Item: IBM Power servers
Rating: 10
Author: Indika Fernando

Overall Satisfaction with IBM Power servers

Pros and Cons

Pros

Stability
Performance
Scalability
Reliability
Robustness
Manageability

Cons

LPM
WPAR
Python Compatibility

Return on Investment

unbeatable system uptime
high efficiency
scalability

Alternatives Considered

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.

Other Software Used

Microsoft Windows, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, CentOS Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

IBM Power Servers are suited to run industry-critical applications which should run 24*7*365 with more than 99.99 uptime. Also, they provide reliability, scalability, unbeatable performance and stability in comparison to other hardware platforms. We have servers running for more than 1000 days without a power cycle, which shows the stability of the system.

Using IBM Power servers

Users and Roles

2000 - We run our two major business-critical applications (ERP & Warehouse control system) round the clock and we have 24*7 operations carried out from 22 countries across the world. At a time there are approximately 2000 users logged into out Aix systems.

Support Headcount Required

4 - This is the most critical part. Since Power/Aix are not open to public it's really hard to get knowledge and experience on these systems. You have to work in IBM as a support engineer or join a big company who has IBM systems to learn this stuff.

Business Processes Supported

Performance
Stability
Uptime
Manageability
Scalability

Innovative Uses

Build home grown applications to run on Power Servers

Future Planned Uses

Run more home grown Applications
Adopt Linux on Power to run RHEL on Power systems

Likelihood to Renew

We are happy with IBM Power systems and always go with it. It's value for money and you cannot have down times since it's not measured by time anymore, it's by thousands of dollars we lost per minute.

Evaluating IBM Power servers and Competitors

Products Replaced

Key Differentiators

Scalability
Integration with Other Systems
Ease of Use
Other

Performance & Uptime

Evaluation Lessons Learned

Nothing will change. It's always IBM Power systems for business-critical applications.

IBM Power servers Implementation

Implementation Rating

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.

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Implemented in-house
Third-party professional services

Clear Technologies.

Implementation Phases

Yes - Delivery, Rack Mount/Cabling, Power up/connect to HMC/Firmware Update, VIOS/Network/SAN setup, LPM over the LPARs from old system/Create New LPARs.

Change Management Lessons

Change management was a big part of the implementation and was well-handled - Since you are dealing with business-critical applications, key take is to well-plan the migration, attention to detail, document the process before hand, involve all the stakeholders upfront and do through testing with dev systems before going on with Prod systems.

Implementation Issues

Setting up the Network (Not a big issue though)

IBM Power servers Support

Support Rating

Thay have the experts to support us in each area, and those are skilled engineers. They always guide us the best practices and finds the root causes for our issues.

IBM Power servers Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response	None

Premium Support

Yes. We need prompt support if we need it. Because if the business is down, downtime is measured by thousands of dollars not by the minutes.

Bug Resolution

Exceptional Examples of IBM Power servers Support

IBM always provides exceptional support. If any issue with support, we can always escalate to the next level.

Using IBM Power servers

Usability

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.