IBM Power Systems Other Advice

Omobolaji Olaloku - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Enterprise System Engineer at Zenith-bank

I give the solution a nine out of ten.

We have more than 5,000 users with diverse job roles, such as branch tellers, operational personnel, software developers, business analysts, and data engineers.

There is always room for growth, and we aim to achieve higher performance in the next three to four years by increasing our data, transactions, and customer base. Our plan involves upgrading our systems and expanding usage accordingly.

I recommend the solution and it would serve an organization well.

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MA
Implementation and Technical Sales Manager at ROI Botswana

Speaking about the stability of the solution's system once we configure it, if the system goes down, then it takes time for us to bring it back to normalcy is minimal compared to any other enterprise product we've seen in the market. Also, the features in the solution work well. The number of crashes we experience with IBM is minimal. We anticipate that the rest of the features in the solution will work in the background.

Owing to IBM's pricing and lack of support for their partners, particularly their weak partner support policies, we often encounter difficulties, especially when dealing with larger customers. When navigating through their policies, it can feel like we hit a brick wall. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

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SA
System Analyst at Freelancer

When you implement the IBM Global Systems, you must take care of the small things. If you do it perfectly at the start, it will give you more stability at the end of the day. If you don't take care of the small technicalities then in the middle somewhere, there will be high load on the system and you will face issues. 

IBM has the best solution in the market and is always comparable to any service provider in the market. I always rate them 10 out of 10 because it's the best product.

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Buyer's Guide
IBM Power Systems
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about IBM Power Systems. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Adalberto Giaretta - PeerSpot reviewer
Technology director at Infodive Representações e Serviços ltda

I'm using a variety of versions of the solution. I use Power nine, six, five, ten, et cetera.

I'd recommend the solution to others. The performance is great, and it offers excellent reliability. It is a very good platform. However, it is expensive. 

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TS
General Manager Applications at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

We typically use the latest versions of the solution. We tend to follow whatever the customer requirement is. They are inclined to work by night in the office on the latest product that IBM is offering.

We work with on-premise as, over here at least, people are not too inclined towards the cloud. They prefer having hardware of their own in their own data centers.

I'd recommend this solution to other organizations.

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I'd rate it at an eight.

Better pricing would be one thing that may convince me to give it higher marks. 

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Lindra Heryadi - PeerSpot reviewer
Dept Head of Enterprise Hardware Product at PT Multipolar Technology Tbk

You can use IBM Power Systems instead of other brands if you want something with a critical application.

Overall, I rate IBM Power Systems a nine out of ten.

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SS
Asstt. Manager at OCM

Without a doubt, I can say that IBM Power Systems are strong. They are also good at processing. However, we do not have actual experience with Intel servers since it is only used as an entry-level system.

The disadvantage of the solution is its price. Also, the database is paid. Regarding the subscription for the OS, there are different AMCs. Based on robustness, service level, and stability, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

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Getachew Zeleke - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Custormer Engineer at Afcor PLC

The IBM product is one of the first power supply systems in the world, and the second is HP. I rate IBM Power Systems a ten out of ten. The only issue is that my country has unreliable power systems.

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Rohintan-Karanjia - PeerSpot reviewer
Advisory Services at Nangia Andersen LLP

If your application is designed for IBM OS servers, it can be a very stable and reliable solution. Otherwise, it might not be the best fit.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. 

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Atif Najam - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Information Officer and Program Lead at Gatron Industries Ltd

I would give IBM Power a rating of nine out of ten.

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DV
SYSTEM ADMIN at Hacettepe Üniversitesi

In the future, I may consider recommending the product to those who plan to use it. Presently, I work in a new data center with new systems in a government department where we can't change any systems due to a lack of capital.

I rate the overall tool a seven out of ten.

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RQ
Server and storage administrator at Banco de Costa Rica

With IBM Power Systems, you get to use IBM PowerVC, which allows you to automate the deployment process of virtual machines in the platform, especially those virtual machines that are a mix of virtual and physical machines. The definition of virtual machines may seem illogical since we also use physical machines.

