Power of i

Dear IBM i client,

A year and a half has passed since we brought together System i® and System p® in a unified POWER6™ processor-based platform: IBM Power Systems™. Since then, we have successfully transitioned our IBM i business, so that today 100% of our IBM i sales are on the new POWER6 platform. Our IBM i clients not only run on the industry's fastest processors, but can also look forward with confidence as we prepare to deliver POWER7™ processor-based systems in 2010.

Today we announced significant enhancements to our current IBM i 6.1 release. In addition, we previewed our next major IBM i release planned for delivery in the first half of 2010. As always, this new release contains new features and capabilities that are based on customer requirements articulated in collaboration with our advisory councils, representing COMMON, COMMON Europe, ISVs and the Large User Group. Highlights of this new IBM i release include:

• Enhanced DB2® with native support for XML, enabling clients to store and search XML documents, and encryption of a column in a database table to further protect sensitive information
• PowerHA™ support for asynchronous replication, providing a disk clustering-based disaster recovery solution
• Further exploitation of solid state disk (SSD) technology to automatically move the most frequently accessed data to SSDs for higher application performance
• IBM Rational® product enhancements to RPG-enable programs simply to work with a broad range of client applications, including web services, mobile devices and XML.
• Additional IBM Systems Director Navigator web-based management tasks, such as performance and system monitors
• Integration of IBM i with IBM BladeCenter® and IBM System x® via iSCSI technology to support faster, software-based connections between IBM i and x86-based systems at lower cost
• Support for transformation of saved spool files to PDF files.

With our clearly defined roadmaps for POWER processors and the IBM i operating environment, IBM's commitment to our i clients is solid and unchanged. We are making substantial investments in the future of i as an important, strategic element in the IBM product portfolio.

Thank you for your business and your confidence in the future of one of the world’s most durable and productive platforms for business.

General Manager, IBM Power Systems