IBM AIX vs. IBM Power

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
IBM AIX
Score 9.4 out of 10
N/A
IBM AIX (for Advanced Interactive eXecutive) is a Unix operating system, developed, offered and supported by IBM.N/A
IBM Power
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
The IBM Power product line is a family of servers.N/A
Pricing
IBM AIXIBM Power
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IBM AIXIBM Power
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
IBM AIXIBM Power
Considered Both Products
IBM AIX

No answer on this topic

IBM Power
Chose IBM Power
There is simply no comparison, power systems are at an infinitely higher level in reliability, availability and serviceability.
Chose IBM Power
It really depends on each client and what they have regarding hardware and software. If the client has a partnership with IBM or is using IBM software, usually they go with IBM hardware. If the client is a Dell partner, it usually goes with Dell hardware running Linux, and so on.
Chose IBM Power
Basically, it’s a midrange server that consolidates mixed workloads from different OS platforms. It has great processing power and has great reliability.
Chose IBM Power
The performance of the S922 is outstanding, and it much outperforms the previous generations of the device. The new IBM Power 9 S922 system was purchased at a lower cost than the prior systems were purchased for. The system occupies a significantly smaller space in the rack. …
Chose IBM Power
In order to manage mission-critical workloads without the need for an outage, VCS works best on powerful hardware. The combination of P9 with VCS technology works well for high-computing tasks. High-end configurations are used to operate several mission-critical clusters on …
Chose IBM Power
In order to manage mission-critical workloads, IBM Power Server requires strong hardware. High compute workloads work nicely with p9 and VCS. This platform runs many mission-critical clusters in high-end configurations. Issues and issues are few and steady.
Chose IBM Power
VCS works best on the powerful hardware and helps to manage the mission-critical workloads without having the outage needed. High computing workloads are working well with p9 and VCS technology combinations. Multiple mission-critical clusters are running on this platform with …
Chose IBM Power
In the evaluation phase, we work on servers with scope and sizes of databases and application by keeping future load in our mind if we have to run such databases we go through with multiple pocs and load run with softwares where we identified IBM servers are one of good in …
Chose IBM Power
We are an IBM shop, so we purchase servers only from them. I have used IBM servers starting back with POWER4, and have been greatly impressed with the advancement over the years in processing power and RAS capabilities.
Best Alternatives
IBM AIXIBM Power
Small Businesses
Ubuntu
Ubuntu
Score 8.7 out of 10
Dell PowerEdge
Dell PowerEdge
Score 8.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Score 9.1 out of 10
HPE ProLiant DL
HPE ProLiant DL
Score 8.6 out of 10
Enterprises
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Score 9.1 out of 10
IBM Z
IBM Z
Score 9.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
IBM AIXIBM Power
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(11 ratings)
8.9
(208 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.1
(7 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(1 ratings)
9.5
(4 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
7.5
(2 ratings)
9.2
(8 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.4
(4 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
IBM AIXIBM Power
Likelihood to Recommend
IBM
IBM AIX is well suited for mission-critical applications, especially the ones that need to run on well-performing hardware and need less downtime. It is also perfect for applications that need a lot of CPU, because AIX scales well on the IBM POWER hardware, so adding additional CPU almost always generates higher performance/throughput. IBM AIX runs unmodified from the smallest IBM POWER machine (S1022, with 12 Power10 cores) to the biggest machine (E1080, with 240 Power10 cores). Because IBM POWER systems have very fast CPU’s, you typically need a lower number of CPU’s when compared to alternatives. This may bring a reduction in cost for software licensed per core. Unfortunately, not all software vendors port their software to IBM AIX, so sometimes you may have to run Linux on POWER, or skip the POWER platform altogether. But many vendors happily support AIX and POWER.
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IBM
I'd strongly recommend IBM Power servers to anyone who has the budget for it. A Power Virtual Machine, what is generally called FlexTB VM, can support as many small VM of 256GB, and scale up to 32TB on the fly. If IBM recommended architecture is combined with your organizational reference architecture, then forget about running into unplanned downtimes.
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Pros
IBM
  • Stability. In the 14 years that I have used the product, I cannot think of a single time that we had an OS level failure. It is rock solid. We have had systems that have been booted and run for literally years without interruption.
  • Virtualization. We run IBM AIX as LPARS on Power infrastructure. All of our AIX infrastructure is virtualized making it easy to scale as needed.
  • Their logical volume manager makes the task of managing storage very simple. It is feature complete and they have mitigated much of the complexity that usually is inherent in LVM implementations.
  • I have a love/hate relationship with Smit. It is their administrative interface. It is very powerful and very complete which is why I marked it as a pro. It is also a bit clunky and somewhat arcane in its interface but still usable.
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IBM
  • I love how it supports a mix of operating systems
  • protection of our sensitive energy data and ensuring compliance with industry regulations.
  • It provides a flexibility that ensures that we can accommodate increased workloads without a complete overhaul of our infrastructure.
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Cons
IBM
