Another Smarter Planet Blitz This Week, i 7.1 Included
April 12, 2010 Timothy Prickett Morgan
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It has been no secret to readers of The Four Hundred that some IBM announcements were afoot in early February and were expected again around the middle of April. While IBM has not yet arranged for prebriefings with the press on the announcements, which is its normal practice, I have heard from sources at Big Blue that there are some announcements planned for Tuesday, and more than a few of them have said that the expected new version of the i For Business, platform, i 7.1, will be one of the major things revealed. I know that business partners downstream from the Enterprise Computing Solutions group of master reseller Arrow Electronics hosted a Power Systems pre-announcement briefing headed up by Jeff Howard, director of Power Systems marketing, with its downstream resellers on April 7, and the next day Arrow ECS hosted an i 7.1 pre-announcement call with its downstream resellers that included Ian Jarman, manager of Power Systems Software; Guy Paradise, IBM i offering manager; Mark Olson, Power Systems I/O product manager; Steve Finnes, PowerHA offering manager; and Alison Butterill, Power Software offerings manager telling all about the new software technology. I can tell you that servers and storage and operating systems are sure to be tweaked in some way this week, since IBM is hosting a Webcast for customers and anyone else who cares to listen in called Smarter Systems for a Smarter Planet on April 15 at 11 am Eastern that includes, and I quote:
Jim Stallings, who used to run IBM’s mainframe business and who is now general manager of global markets at Systems and Technology Group, will be hosting this Webcast. Scott Handy, who is vice president of worldwide marketing for the Power Systems division, and Dan Galvan, who has the same title but for Storage Systems, will be walking people through the announcements. As you can see from the agenda, systems software and services plus customer stories will also be highlighted. I suspect that IBM will spend some time going over the Smartie and Pizzazz clusters I talked about elsewhere in this newsletter and possibly a new entry Power 720 or a high-end Power 795. I also expect a lot more talk about flash storage, tweaks to AIX and i relating to Power7 iron and possibly more talk about DB2 and how it (meaning the AIX and Linux version) is being tuned to run like a bat out of hell on Power Systems. Maybe DB2 for i will get similar love. We’ll keep you posted. RELATED STORIES IBM’s Smartie and Pizzazz Clusters–Still i-Less IBM Holds i 6.1 Prices Steady, Slashes Application Server Fees i 7.1 Due April 14, with Open Access for RPG, Other Goodies The Power7 Systems Sales Pitch i/OS Gets Short Sheeted with Power7 Thread Counts The System iWant, 2010 Edition: Clustered Boxes IBM Fired Up About Power7-Based Smarter Systems A Little Insight Into the Rest of the Power7 Lineup Power7: Yields Are Good, Midrange Systems A Go The Power7 Rollout Begins In The Middle The System iWant, 2010 Edition: Blade and Cookie Sheet Boxes The System iWant, 2010 Edition: Entry Boxes The System iWant, 2010 Edition: Midrange Boxes IBM Preps Power7 Launch For February Looks Like i 7.1 Is Coming In April The System iWant, 2010 Edition: Big Boxes Power Systems i: The Word From On High Power Systems i: The Windows Conundrum Power Systems i: Thinking Inside the Box Rolling Thunder Rollout for Power7 Processors Next Year IBM Rolls Up an i 6.1.1 Dot Release The Curtain Rises a Bit on the Next i OS, Due in 2010 Start Planning for Power7 Iron Now IBM to Reveal Power7 Secrets at Hot Chips Power 7: Lots of Cores, Lots of Threads
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