x86 Linux application consolidation on Power Systems platforms using IBM virtualization technologies

Complexity can work its way into your IT infrastructure. Potential culprits include introduction of new applications, unanticipated growth, and the need to support certain business functions with applications that have limited platform support. You add a server each time you have a new demand, a new application. With each new server, additional floor space, power, cooling, network interfaces, data storage and administrative staff may be required.

The answer is consolidation and virtualization. To help optimize consolidation and reduce complexity, developers created virtualization solutions that allow organizations to consolidate multiple operating systems and software stacks on a single platform, and allocate the platform to meet specific business and application requirements. Virtualization is rapidly becoming a necessity rather than an option. But the latest IBM advances in virtualization may offer even more possibilities than you've heard about before.

The IBM Power Systems platforms—with mainframe-inspired IBM PowerVM virtualization technologies, offerings and capabilities—can help improve your IT efficiency and potentially reduce the energy, space and system costs that can come with constantly adding x86 servers with the Linux operating system. In the case of IBM Power Systems platforms, you can support AIX applications simultaneously with Linux on POWER applications. Both operating systems support thousands of applications—from Web servers to ERP, CRM to other database-intensive business applications.

For applications that are written for x86 Linux OS-based servers, IBM provides the PowerVM Lx86 feature, allowing you to run these x86 Linux applications within a Linux on POWER environment. By allowing most Linux x86 binaries to run unchanged, PowerVM Lx86 enables consolidation of AIX and Linux on POWER applications—and most x86 Linux applications—on the same server. This allows organizations to expand their consolidation scenarios and future options.

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Companies embracing Smarter Computing are implementing IT infrastructure based on the IBM Power Systems platform that is designed for data, tuned to the task and managed with cloud technologies. With Power Systems, businesses can outpace their competitors by delivering services faster, differentiate their offerings by delivering higher quality services, and turn operational cost into investment opportunity by delivering services with superior economics.

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