I rate the overall product a nine out of ten.

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ES
System Administrator at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

I would say if you are not using the IBMi solution, you are missing something. You should at least know about this solution. I was an IT support previously, and When I started to use IBM Power Systems, I fell in love with this machine due the professionalism, solidity and high scalability . 

The biggest lesson that I have learned from using this solution is how not to have a single instance of failure. These machines don't die and don't have any problems. For me, it was astonishing to be able to switch disks or the power supply without turning off the machine. It is a reliable and great solution.

I would rate IBM Power Systems a nine out of ten.

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SK
Sys architect at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

Ten or 15 years ago, software would have been written. There would have been Linux and Power, and maybe Windows, but nowadays it's Linux or it's the Cloud. You can run Linux on Power, but not for what these clients want. They want x86. They want Intel software, Red Hat or centOS on x86. 

Our software vendors, at least in our retail locations, are moving away from supporting Power. In fact, I'm shocked that they do some days. Whereas, our datacenter loads, those stay the same. Those are still going to be continuing to run what they are, because most of the major players, database systems and ERP systems, still continue to support Power.

I would not consider IBM to be a market leader in terms of servers. The reason is because if you go around and you ask people about a server, they don't talk about IBM. Maybe 10 years ago they did, but now it's HP. It's maybe Lenovo and it's Dell.  When you start talking servers, people don't think IBM. They think x86. That's where IBM dropped the ball, in some regards, because why would I think of them?

I can't buy them. I can't get them on the used market. I can't run them. I can't develop software for them. Though it's a different situation when you talk about the Cloud. That's when people tend to think more about IBM.

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HA
System Administrator at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees

We're just a customer. We don't have a business relationship with IBM.

In general, I would rate the solution at a seven out of ten so far.

While every organization has to choose its options based on their requirements, I can say that this particular solution has met our needs quite well.

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BF
Admin at a leisure / travel company with 1,001-5,000 employees

IBM is moving faster with their improvements than we can implement. Coming here, to the Power User Conference, to learn the new features means I then go home and try to implement this feature and see how we can actually make this a value add for our organization.

Power is the best. There's not much that can beat the way they virtualize it. And the HMCs, being able to manage the entire environment.

They're definitely a leader. They lack the advertisement to new corporate CEOs. You're starting to see more advertisements of Watson. But AIX... the Power environment and the value add that it has over Intel, not so much. Everybody thinks that Intel is so much more cheaper than the IBM, but it's because it's not marketed correctly. 

With Power servers, you get so much included with your purchase. You get the virtualization, you get the operating systems. Whereas, with Intel, you get hardware and then you have to add all of the operating systems, the virtualization if you're using VMware. And once you start adding that up, that commodity server is now only hundreds of dollars difference from an IBM server. A lot of corporations aren't looking at it that way.

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it_user758181 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior unix engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

We're on all versions of Power. We just retired a POWER4 box, but we have POWER5, 6, 7, and 8. We have all these versions primarily because we're a bank, and we have a lot of old applications. It's hard to get people to upgrade their applications so we can upgrade their hardware. We use it strictly for AIX.

We're running about 1200 servers right now. I have a couple old POWER5 and POWER6 frames, as I said previously, but most of our stuff is on POWER8. We have about 18 870 enterprise servers, and that is where the bulk of our stuff is. We are trying to get everything over to the newer stuff.

Power uniquely positions our bank in the industry because we are almost 100% virtualized, so we're cloud-ready, if you will. In fact, we view our AIX environment as a private cloud at the bank. That is one of the big things. 

And the Power solution is a lot more customizable that many of the others. We have some unique infrastructure things at the bank that it fits perfectly.

In terms of some people saying they want less "green screen," less command line, they're talking about UNIX, and historically UNIX is a command-line type of interface, a text interface. We can do a GUI in AIX, and most people don't use it. In fact, the only time you see a GUI is when people are installing software, because Oracle or DB2 has a GUI install interface, so you have to fire up a GUI.

