IBM Power Systems advantages

Minimising complexity, improving efficiency and scaling easily

These are the benchmarks that matter on a smarter planet. Clients using IBM Power Systems gain lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and more resilient infrastructure than those who use other UNIX® or x86 systems because Power delivers:

• An innovative, dependable technology road map
• Scalable performance with easy-to-grow modular systems
• Broad business solutions options with choice of UNIX, IBM i and Linux®
• Efficient virtualisation for server consolidation and lower cost
• Flexible workload optimisation for rapid cloud infrastructure deployment
• Trusted migration expertise for Sun and HP users and for x86 server consolidation.

The platform of choice for value with the right technology partner

From reliability and virtualisation features inspired by IBM’s supreme success in mainframe systems to unique energy savings capabilities – a Power solution can help you get the most from your IT assets so end users are enabled quickly through a cost-effective infrastructure with around-the-clock availability.

Businesses around the world are moving to Power Systems in order to:

• Maximise return on investment (ROI): IBM designs and develops the core technologies in Power Systems and delivers them through a reliable road map for both hardware and systems software
• Reduce cost and increase flexibility: IBM's unique 40-year history of virtualisation leadership is delivered on Power Systems through PowerVM technologies that enable clients to dramatically reduce costs by ‘virtualising everything’ in the data centre
• Get consistent and predictable performance: Power Systems delivers high performing processors and system scalability with leadership benchmarks achieved in a virtualised environment.

According to IDC, Power Systems is leading in worldwide UNIX server revenue share ¹. Businesses migrate to the latest generation of Power Systems in order to take advantage of the exceptional performance, scalability and reliability of today’s POWER processor-based servers with the added ‘plus’ of Power Systems Software in order to improve flexibility and availability as well as reduce overall infrastructure costs. The predictable delivery of innovation through the POWER processor road map and IBM’s commitment to investment in AIX, IBM i and Linux operating systems on Power – with more than 15,000 supported applications – provides clients with the confidence that Power Systems are the right choice, for now and for the future.

Power is integrated value

A totally integrated approach to the design, development and testing of each and every Power server ensures the resiliency required for today’s IT infrastructure. All POWER7 and POWER6 server models include innovative reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) features that help you avoid unplanned downtime. And, with Capacity on Demand (CoD), Hot-Node Add and Hot-Memory Add – Power Systems enterprise servers ensure you can keep your most important applications available, even as you add capacity to handle new business demands.

Power Systems are also optimised with the ability to securely run multiple applications on AIX, i and Linux operating systems on a single server – so you can manage fewer systems with lower cost and higher utilisation. No longer do you need to manage complex and energy inefficient server farms with each server dedicated to a single application or operating environment. Now you can consolidate workloads and significantly reduce costs throughout your infrastructure, while dramatically improving your ability to meet changing processing demands.

Power Systems software options enable you to manage both physical and virtual environments, including the capability to control data centre energy usage and orchestrate processing resources to better meet business goals. Furthermore, Power solutions are designed to provide you with a road map to continuous availability of mission-critical applications – even when an expected or unexpected interruption occurs.

Power is systems designed for a smarter planet

From online, self-evaluation tools and workshops to comprehensive assessments and complete migration services, IBM experts around the world can help you determine where to begin or how to make your current Power solution more dynamic. Work with IBM Global Finance to learn the financing options most appropriate for your business. For more information on great rates, flexible payment plans and loans, as well as asset buyback and disposal, visit: IBM Global Financing

¹ IDC Quarterly Server Tracker Q309 release, December 2009

Power Architecture:
Open, innovative, reliable

Today's POWER6 and POWER7 systems combine industry-leading performance, scalability and modularity to enable you to get the most from your investment and build a flexible, responsive infrastructure that easily adapts and grows based on your business needs. With a virtualisation hypervisor built into every Power System, all performance benchmarks are achieved in a virtualised environment, unlike competitive systems that can be subject to lower performance when using third-party virtualisation software.

Power is workload optimisation

POWER7 processor-based systems – the first generation of systems built for a smarter planet – offer balanced systems designs that automatically optimise workload performance and capacity at both system and virtual machine level. Features include:

• TurboCore for maximum per core performance for databases
• MaxCore for incredible parallelisation and high capacity throughput
• Intelligent threading technology to utilise more threads when workloads benefit
• Intelligent Cache technology to optimise cache utilisation, flowing it from core to core
• Intelligent Energy to maximise performance dynamically when thermal conditions allow
• Active Memory Expansion provides more memory for applications such as SAP

POWER6 processor-based systems provide outstanding performance per processor core, range of scalability and the ability to incrementally and linearly add performance and capacity. Features include:

• Ultra-high frequency, dual-core processor technology with leading performance across the most-published server benchmarks representing the broadest range of application performance¹
• Mainframe-inspired reliability with Processor Instruction Retry, Alternate Processor Recovery and storage keys to deliver higher availability and protect your data from corruption
• Modular growth with near-linear scalability and flexible growth from blade servers to enterprise servers

All Power Systems include EnergyScale technology to reduce energy consumption and provide the ability to manage and customise energy usage. Live Partition Mobility and Live Application Mobility sustain system availability during maintenance or rehosting. Concurrent firmware and operating system updates enable applications to remain available.

Only Power Systems have two integrated hardware accelerators designed to enhance performance: Decimal Floating-Point for business applications and AltiVec™ SIMD common in support of 3D modelling for high performance computing (HPC).

