IBM and Arm are entering a strategic partnership to run Arm-based software on IBM enterprise systems, The Register reported on April 2 local time. The move is aimed at responding to rising demand for AI and data-intensive workloads.

The two companies will work toward developing dual-architecture hardware. The focus is on combining the reliability, security and scalability offered by mainframe systems such as IBM Z and LinuxONE with Arm’s power-efficient computing and software ecosystem.

The collaboration will focus on three areas. First, the core is to run an Arm-based software environment within IBM’s enterprise computing platform using virtualization technology.

The companies also plan to support meeting performance and efficiency requirements for modern workloads, including AI and data-intensive applications. They aim to build a shared technology layer across platforms to increase flexibility in application deployment and management.

Tina Tarquinio (티나 타르퀴니오), chief product officer for IBM Z and LinuxONE, said the goal is to broaden software choice and improve system performance while maintaining the reliability and security customers expect.

Mohamed Awad (모하메드 아와드), vice president for cloud AI at Arm, said Arm’s software ecosystem is enabling AI workloads to run across diverse environments, and the collaboration with IBM expands this into mission-critical enterprise environments.

Patrick Moorhead (패트릭 무어헤드), a senior analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, said Arm has the full stack from operating systems to applications at hyperscalers, and everything except the operating system can run on mainframes. He said Arm is large and growing strongly in data centers, and IBM mainframe customers will see a significant increase in software that can run on mainframes.