IBM Power vs. Microsoft Windows

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
IBM Power
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
The IBM Power product line is a family of servers.N/A
Microsoft Windows
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Windows is an operating system with editions to support business workstations.N/A
Pricing
IBM PowerMicrosoft Windows
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IBM PowerMicrosoft Windows
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
IBM PowerMicrosoft Windows
Considered Both Products
IBM Power
Chose IBM Power
We always buy IBM Power/Aix systems for our business-critical applications, because we like to sleep sound at night. There's always Dell & HP for our VMware setup which runs a bunch of RHEL servers.
Chose IBM Power
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
Microsoft Windows

No answer on this topic

Best Alternatives
IBM PowerMicrosoft Windows
Small Businesses
Dell PowerEdge
Dell PowerEdge
Score 8.1 out of 10
Ubuntu
Ubuntu
Score 8.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
HPE ProLiant DL
HPE ProLiant DL
Score 8.6 out of 10
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
IBM Z
IBM Z
Score 9.4 out of 10
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
IBM PowerMicrosoft Windows
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(208 ratings)
9.1
(10 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.1
(7 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
9.5
(4 ratings)
8.3
(7 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.2
(8 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.4
(4 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
IBM PowerMicrosoft Windows
Likelihood to Recommend
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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Microsoft
I think for every business in the world Microsoft Windows is a good use as standard OS system. It’s easy to use and a lot of other company's use it which make it very appealing for user to learn more about Microsoft Windows. The Office 365 suite is really good as a free feature and used a lot by every user of Microsoft Windows. If you got a designer business I would recommend other brands that are specialized in that kind of work. I feel Windows will come short on that end.
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Pros
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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Microsoft
  • It is very easy to use, can be picked up by a novice in minutes.
  • It is aesthetically pleasing, and appears clean and modern.
  • Most programs that people use in their day to day run on windows natively.
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Cons
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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Microsoft
  • Forced updates occasionally have bad timing when ignored for too long
  • Microsoft Edge Web Browser is a bit clunky
  • The 3D desktop still needs some improvement
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Likelihood to Renew
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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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Usability
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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Microsoft
It's easy to use, very straightforward, and user-friendly. It has improved over the years, but you still need to be careful not to shut it down improperly because that may lead to corruption and Windows being unable to boot. There is plenty of software available that covers most needs.
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Reliability and Availability
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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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Performance
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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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
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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Microsoft
support remains spotty, researching online articles are a pain
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Implementation Rating
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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Microsoft
MDT helped deploy OS to users machines via PXE boot.
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Alternatives Considered
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
Read full review
Microsoft
Microsoft Windows and macOS are both useful operating systems. There are businesses who much prefer macOS and some that prefer Windows. Businesses that revolve around industries such as game design, art design, graphic design may opt to use macOS due to its optimization with programs that revolve around these topics. Other businesses that are more focused towards Data or text processing may opt to use Windows due to its familiarity across the world and ease of access.
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Scalability
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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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
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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Microsoft
  • Positively effects our easy of use of other programs
  • Take it for granted because it is so transparent in use
  • Definitely worth the price.
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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