I think IBM is a leader in the server market. I'm an old guy, back when I got into AIX, the Sun servers - the big Sun 10Ks and 18Ks, the HP Superdomes - those were all the enterprise servers, those were the servers of choice. Then came Power AIX, now they're number one. There is no more Solaris. HPE is struggling, they finally quit making their own hardware. They are doing x86. The Power hardware is just so much better than x86 hardware.

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Senghak Ky - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of Information Security at Sathana Bank

I recommend IBM Power Systems to those who are interested in having the hardware. I would rate it at eight on a scale from one to ten.

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it_user758208 - PeerSpot reviewer
Infrastructure manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Recently there have been a lot of changes, and a lot of good things that we are planning to use. What we've been seeing is that within the Power system itself, there are more and more capabilities and features. You do not have to go outside and buy a third-party program product - like for replication, you don't have to go to a third-party. Years ago, you'd have to go for system monitoring.

IBM is building in all the tools you need to run the system: monitoring, replication, disaster recovery. I think if IBM continues to do the same thing - and every day they're bringing the price point down, with more CPW - they should just keep on doing what they're doing.

I don't have a problem with Power systems, especially running System i. For people running AIX, the interface is a bit more cryptic and they need a lot of commands. But once you implement System i on Power, it's a 10. It rocks. We're doing some work in Mexico right now where we're converting from OS/390 to Power systems.

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DG
Pre-Sales Engineer at AMH CONSULTING

The solution is suitable for prevention and maintenance. If you have the budget and a knowledgeable executive to manage the system, you should buy IBM Power Systems. I rate it a nine out of ten for its availability and visibility.

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AA
Deputy director at Central Bank of Nigeria

I rate this solution a nine out of ten.

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Md Al-Amin - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior System Analyst at Thakral

PowerSystems is better than all other systems in the market, and I would recommend it to anybody whose application does not have a dependency in the operating system and machine. I would rate PowerSystems as ten out of ten.

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it_user758211 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sys admin with 1,001-5,000 employees

When I rated it 10 out of 10, I ignored the pricing. It's costly, so it's part of the business decision. Hardware prices put the brakes on some solutions.

I don't consider IBM to be a market leader in servers. They are in a very good position, but AIX is not sold to customers, it's not viewed as a prime solution.

I think they need to push more AIX, openly, there's not enough noise about it. It's quiet, it works, so we don't talk about it. It's a local initiative it's not a global initiative.

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Raul Tapia - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of the Office of Technological Infrastrure at mef

I would advise those who want to use IBM Power Systems to always have technical support.

I rate IBM Power Systems a ten out of ten.

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it_user758217 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior systems admin at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

In terms of how Power uniquely positions us in the healtcare industry, it is an industry that has very little downtime. Nobody likes to take any downtime at all. The Power systems, they're very dependable. We can normally depend on them not going down. We have had a few issues here and there, but for the most it's a set-and-forget type thing.

They don't like to release the systems for updates, unless it's critical and I have to take it away from them. That's the thing I like the Power Systems, that they're just extremely dependable.

I think they've really started down a good path with the HMC; making people go to the enhanced GUI. I think not everybody embraces change, but once they get a hang of the new HMC, there's a lot of cool features in there.

In terms of IBM being a market leader for servers, obviously with the advent of Open Source, and Linux, and virtualization - while I don't do a lot of hardware - I think they're the "big boys." I think they probably need to be more vigilant about VMware and the like. VMware is not exactly eating their lunch because they're two separate business models. Obviously IBM is the leader. But, you can tell that other companies are nipping at their heels, and they want into that market share.

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it_user758214 - PeerSpot reviewer
VP and client leader at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

In terms of how Power can uniquely position a company within its industry, it can be the most favored system for cognitive error. When I say "cognitive", of course, that is an IBM term. In the digital environment, where artificial intelligence is very important, there is machine learning been done, there are different kinds of applications coming up. Power Systems can be a very reliable platform for workloads which are mission critical, which are futuristic. There's a lot of work done on artificial intelligence, machine learning, etc.