POWER processor technology is an instruction-set architecture that spans applications from consumer electronics to supercomputers. POWER is built on an open architecture, making it an open ecosystem that supports freedom of design. Learn more about the world of POWER at www.power.org (link resides outside of ibm.com).

¹ Additional information on Power Systems performance benchmarks (US)

Power Systems Software:
Completing the Power Advantage

Deploying Power Systems Software technologies enables businesses to fully exploit Power Systems servers. Realise the benefits of leadership IBM PowerVM virtualisation with AIX, IBM i and Linux operating systems on a single server – as well as IBM PowerHA for availability and IBM Systems Director for energy, security and platform management. Leverage ‘performance plus’ by deploying virtualisation, availability and management software to fully exploit Power Systems servers.

Power is virtualisation without limits

As businesses look for ways to maximise their IT infrastructure investment returns, they turn to PowerVM virtualisation to consolidate multiple workloads onto fewer systems – increasing server utilisation and reducing cost. PowerVM provides a secure and scalable virtualisation environment for AIX, i and Linux applications built upon the advanced resiliency features and leading performance of the Power Systems platform.

PowerVM offers Micro-Partitioning with the ability to run up to 10 partitions per processor core, and dynamically move processor, memory, as well as input/output (I/O) resources between partitions to support changing workload requirements. PowerVM Live Partition Mobility enables active partitions to be moved between servers, virtually eliminating planned downtime. 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 virtualisation management that minimises time to provision virtual machine images and enables management of system pools. With POWER7, PowerVM and VMControl virtualisation software will support up to 1,000 virtual machines on a single system, providing massive consolidation capability for exceptional costs savings.

AIX: the future of UNIX

AIX exploits decades of IBM technology innovation and is designed to provide the highest level of performance and reliability of any UNIX operating system. According to ITIC’s 2009 survey¹, AIX scored the highest reliability ratings among 15 different server operating system platforms.

AIX 6.1 is 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 6.1 – guaranteed.² AIX 6.1 is an open standards-based UNIX OS designed to comply with the Open Group’s Single UNIX Specification Version 3.

The latest AIX 7.1 release is the only UNIX operating system designed to support smarter applications requiring massive scalability, with up to 1024 threads with POWER7 for both transaction and throughput computing workloads. AIX 7 also features new cluster aware integration with PowerHA, as well the ability to run AIX 5.2 Workload Partitions to facilitate application migration. The operating system is available in three Editions for even more capability and flexibility for small and large enterprises alike. AIX 7 is binary compatible with previous versions of AIX.²

IBM i: total integration

IBM i is an integrated operating environment with a more than 20-year reputation for exceptional security and business resilience. IBM i integrates a trusted combination of relational DB2 database, security, 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®.

IBM i 6.1 included expanded options for virtualisation, upgraded storage and availability management, breakthrough Java™ performance, support for POWER6 and POWER7 and BladeCenter, as well as a broad range of middleware and tools to help drive application transformation.

The latest IBM i 7.1 release includes enhanced DB2 support for eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and column-level encryption, automatic movement of hot data to solid-state drives (SSDs), enhancements to RPG to extend applications to mobile devices and web services, plus enhanced virtualisation and resiliency options.

Linux: scalable, ready for x86 consolidation

Both Red Hat and Novell SUSE Linux run natively on Power Systems, offering a scalable alternative for open source applications. Reducing x86 server sprawl through consolidation and virtualisation is a key priority for many companies today. Linux on Power Systems with PowerVM provide a scalable, virtualised alternative to running Linux on x86 servers.

PowerVM Lx86 cross-platform virtualisation technology also enables x86 Linux workloads to run without recompilation and take advantage of the scalability of Power Systems. This means Power Systems clients can immediately benefit from the latest Linux applications.

Power is resiliency without downtime

Power Systems solutions benefit from decades of IBM experience in designing and deploying high availability (HA) hardware and software. PowerHA SystemMirror disk clustering solutions are available to help keep your systems – and your business – running around-the-clock.

PowerHA SystemMirror for AIX and IBM i Editions are data centre and multisite resiliency solutions designed to help protect critical business applications from outages: planned or unplanned. PowerHA is integrated with cluster aware capabilities in both the AIX and IBM i operating environments. PowerHA pureScale technology delivers levels of database scalability and availability unmatched on UNIX or x86 systems and is offered as a component of DB2 pureScale.

Power is data protection and compliance

IBM offers tools to protect data from threats and unauthorised 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.

Power is dynamic energy optimisation

Power Systems energy management solutions monitor and control energy usage to help you manage energy efficiency in your data centre. Each Power server has EnergyScale technology built into the POWER6 and POWER7 processor. Through consolidation and virtualisation with PowerVM, businesses have realised 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 (UPS) and Intelligent Power Distribution Units.

Power is 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, optimise and maintain these systems at maximum effectiveness and efficiency. The result is optimised workload performance, energy efficiency and cost control. On Power Systems, server virtualisation management is integrated with network and storage management for complete resource control.

IBM System Director Editions for Power are sized for every data centre. It’s now 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 virtualisation management and minimises the time it takes to provision virtual images and manage system pools.

¹ ITIC 2009 Global Server Reliability Report (US) (PDF, 1.26MB)

² IBM AIX binary compatibility (US)

• Get Adobe® Reader®