IBM Powers i and p

By Jeff Feinman

April 2, 2008 —  IBM has created a new line of Power Systems servers that can work with the company’s System i and System p hardware.

IBM executives said that the new servers, released today, have POWER6 processors and can handle UNIX, Linux and System i applications simultaneously on one system. Using the servers, System i customers can move applications to new systems so that their familiarity with the applications remains intact.

“By unifying the System i and System p platforms, IBM is introducing a new generation that will bring increased flexibility for our System i clients,” said Julian McBride, an IBM spokesperson. “With more mainstream support and more shared interest, i user groups may actually expand under the new Power Systems platform. This announcement gives the System i community an even stronger position.”

IBM has created three products for the new line that target small and medium businesses. i Edition Express for BladeCenter S gives System i customers the opportunity to move x86 servers onto x86 blades in the same BladeCenter chassis for more integration capabilities. This edition includes a three-year maintenance lease, and IBM claims prices start at about half the price of non-blade configurations with the same processing capacity. The Power 520 Express is a server for businesses running distributed applications and databases, and the Power 550 Express is a mid-sized database server.

The Power Systems servers also provide access to POWER6 EnergyScale technology, which IBM said offers advanced energy control features. PowerVM virtualization is also available and can create up to 160 virtual partitions in a single system.

IBM is offering the new Power Systems servers in a few different editions, including editions for Linux and IBM’s AIX operating system for UNIX. These “i Editions” can be integrated and mixed using a single Power server, according to IBM.

Additionally, IBM has changed the name for the i5/OS operating system to simply “i.”



Related Search Term(s): IBM, Power Systems

Share this link: http://www.sysmannews.com/link/31941