  • A lot of the built-in commands have not been updated in years. If you're used to some fancy CLI options in Linux, you may be out of luck with AIX.
  • Out of the box, you cannot run open-source Linux utilities on AIX. There is a toolbox you can install, however, it's not the same versions as you would get in different Linux flavors.
  • Tab completion for files and Up arrow to re-run previous commands don't work out of the box without running a Korn shell. A small annoyance, but one that catches me every time!
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IBM
  • A solid IDE for editing programs. SEU was simple and solid. Then it became outdated and support for it ended as the language continued to evolve. That's fine. But RDi is expensive and shaky at best, and VS Code, while free, is severely lacking even the modicum of features RDi has.
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Likelihood to Renew
IBM
No answers on this topic
IBM
This is one of the best systems on the market. You can have Flash/Copy which created another LPAR to look like the system you are copying. This takes seconds and not minutes. Then you can use BRNS to do full system backups nightly with no downtime. I am ready for us to upgrade to a Power 10.
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Usability
IBM
AIX is robust, helps the systems administrator, is built to prevent easily made mistakes. If you are used to other variants of Unix (in particularly Linux) there is no steep learning curve to get started with AIX. You need to learn the intricacies of the operating system, but that is true for any new operating system. AIX has built-in tools for almost anything you want and has the AIX Toolbox (on the web) for tools that are not included with AIX by default, but can be installed. Installation of AIX is modular, you can select with components and features you want to have installed. Installation of additional components (and usually also removal of installed components) is easy and straight-forward.
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IBM
They are very easy to set up and use once you re knowledgeable enough to deal with it. They are continuously enhance the user experience on the HMC and operations on the systems. Once setup it's like a beast, going on and on. I have experience with servers that are not being rebooted for more than 1000 days
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Reliability and Availability
IBM
No answers on this topic
IBM
In all of the years I have used various Power System, I have never had any problems at all. Even when hackers were attacking our email servers and many users PCs, the IBM Power System came out completely unscathed. I haven't even had any application errors that were able to take the system down. Nor have I ever experienced an unplanned outage
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Performance
IBM
No answers on this topic
IBM
The IBM Power System is built for integration. It supports multiple operating systems and you can run multiple OS's on the same box with no problems at all. It also supports a number of open source languages such as PHP, Java, Python, and Perl which helps you continue to grow and integrate with lots of other systems.
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Support Rating
IBM
There is lots of documentation out there for AIX. On the times I've had to address a hardware issue, IBM's support has been great.
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IBM
On large-scale systems, the rating would have been 10. However, I have seen some cases in more rural areas where the IBM onsite support is not as available or of the highest quality as in the past. For software support, there are sometimes instances of language barriers.
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Implementation Rating
IBM
No answers on this topic
IBM
Systems are robust and you need to know exactly what your are going to do with them. There are multiple configurations possible and you need to gather your requirements first, before going on with the implementation. Tuning is a must before migrating production systems
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Alternatives Considered
IBM
IBM AIX operating system is advanced with most features and also it's more reliable unlike Redhat Linux, Sun solaris, HP-UX and also we will have well support from the vendor if we run into any issues. IBM AIX is more user-friendly when compared to linux and easy to use so i would prefer the customers to have their operating system as IBM AIX for companies who has more customers.
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IBM
Power server do not need a stack of software for viruses, spam and others... Power server do not need to have release often power server are much more strong then other manufacturer Power server do not need to restart offen
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Scalability
IBM
No answers on this topic
IBM
This system can work in a small factory with a few users and easily scale out to thousands of users. It is truly amazing on how much you can throw at this box and it will just keep humming. It is great for use across multiple departments and even across multiple corporations. I worked at one company where we were hosting multiple corporations on just one large Power System and had ZERO problems.
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Return on Investment
IBM
  • IBM AIX on Power hardware has been the backbone of our most critical applications.
  • The versatility of IBM AIX virtualization has been extremely useful, scalable, and provided configuration with redundant dual VIO servers.
  • IBM AIX is not Linux so special skill sets are needed to actually manage the systems. Finding qualified engineers can often be a challenge
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IBM
  • In the event of a crash, IBM Power servers offer a variety of simple options to recover the operating system.
  • With the flexibility offered by IBM Power servers, the production business can be improved by making the most of its physical servers.
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ScreenShots

IBM Power Screenshots

Screenshot of IBM Power E1180Screenshot of IBM Power E1150Screenshot of IBM Power S1124Screenshot of IBM Power S1122