In 2016 IBM introduced the z Appliance Container Infrastructure ("zACI") feature for the IBM z13, z13s, LinuxONE Rockhopper, and LinuxONE Emperor servers, delivered via a driver (firmware) update (driver level 27).
The hardware and firmware elements are primarily extensions to IBM's PR/SM logical partitioning technologies which are Common Criteria Enterprise Assurance Level (EAL) 5+ certified for separation and isolation.
[3] A logical partition (LPAR) type of "SSC" is available, and up to 16 TiB of usable main system memory can be allocated per LPAR (the limit as of the IBM z14 and IBM Emperor II server models introduced in 2017).
This generalized software framework facilitates running conventional virtual machines (VMs) and Docker containers on Linux within the SSC, without requiring special programming to adapt to SSC architecture.
First adopters of IBM SSC technologies include organizations with extremely demanding security requirements, including digital asset and cryptocurrency firms such as Digital Asset Custody Services (DACS).