In future versions I'm definitely very excited to see the roadmap of the Power PC, and the ability to connect with other GPUs like NVIDIA. NVLink is a very exciting development that happened in POWER8. I do believe, going forward, the ability to meet different workloads and multiple workloads, which are more intensive in terms of CPU and compute, is going to be the key and that's what I like about Power.

The OpenPOWER initiative is something, which is really great. It's embracing other Open Source, Linux as well as other platforms, so that you can give a total solution to the customer. You don't just have the applications, which are based only on AIX, you are making the platform more open for different kind of workloads to be done.

IBM has been the market leader for decades now, in this space. I do believe there is competition, but I think embracing OpenPOWER is an area which is going to really help IBM with the ability to meet the price performance that the market demands today. If that can happen, I do believe IBM is not only going to maintain its leadership position, it can even grow its position in terms of the market share for its systems and platforms.

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JD
CTO

We are currently using version 7.2 with IBM i only.

I don't know that Power uniquely positions our business, it's more of what we do as a business to position ourselves, as far as our commitment to customer service and customer care.

I think they're definitely a leader in the server industry as far as Power goes. From what I've been hearing at this conference, they're doing a lot with the Power chip to help maintain that position. So, I'm happy with it.

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it_user523146 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Resource Manager at a engineering company with 1,001-5,000 employees

We have two POWER E850s and one E870. Most of our transactional systems, engineering, they're mostly out-of-the-box applications. PeopleSoft, Siebel, engineering applications.

I consider IBM to be a market leader in the server sector. They need to keep creating a price-effective system that competes with commodity hardware, which I believe they've done so far.

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JL
Senior Pre-Sales Manager at PT GLOBAL INFOTECH SOLUTION

I manage the product at the company. I'm a consultant. We deal mostly with enterprise-level organizations. I'm an IBM partner.

If a company wants to implement the IBM System, maybe it has to check the compatibility of the apps and the DB. Also, if they want to implement the TCO, they have to check the TCO compared to the Intel base. Sometimes, they are only checking the base hardware installation. If they implement the DB or the apps, the pricing may be reduced since the core in Power System is more powerful than the Intel base.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

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Amjad Banna - PeerSpot reviewer
Computer Engineer at GCE

I would rate IBM Power Systems an eight out of ten.

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it_user758148 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of technology at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

We are on AIX and we're starting to move to Power Linux. That's new for us this year. It's marketing requirements. The customers are voting, they are requesting it.

The UNIX market, in general, is shrinking and Linux is not considered UNIX. I'm not sure it's so similar, but it's a different kernel. They don't want to go to Windows either, so you're running out of choices so they move to Linux. If we want to stay viable, we have to do that as well. 

AIX will always have a spot. If you look at the history of all the problems with these platforms, Linux, in its young life, already has way more than AIX. If that's your thing, if you want it to be rock solid, then you are going to stick with AIX forever, as long as you possibly can. But a lot of people are making the jump, a jump into Linux. We are jumping too.

The Open Power Foundation has brought about advances by introducing new ideas. As I mentioned earlier with the monoculture thing, you get the same group of people who work on these things forever and they are really smart, they get out and they read books, and they get all the information they can, but you really need that stimulus from outside. You need to come to conferences, you need to get around and involved with more people. That is why Opensource works so well. It's the same idea. You need that diversity of opinion and thought to really get the best out of it. I think if we are going to see really big leaps forward on the Power platform, it's going to come from that.

I definitely think that IBM is a market leader in the server sector. I think what they need to do is stick with the open approach that they have adopted over the years. That is really the only way that works anymore. I think the days of enterprise companies being completely closed are just about gone and I'm glad they are. You just get so much better work out of the community.

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it_user758169 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sys admin at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

I definitely see IBM as a market leader in the server industry in regards to their hardware. There is a lot of talk about them going more open-source and I think they are there, running Linux on Power and being more actively involved with that user group. But that's maybe a catch-22 as well, but I think they are leveraging that and that is what is going to take them forward.



