Dear IBM i client,
I was delighted to participate in the COMMON user group conference in Nashville in April, where we announced IBM Power Systems to bring together System i and System p in a unified platform. I am writing now to update all our i clients around the world on our progress with that transition and to make sure you know that IBM's commitment to i clients and the i operating environment is solid and unchanged.
Based on the industry-leading POWER6 processor, our new Power Systems product line offers everything from a 2-core blade up to a 64-core server, with increased application choice and common hardware prices for AIX, IBM i and Linux clients. I am happy to report that the transition to the new Power Systems is going extremely well. In 3Q08, we expect that the majority of IBM i shipments will be on POWER6 processor-based Power Systems, and, as a result, the older System i servers based on POWER5+ technology are gradually being withdrawn. We expect to complete this transition by the end of 2008.
Perhaps most important to you is the fact that our new Power Systems servers support your applications. This support continues IBM’s decades-long record of helping clients protect their application investment that for many of you goes back to the days of the AS/400 and even earlier. Also, we provide upgrades into the new Power Systems from the majority of our POWER5 and POWER5+ server models, again helping you deploy new technology while maximizing your return on previous investments.
IBM i 6.1, the newest release of the integrated operating environment that has been the secure foundation for hundreds of thousands of clients' applications around the world, sets new standards for efficiency and resiliency in business processing. IBM i 6.1 includes expanded virtualization options, enhanced SAN storage and high availability clustering management, breakthrough Java performance, the first support for running i on a blade, new browser based Systems Director Navigator management tools, plus a wide range of enhancements to our DB2 database and middleware tools to help drive businesses transformation. Today, only six months after its introduction, more than 1,000 applications from leading ISVs are supported on i 6.1.
The i operating environment is an important, strategic element in the IBM product portfolio and we are making substantial investments in the future of i because its continued success in the market is essential to IBM’s overall business performance. Our IBM Rochester development team is already working on the next release of IBM i planned for 2010. As always, we are designing the new release incorporating your requirements through our valued advisory councils, including COMMON, COMMON Europe, ISVs and the Large User Group.
For those of you who would like to know more about how IBM i aligns with the newest trends in IT – virtualization, consolidation, SANs, and support for green IT – please read and share with your management team the IDC white paper on our website.
Finally, let me thank you very much for your business and wish you great success as you deploy the first of a new generation of Power Systems with IBM i.
