Power is an optimized IBM software stack
Deploying optimized Power Systems Software technologies enables businesses to fully exploit Power Systems servers. Realize the benefits of leadership IBM PowerVM virtualization with AIX, IBM i and Linux operating systems options on a single server—as well as IBM PowerHA for availability, PowerSC™ for security and compliance and IBM Systems Director for energy, security and platform management. IBM’s integrated approach to developing the Systems and Systems Software together enables high system utilization, availability and flexibility with Power Systems.
PowerVM – Virtualization without limits
Large enterprises are leveraging virtualization and cloud technologies not only to reduce the costs and maximize their IT infrastructure investments but also to provide more flexibility, higher application availability and improve response time to business needs. The unique capabilities of PowerVM are enabling companies to achieve very high levels of sustained utilization—80 percent to 90 percent in some cases—while delivering greater flexibility in deploying your virtual machines—all built upon the advanced resiliency features and uncompromising performance of the Power Systems platform.
Read more
PowerVM offers Micro-Partitioning® with the ability to run up to 10 partitions per processor core, and dynamically move processor, memory, and I/O resources between partitions to support changing workload requirements. PowerVM Live Partition Mobility enables active partitions to be moved between servers—no matter what size of partition you are running—virtually eliminating application downtime for planned systems maintenance. Live partition mobility can also be used to upgrade workloads between POWER6 and POWER7 processor-based servers without an application outage.
VMControl complements PowerVM by providing automated virtualization management that minimizes time to provision virtual machine images and enables management of system pools. With POWER7, PowerVM and VMControl virtualization software supports up to 1,000 virtual machines on a single system, providing massive consolidation capability for exceptional costs savings.
AIX – The future of UNIX
According to IDC, the IBM Power Systems platform with AIX technology is the leader in worldwide UNIX server revenue share.1 The introduction of the POWER7 processor has helped accelerate migrations to the Power Systems and AIX platform from Oracle Solaris and HP-UX. An open standards–based UNIX operating system, IBM AIX software exploits decades of IBM technology innovation. According to ITIC’s 2010-2011 survey, the IBM AIX operating system delivered the highest reliability scores among 19 different server operating system platforms, including Linux and other UNIX operating systems.2
- Read more
AIX technology offers deep integration and optimization with PowerVM virtualization and PowerHA high availability software as well as optimization through IBM’s broader middleware and software stack, including IBM DB2® software, IBM WebSphere® Application Server software and IBM Rational compilers.
The latest AIX 7.1 release features new cluster-aware integration with PowerHA, as well the ability to run AIX 5.2 and AIX 5.3 Workload Partitions to facilitate application migration and reuse. The AIX operating system is available in three Editions for a range of capability and flexibility for both mid-sized and large enterprises.
AIX 7 and the previous release, AIX 6, are binary compatible with previous versions of AIX including AIX 5L™. This means that applications that ran on earlier versions will continue to run on AIX 7 or 6—guaranteed.3
IBM i – A system designed for business
More than 150,000 midsize businesses rely on the simplicity, resiliency and cost-effectiveness of IBM i to run thousands of applications from ISVs across virtually every industry. Its reputation for security, resiliency and ease of use derives from the integration of IBM i with its built-in DB2 database, web services, networking and storage management capabilities. ITG reports that costs to use Power Systems and IBM i 6.1 average 41 percent less than x86 servers and Microsoft Windows.4
- Read more
The latest IBM i 7.1 release includes enhanced DB2 support for XML and column-level encryption, automatic movement of hot data to solid-state drives, enhancements to RPG to extend applications to mobile devices and web services, plus enhanced virtualization and resiliency options.
IBM i 6.1 included expanded options for virtualization, upgraded storage and availability management, breakthrough Java performance, support for POWER7 and POWER6 and BladeCenter®, and a broad range of middleware and tools to help drive application transformation.
PowerLinux – Industry standard, tuned to the task
Both Red Hat and SUSE Linux run natively on POWER processor based systems, offering a scalable PowerLinux alternative for open source applications. Reducing server sprawl through consolidation and virtualization is a key priority for many companies today and PowerLinux with PowerVM provides a scalable, optimized alternative to running Linux on x86 servers.
- Read more
PowerLinux and POWER7 processors provide optimal performance for big data analytics projects using Apache Hadoop. PowerLinux helps businesses gain new insights from big data with solutions like IBM InfoSphere BigInsights to analyze data-at-rest and InfoSphere Streams to analyze data-in-motion, both of which incorporate Hadoop technology. The deep integration and optimization of analytics workload performance on PowerLinux enables businesses to deliver Linux analytics services faster.
Increasingly companies are also relying on Linux for their business applications that are designed for their industry and customized to their specific business needs. PowerLinux provides a highly secure, resilient and fully optimized stack for industry applications. With optimized systems tuned with PowerLinux, businesses can deliver Linux services with higher quality compared to x86 commodity servers.
Today, Linux is also the low cost deployment platform of choice for vital applications like web, e-mail, and social media collaboration services. PowerLinux offers competitively priced POWER7 servers and more efficient server virtualization with PowerVM versus x86 commodity server alternatives. With scalable and secure PowerVM virtualization, PowerLinux helps businesses deliver Linux application services with superior economics.
PowerHA – Resiliency without downtime
Smarter computing by nature requires businesses to raise their services delivery levels, fueling 24×7 high availability demands for their applications and IT infrastructure. PowerHA SystemMirror for AIX and IBM i technology is a high availability clustering solution for data center and multisite resiliency, designed to protect business applications from outages of virtually any kind, helping ensure round-the-clock business operations.
