IBM has designed its latest mainframe to address the challenges stopping hybrid cloud from becoming the de facto model of enterprise computing. The result has been benchmarked by analysts as the world’s most secure server for enterprise hybrid cloud computing.

The new IBM z13s mainframe, unveiled on February and available from March, is pre-installed with high levels of security and a greater capacity to process security functions, according to the manufacturer. The new levels of security are created by embedding IBM’s newly developed cryptography features into the z13s’s hardware. By running cryptography functions in silicon the mainframe can run its encryption and decryption processes twice as fast as previous generations of machine, boosting the speed of information exchange across the cloud, it claimed.

The new mainframe creates the most secure server in environment in the world, according to an independent report quoted by IBM from researcher Strategy Analytics (2015 Global Server Hardware and Server OS Reliability Survey).

Encrypting sensitive data across company IT departments, regional offices and the public cloud has become a barrier to adoption of this more efficient model of computing, according to IBM’s senior VP of Systems Tom Rosamilia. In response the new z13s model has extra cryptographic and tamper-resistant hardware-accelerated cryptographic coprocessor cards. These have faster processors and more memory, encrypting at twice the speed of previous mid-range systems, which means that hybrid clouds can now handle high-volume, cryptographically-protected transactions, without delay.

The new model uses the Cyber Security Analytics which are standard within the z systems range of mainframes, with the addition of IBM Security QRadar security software, which correlates security intelligence from 500 sources in order to help it spot anomalies and potential threats. This can be used along with the Multi-factor Authentication built into the z/OS operating system for the mainframe range.

The system also uses IBM’s Security Identity Governance and Intelligence to create policy to govern and audit access, in order to cut internal data loss. Access to application programming interfaces (APIs) and microservices, configurable by IBM integration partners, can be used to shut down any further hybrid computing vulnerabilities according to IBM, which announced the addition of BlackRidge Technology, Forcepoint and RSM Partners to its Ready for IBM Security Intelligence partner programme.