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it_user758163 - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems admin at a individual & family service with 1,001-5,000 employees

The OpenPOWER Foundation has brought many advantages. There are a lot more things available now, carried over from other industries.

I personally do consider IBM to be a market leader in servers. In order to maintain that position they just need to continue the performance and the reliability.

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MertPolatay - PeerSpot reviewer
General manager at Atlasconsulting

I would 100% recommend Power Systems to other users and would rate it ten out of ten.

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Amjad Banna - PeerSpot reviewer
Computer Engineer at GCE

We tend to use the on-premises deployment model as cloud versions are not very popular in Jordan.

We primarily sell the solution to clients.

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it_user758193 - PeerSpot reviewer
Engineer at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees

We use it for AIX. We actually just got P850s but they were refreshed.

I consider IBM to be a market leader in the server industry but to maintain that position pricing is the main thing, to be able to compete with Linux. It's difficult on x86. But on the side of trying to sell it to management, they just look at costs a lot of the time and it's a tough sell; they don't really deal with the reliability of the system's performance.

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it_user758196 - PeerSpot reviewer
Aix lead at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

We're running on POWER7s and POWER8. We started with POWER4, and moved up. In fact, we started with 7028s and 7013s at one time. We've been in the business a good while. We're using it for AIX and now we're using it for i as well.

I think the Power system uniquely positions our company with the speed it has, and the processing power. I think it keeps our app running at a maximum output, and that keeps the company running better.

I do consider IBM to be a market leader. I would say for them to maintain it, to me, I don't like the thing of following the trend of everybody, everybody's trying to go in this direction, that direction. I feel like sometimes you can just improve on your product, and that will increase your market share, versus following the trend of everyone else.

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it_user758151 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior engineer systems admin at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees

We are using AIX with POWER8 but we do have a mix of POWER7 servers as well. 

We do capacity planning, and we try to maintain the Power capacity monitoring and to maintain that we've got enough capacity for a year worth of workload. We plan ahead as well for the coming workload. What we've got is enough for one more year.

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it_user758220 - PeerSpot reviewer
Aix Linux lead

Regarding their being a market leader, I think they've always been in front of all their competitors. Maybe if they made some of their web components a little easier to utilize, that would make me happier.

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it_user758157 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sys admin at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

I am using POWER8 for AIX and Linux.

I wouldn't say that Power uniquely positions our company in the industry. We run all of our internal applications on it and we keep our business running with it.

As far as IBM being a market leader, I would think that they are certainly one of the players, I don't know if they are the leader or not. In order to be a market leader I think IBM would have to get into more shops and get the word out there. It's kind of like the Windows mentality, a lot people go with what they know or what they see advertised.

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it_user758154 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sys admin at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

I'm using POWER8 right now and migrating some of the POWER7 systems. I am using it with AIX and IBM i. Mostly the core is IBM i. We have an e-commerce website and it is running on AIX.

I don't know how IBM could maintain their status as a market leader in the servers sector, but I would like to see more young people at this kind of event, the IBM Power Conference. That would probably help.

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KM
I.T. Head - Infrastructure, Network and Security at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

I would rate this solution 8 out of 10.

My advice for an organization that is looking to implement this solution is that they should have the adequate expertise of personnel that can run the system. They should study their TCO and ROI regarding whether it is worth investing in this, given that it's a very expensive solution. These are the two most important aspects.

I would also advise dealing with an appropriate partner or dealing with IBM directly.

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FA
Server Support Specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

It's nothing to be scared of it. It might be completely different than what you have been using, but IBM Power Systems is very stable and supports the systems that we have already been using. The Private Cloud IAS offering is included free for all enterprise customers.

It is easy to administrate and manage IBM Power Systems to make the process of moving from VMware or other environments easy.

When you get Power Systems, you get points and after the initial deployment that is performed by IBM, using those points, you can get five days or 10 days of service from IBM. Those services include Power Systems training. If you have enough points, you can get IBM to deliver training. 