- Read more
Today, the best high availability and disaster recovery plans involve an integrated approach to resiliency across applications, operating systems, servers and storage. That’s why PowerHA software offers deep integration and optimization between PowerHA SystemMirror software and AIX and IBM i operating systems. PowerHA software is also integrated with IBM System Storage devices, such as the DS8000 system (for large enterprises) and the Storewize V7000 system (for midsize businesses), as well as our IBM storage software solutions such as Metro Mirror, Global Mirror, IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller and IBM FlashCopy technologies.
PowerSC – Security and compliance: built in, not bolted on
Security and compliance are intrinsic to today’s business processes, development and daily operations and should be factored in to the initial design of any IT or critical infrastructure solution, not bolted on after the fact. By building security and compliance into the overall design of a system, an application or a cloud delivery model, businesses are better able to create agile solutions that reduce risk while cost-effectively addressing audit requirements.
- Read more
IBM offers tools to protect data from threats and unauthorized access on Power servers running AIX, i and Linux workloads. Data encryption capabilities to protect file systems, data and backup are an integral part of the AIX and IBM i operating systems, both of which also support role-based access control. Whether you want to manage the security of your Power servers, or include other elements in your infrastructure—IBM solutions provide intuitive administration that helps you to define, enforce and audit your business security policy.
In addition, IBM PowerSC software provides a security and compliance solution optimized for virtualized environments on Power Systems servers running PowerVM and AIX software. PowerSC software enables automation of compliance standards deployment and includes reporting for compliance measurement and audit. Compliance automation features include prebuilt system profiles that facilitate compliance with a variety of industry standards, such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.
IBM Active Energy Manager – Sustainable IT infrastructure
Many companies are running into floor space and energy challenges in their data center due to the explosion in data and growth in IT applications. Analysts have projected that up to 70 percent of large enterprises will face the need for major changes to their data centers in the next few years. It is becoming critical for these companies to begin to create a more sustainable and cost efficient IT infrastructure. In addition, being socially responsible yields real business benefits. The POWER7 based systems deliver extraordinary new capability to expand an enterprise’s IT capability without expanding their floor space or even energy consumption.
- Read more
As an example the Power 795 delivers over four times the compute capacity of the Power 595 in the same space and energy envelope. POWER7 technology can potentially quadruple the capabilities of a data center without having to change the size, configuration or power and cooling infrastructure. Efficiencies in space, power, costs, and labor as well as the potential for new market opportunities await the company that focuses on building a more sustainable business and IT infrastructure. Enable the sustainability of your business by improving the efficiency of operations, assets and people, while reducing costs, improving your public image, and opening the door to new opportunities.
Power Systems energy management solutions monitor and control energy usage to help you manage energy efficiency in your data center. Each Power server has EnergyScale™ technology built into the POWER7 processor. Through consolidation and virtualization with PowerVM, businesses have realized dramatic energy savings. And with IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager™, you can identify trends in your energy usage and thermal profile, turn off processor cores or limit the energy draw across one or a group of Power servers, and track environmental data from applications used to monitor air conditioning units, Uninterruptible Power Supplies and Intelligent Power Distribution Units.
IBM Systems Director – Management with automation
With platform management technologies on Power Systems, businesses not only get a complete picture of their systems and how well they are operating, but also the tools to deploy, optimize and maintain these systems at maximum effectiveness and efficiency. The result is optimized workload performance, energy efficiency and cost control. On Power Systems, server virtualization management is integrated with network and storage management for complete resource control.
- Read more
IBM System Director Editions for Power are sized for every data center. It is simpler than ever for a single operator to manage both physical assets and virtual resources. With IBM Systems Director for platform management and Tivoli® for enterprise service management solutions, Power Systems offer a unified systems management solution that can improve service delivery. VMControl provides automated virtualization management and minimizes the time it takes to provision virtual images and manage system pools.
IBM services and financing for your smarter computing projects
From online self-evaluation tools and workshops to comprehensive assessments and complete migration services, IBM services teams and IBM Business Partner experts around the world can help you determine where to begin or how to make the most of your current Power Systems solutions.
1 IDC Quarterly Server Tracker Q210 release, August 2010
2 ITIC 2009 Global Server Reliability Report (PDF, 1.25MB)
3 More information on the binary compatibility of AIX can be found at ibm.com/systems/power/software/aix/compatibility/guarantee/index.html
4 More information on costs to use Power Systems and IBM i 6.1 can be found at ibm.com/common/ssi/fcgi-bin/ssialias?infotype=SA&subtype=WH&appname=STGE_PO_PO_USEN&htmlfid=POL03062USEN&
attachment=POL03062USEN.PDF (PDF, 508KB)
Get Adobe® Reader®
Contact IBM
- Email IBM
- Find a Business Partner
- Call IBM: 1-866-883-8901
Priority code: 101AR13W
There is no upside to downtime
POWER7 makes sure downtime won't take down your business
Workload simulator tool
Model your datacenter on Power and redefine your business performance
Additional information
- IBM License Metric Tool (ILMT)
- IBM Power Systems - Accelerating the Path to Optimized Systems (white paper)
Introducing PowerLinux
With solutions that are more powerful than x86 Linux, more scalable than VMware, and more reliable than Windows
IBM Systems Software
IBM Systems Software and its suite of solutions, are built to address critical IT needs for virtualization, platform management and availability