in growth. The mainframe has always been the IT industry's leading platform for transaction processing, consolidated and secure data serving, and support for available enterprise-wide applications. IBM® has extended the mainframe platform to help large enterprises reshape their client experiences through information-centric computing and to deliver on key business initiatives. IBM zEnterprise® is recognized as the most reliable and trusted system, and the most secure environment for core business operations. The new zEnterprise System consists of the IBM zEnterprise EC12 (zEC12) or IBM zEnterprise BC12 (zBC12), the IBM zEnterprise Unified Resource Manager, and the IBM zEnterprise IBM BladeCenter® Extension (zBX) Model 003. This IBM Redbooks® publication describes the zEC12 and zBC12, with their improved scalability, performance, security, resiliency, availability, and virtualization. The zEnterprise System has no peer as a trusted platform that also provides the most efficient transaction processing and database management. With efficiency at scale delivering significant cost savings on core processes, resources can be freed up to focus on developing new services to drive growth. This book provides a technical overview of the zEC12, zBC12, zBX Model 003, and Unified Resource Manager. This publication is intended for IT managers, architects, consultants, and anyone else who wants to understand the elements of the zEnterprise System. For this introduction to the zEnterprise System, readers are not expected to be familiar with current IBM System z® technology and terminology.