I would rate Power Systems an eight out of ten based on the new features that were launched recently. They made it available on the cloud. A customer getting a Power Systems in their environment on plan is very expensive. You can create a VM on the IBM or Google cloud, running on IBM Power Systems. Or you can get the PEP2 client code. There is a little hardware cost.

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TV
VP Innovation at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

We are a reseller of IBM and Lenovo equipment. We are on the infrastructure side, mostly on the hardware side.

We sell systems to clients, however, we also have a cloud environment that we sell to clients using that equipment. We always say to customers, we sell what to them what we use ourselves.

We use versions seven to ten.

There are a lot of well-kept secrets to this product that a lot of people are not aware of and do not leverage all of the features that are available on the system. Therefore, if a company is looking to implement this solution, it should do some research. Go to user groups to speak to other users to find out about those well-kept secrets, free of charge.

I'd rate the solution a perfect ten out of ten. It's outstanding. It's so reliable. I have customers that run it that never touch it. It runs for 20 years by itself in a closet. It runs their entire business. 

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AE
Sector Manager at ESky IT

Before starting the implementation, I would advise others to take enough time in planning its implementation, especially the sizing.

I would rate IBM Power Systems a seven out of ten.

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Getachew Zeleke - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Custormer Engineer at Afcor PLC

The suitability of this product depends on the customer's environment and its requirements. In general, I am 100% confident in the IBM Power Systems and I recommend them.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

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it_user758160 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior systems engineer with 1,001-5,000 employees

Using the Power system gives us a leg up. It helps us keep up with the competition.

What we like the best about the POWER8 is that it scaled down in size and power usage. When we were buying POWER5, we had to buy a 16U rack to get 16 cores and maybe a half terabyte of memory. Now I can buy one 4U box with 16 cores and put a terabyte of memory in it, and I'm in business.

We have now started thinking about moving to Linux on Power. We are just starting to scratch that surface.

The ongoing work that is being done behind the scenes, that keep improving the product, logical partition mobility, PowerVM, PowerAIX. I think that all of those help contribute to the way Power is running.

I do consider IBM to be a market leader and in order to remain a market leader they just need to keep improving. Keep improving the product, keep pushing the product. I think it looks great.

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MM
Network Administrator at GAEB

I would rate the product an eight out of ten. The solution is very stable and has no headaches related to maintenance. It is suited for large enterprises. 

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UQ
System Administrator

My rating of nine out of 10 is for the hardware. However, the software still has lots of issues. For example, we need to upgrade the software very frequently, so I'd give it seven out of 10.

In Pakistan, IBM is a market leader, and to maintain that position the main thing is support. If the support guys are good - the people who are managing the accounts for enterprise organizations - are good they are very much in contact with the organization, keeping it informed about the new technologies and the new offerings. These certainly can help in keeping IBM's position right now in the server industry.

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it_user758199 - PeerSpot reviewer
It director

We have four 850s and one 870. We use them for AIX.

When I think servers, and market leaders, I think of Intel. Since they got out of that business, IBM is a leader in what they're focused on right now, which is Power, mainframe. That's really the only thing that is left. They have no competition.

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it_user756276 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager at a media company with 501-1,000 employees

We're using POWER8 with IBM i.

It let's me work more efficiently. Keeps me around a lot longer.

I consider IBM to be market leader in servers. To remain a market leader in the servers sector they need to keep doing what they're doing. I think they're going in the right direction.

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Phylis Mandawa - PeerSpot reviewer
Computer Engineer at Dolphin Professional Services

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten. However, there are improvements that can be made on the technical side.

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it_user758175 - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution architect

We are a business partner, so many of our customers use different versions from 5.4 up to 7.3. Most use IBM i. We do have customers that run POWER8, but we have other customers that are running on POWER5, POWER6. We're trying to get them to move to POWER8.

I would say IBM is a market leader in the server industry. It's hard because, for what my company does, as a business partner, we're not really placing too many new servers. But the customers we have are very loyal and very committed to the platform. I think that, as long as IBM takes care of the customers that they have - there is no better customer than the one you have - take care of those customers and they'll be fine.

