Migrate to IBM System x

It can be hard to tell facts from “spin” when new and old competitors alike make grand claims against IBM System x because we’re recognized as a technological leader in the market. This “Get the facts” Q&A series provides our fact-based response to these competitors' claims. We aim to keep you informed of key platform considerations such as reliability, efficiency, and total cost of ownership.

For more detail, read the following Q&A article.

• Q: In March 2009 HP claimed that more than a month after the issue was first reported, IBM still has no fix available for customers who are affected by issues with SATA drives in their System x and BladeCenter Servers.
• Q: Our competitors are claiming that IBM’s licensing deal with Lenovo for x86 servers means IBM is getting out of the server business. Is this true?
• Q: HP is promoting their PREMA architecture as superior to IBM’s eX5 design. Is their design really better?

 

Q: In March 2009 HP claimed that more than a month after the issue was first reported, IBM still has no fix available for customers who are affected by issues with SATA drives in their System x and BladeCenter Servers.

A: IBM's first priority is to take care of its clients, and despite speculation from HP, IBM responded immediately to client needs regarding the SATA drive issue. To be clear, the issue was industry-wide and related to common SATA drives sourced from one manufacturer. In fact, HP had a similar support communication for the exact same issue on their support site (link resides outside of ibm.com). To alleviate customer concerns IBM immediately put a stop shipment on the effected drives and we have also issued 3 retain tips (H194632, H194623, and H194697) on this subject since 2/4/09.

In the meantime, we have been assured by the vendor that this problem is extremely rare, and all new products and options have been re-worked with the new firmware. We are saving the customer time and effort and by enabling one download with multiple code fixes, so that multiple updates can take place over one re-boot.

To clarify, IBM has a long history of solving client business needs with speed and agility. The SATA drive issue was consistent with that heritage. Rest assured, this problem has been addressed by IBM and our next release of hard drive firmware will fix these issues. The OEM vendor has provided IBM with the fixes and IBM is dedicated with a sense of urgency to have a tested version of the firmware release available on the IBM support website.

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Q: Our competitors are claiming that IBM’s licensing deal with Lenovo for x86 servers means IBM is getting out of the server business. Is this true?

A: HP would have the world believe that due to our licensing deal on x86 technology with Lenovo—exactly the same kind we have with other industry partners such as Rackable—that their dream has come true: IBM is leaving the x86 server business. We’re sorry to disappoint HP, but that’s just wrong. IBM is in the x86 business to win.

With HP on the attack, it is our job to educate our customers about Lenovo’s entry as a competitor. It is our intention to target different markets. Lenovo’s entire set of x86 offerings compete with a very limited subset of our entry-level rack and tower servers. They offer nothing to compete with our blade servers, our high-performance computing offerings like iDataPlex, or our enterprise eX4-based servers. We offer quality system management tools with every system we sell, and we offer unmatched worldwide support.

We continue to lead the industry in investment in x86 innovation. We’ve put one hundred million dollars of investment into IBM iDataPlex to solve the needs of large-scale datacenters. Our small and medium business blade solution, IBM BladeCenter S, is a much stronger product than HP’s comparable offering, and is now providing great value to customers by providing a low-cost, all-in-one SAN solution with the introduction of our new ServRAID Vault Controller. And on the high end, we just announced updates to our fourth-generation enterprise architecture systems with refreshes to the System x3850 M2 and x3950 M2. These updates have rocketed us beyond the 1M transactions per minute milestone where no other competitor can touch us.

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Q: HP is promoting their PREMA architecture as superior to IBM’s eX5 design. Is their design really better?

A: HP has introduced their first Xeon-based 8-socket system, the DL980 G7, and of course they want clients to think that their new design is better than IBM’s fifth generation scalable enterprise X-architecture. The truth is, HP’s PREMA design contains many more components and interconnects than eX5, increasing both the price of the system and the potential for parts to fail. HP tries to focus the client on the importance of the standard Intel reliability features, but fails to mention the quantity hardware that the HP 8-socket system adds versus a the native 8-socket x3850 X5.

8-socket CPU Interconnect	IBM 8-socket  x3850 X5	HP 8-socket DL980 G7
QPI (42 Pairs, 21 Tx, 21 Rx)	12	20
XNC (Node Controller Links)	0	12
Total High Speed Buses	12	32

Also, the DL980 G7 will have poor remote CPU latencies, which are all 3-hop in both directions, including a higher latency scaling hop between XNCs. The proof can be found in the SAP SD benchmark:

SAP Benchmark	IBM 8-socket x3850 X5	HP 8-socket DL980 G7
Sales and Distribution (SD)	19,700 (+5.7%)	18,635
SAPS	108,270 (+6.4%)	101,720

ftp://public.dhe.ibm.com/eserver/benchmarks/news/
newsblurb_x3850X5_Windows_sap_101110.pdf (PDF, 18.1KB)

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/c-products/servers/benchmarks/HP_ProLiant_DL980_SAP_100410.pdf (PDF, 235KB) (link resides outside of ibm.com)

Direct 8-socket IBM Advantages

• Customers can purchase x3850 X5 and scale later . . . no 8-socket capability in DL580 G7
• 4 Boxboro IO Hubs (vs 2-3) for more IO bandwidth, and more x8 slots
• IBM is 2 chassis, 4 cables; HP is 2 XNC boards, 2 interface boards, 2 link boards, 4 wrap cables
• 16 SFF 2.5" hard drive bays vs 8
• eXFlash - 1.8" SSD support and high IOPS adapter for SSD performance
• PDUs/Line Cords - HP has 8 Power Supplies, IBM has 4 Power Supplies
• Service – x3850 X5 top access to CPUs and memory versus front access
• Service - HP back access to 3rd Boxboro IO Hub option
• Lower power, higher bandwidth x8 DIMM support

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