Entry System p Servers Get Power6 Chips, System i Boxes Await
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Well, the System p line got ahead of the System i line with the introduction of Power6-based servers again last week in two new boxes aimed at entry and midrange server customers. Of course, with IBM's AIX and Linux variants outselling the i5/OS variants of its Power Systems boxes by a factor of 3.7 to 1 in 2007--that's just under $4.2 billion versus $1.1 billion in hardware--you can imagine why IBM might want to start first in the AIX and Linux area. Then again, there are far more customers running i5/OS and OS/400 than running AIX. So I could argue it both ways. READ MORE >

The Power6 Server Ramp: Better Than Expected
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

With many software makers having made the shift to per-core pricing for all or some aspect of their software price--and moving away from server tier pricing or user-based pricing in some cases--it is no wonder that both AIX and i5/OS customers are looking at IBM's Power6-based System p and System i 570 servers as a means to upgrade their existing machines while keeping their software bill the same or even possibly lowering it. READ MORE >

IBM Takes System i Disk Clustering Up a Notch with HASM
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

There are a lot of ways of skinning the high availability and disaster recovery cats in the System i market. And the merger of the System i and System p divisions last year into a single Power Systems division, which creates the Power server platform, its operating systems, and high-level systems software, is culminating in yet another product coming from IBM to address the HA and DR needs of System i shops: High Availability Solutions Manager, which was announced with i5/OS V6R1 last week. READ MORE >

The X Factor: Survive, Adapt, Repeat
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

If you are like me and you have been working for at least 30 years, you are supposed to be rich by now. Isn't that the American dream? To be an entrepreneur, to cut your own swath through the business world, to find your niche and expand it, to be safe. So it is with us personally, so it goes for most of the millions of companies that are trying to stay in business in the world. Isn't this supposed to be a lot easier than it is? What on earth is wrong with the economy--I mean the global one that we can't escape--that it can create and destroy jobs and wealth so quickly? READ MORE >