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it_user758190 - PeerSpot reviewer
Implementation

We have POWER8, POWER7, we still have some POWER6 and some POWER5. We're using it for AIX.


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it_user758136 - PeerSpot reviewer
Regional VIP cloud hosting at a tech consulting company with 501-1,000 employees

There are not many companies in the US who can provide the IBM i platform in the cloud so we are uniquely positioned in being able to cater to that particular requirement of our customers.

I would consider IBM to be a market leader from the Power side, but not in other areas. I think they were getting there but they made a big mistake by selling the PureFlex to Lenovo.

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it_user756273 - PeerSpot reviewer
Admin

We have the POWER8 boxes currently, we have four of them with IBM i OS installed. We currently have two sites and they kind of mirror each other, and then we also use the IBM's Lotus Domino installation for our email.

I gave it a nine out of 10 because no one's perfect; and it's not free. But you also get what you pay for.

I consider IBM a market leader for servers, absolutely, hands down. For our business, we'll probably never not have an IBM box in-house. And I know we just keep doing more and more with it. They keep putting more and more features into it, more stuff for us to take advantage of. I don't know why we would go elsewhere.

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CP
Solution engineer with 51-200 employees

I mostly use AIX along with some Linux, POWER8 and POWER7.

It's hard to say how the Power system uniquely positions our company in the industry because we try to do everything. But we usually try to push the Power first. Our company mainly started with strictly iSeries, so you can't run that on Intel. So when Power came out and showed that it was a much better workhorse for the iSeries, it was good. Life was great. Actually, I believe iSeries was virtualizing long before Intel even thought about it. But some of the iSeries guys will tell you, "We don't know what it is."

Regarding the OpenPOWER Foundation, it has offered us a faster way of deploying multiple systems in a shorter amount of time. In the good old days, it would take you a few days just to create one system. Nowadays, you can possibly deploy 10 in the time it would take one.

I consider IBM a market leader in the server sector, compared to Dell and Lenova, because, they have more robust, faster hardware that can be deployed and implemented a lot faster than Intel, even with VMware.

VMware has point and click, but there's a real steep learning curve in your networking, your shared resources, your performance tuning and your troubleshooting.

In order to remain a market leader I would say that IBM needs to stay ahead of the curve. They need to listen to what their customers are saying as far as, "I want this feature or that feature." If it can be done, do it. If it can't, let the customer know. "Hey, we'll look at it and get it in the future."

I would definitely recommend Linux on Power rather than Intel.

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it_user756282 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Architect

Majorly, what we have is on POWER8. We have POWER systems, we others for development and testing, environment hosted, but all the production is majorly on POWER8.

Currently, I see IBM as a market leader in the server sector. And I see, there are a lot of other options that are coming, such as cloud-based, AWS and the like. We are people who like to test and see if we keep the same thing for a longer period on the market.

To continue to be a market leader, I personally think IBM should be on the cloud, more in the cloud space. That is something that they should do much faster now.

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it_user758172 - PeerSpot reviewer
Developer

I definitely view IBM as a market leader. I think where they fall down is in their marketing, getting their message out to other people. Because not too many people are aware of how great a system the Power is. You've got a lot of competition in the Intel world that somehow seems to get more marketing out there. 

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it_user758184 - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution consultant

We're currently working with POWER7 and POWER8. We use it for AIX, IBM i and Linux.

I would absolutely recommend Linux on Power. I believe we're going to expand our use of Linux on Power.

I think IBM is a market leader in servers. To maintain that position I'd say the Open foundations that they've created are a good way of pulling in a broader base of users and technology. Keep improving around those arenas to get better.

Regarding the OpenPOWER Foundation, I think it brings a credibility to the Linux platform, and it allows customers to see that enterprises are serious about using Linux and exploiting its functionalities on Power.

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SS
Advisory Sales Specialist at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

This system is ideal when it comes to performance and reliability. I don't see any need for improving on its current features and functionality. 

We are resellers of IBM FlashSystem. 

Owing to the issues with its pricing, I rate IBM Power Systems as a seven or eight out of ten. 

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IS
Systems PreSales Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

I rate  IBM Power Systems a ten out of ten.

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it_user756285 - PeerSpot reviewer
EVP Technical Solutions at Helpsystems

Today's world is more about the applications that we have. So, the challenge for the IBM i customer is staying up with time. We have to modernize. We've been talking about it for years - modernizing the applications - so that when my daughter or my son comes and works for you, they're working on a browser type interface. They're not using a green screen interface. That's probably the biggest challenge for IBM i customers. 

To a certain extent that's probably true in AIX too. We don't have enough of the web user, graphical-type interfaces that are on this platform that keep people around because they think green screen, they think old. Reality is, they might be running a green screen but the infrastructure behind it is POWER8, running SAN storage, SSD, flash technology. It's probably virtualized and they don't even realize it. But it's quite a powerful system and quite a highly modernized system in the background.

Linux on POWER is another good opportunity for customers because all of a sudden you wake up one day and you have 500 Intel-based Linux servers in your datacenter and if only you would have known that you could have invested in one POWER server, or two POWER servers, and scale that down to only a few instances of Linux on POWER. Think about the power. To me it's just simple math. Whenever you have 2,000 or 500 or 300 servers trying to manage a business, there's just more that's going to go wrong. And so if you can scale up with the Linux on POWER, that's the way to go.

Regarding the OpenPOWER Foundation, at first I was kind of skeptical. I thought, "Okay, well what does that mean to an IBM i customer or an AIX customer?" But what it means is that IBM is spending an enormous amount of time working on technology that's going to take us and make things like artificial intelligence, and the Watson, and all those things a little more commonplace. 

And for all organizations, we all have more information than what we know what to do with. If we can better harvest that and predict our customers' trends and purchases, were going to be so much farther ahead than the competition. And if you're doing it on IBM i you'll be able to do that with a fairly small cost of ownership, to get into some really big super-computer type technology to do that. 

So the open source thing as part of that brings on some new players that are helping IBM to invest. Obviously IBM is a business and if they're buying up POWER9, and if I have to wait for a POWER9 processor because some large open-source type consortium partner is buying that POWER9 technology, that's good for IMB i and AIX customers because it makes the POWER server itself a very viable economic decision for IBM too.

It's unfortunate, market wise, POWER is not known as well. But the total cost of ownership, IBM's done a great job of lowering the price to entry and then the scalability, security, and reliability. I mean it's second to none in the IT world.

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WS
Gerente CPD-Dcloud at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

To anyone considering it, I would say that the IBM Power platform is so secure and stable.

On a scale of one to ten, I would give IBM Power Systems an eight.

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it_user758205 - PeerSpot reviewer
Support implementation team with 501-1,000 employees

IBM is a market leader and to stay there they need to keep going with the trends and the customers, keep moving towards the cloud, keep going in the cognitive area. IBM is going to be at the top of the list for a while.

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it_user1406979 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Business Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Before implementing a solution, analyze the good points and benefits of different solutions, and make sure that the solution meets your requirements.

I would rate IBM Power Systems an eight out of ten.

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it_user758202 - PeerSpot reviewer
Aix engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

We have the whole scope of hardware, and we're running AIX 7.2. We have POWER7, POWER8. We actually still have some POWER5 on the floor. 

Power uniquely positions our company in the industry because of the unlimited growth.

I consider IBM to be the market leader in servers. They just need to keep doing what they're doing.

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it_user626946 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Systems Administrator at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

I would recommend, going for this solution, because it is one of the best solutions available in the Unix market now.

I would rate it eight out of 10. The reason is, as I said, the performance and stability, and the security included with the product.

In terms of selecting a vendor, we first go through the product features and evaluate them and see that the product suits our environment. Then, we look at the various product selection criteria, like ease of use and implementation. We also look at the cost, how costly it is to support in the future.

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Buyer's Guide
IBM Power Systems
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about IBM Power Systems. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.