Entry IBM i Server Deals Greased With License Discounts

September 7, 2010 Timothy Prickett Morgan

As this newsletter reported a month ago, IBM has been cutting deals with customers moving from older Power 550 and larger machines based on Power 5, Power5+, and Power6 processors to Power 550/750 machines based on Power6+ and Power7 processors. The deal allows IBM i software licenses bought above and beyond the base OS that is configured with the server to slide from the old to the new box for a modest fee. Now, Big Blue is cutting smaller IBM i shops a break, too.

The deal, called the IBM i License By User offering, is detailed in announcement letter 310-241, which the company slipped out in the wake of the August 17 Power Systems announcements. (That was when the four entry servers, the Power 710, 720, 730, and 740 servers as well as the new big bad box, the Power 795, were launched.) Under that deal, IBM is giving customers that have user-based pricing for the IBM i operating system–meaning Power 520-class systems, Power-based blade servers (old and new), and the new Power 710 and 720 machines–a 40 percent discount off the price of software licenses.

The 40 percent discount can be taken by customers who are buying whole new boxes or upgrading to newer machines from older boxes. Presumably the discount also applies to incremental licenses added to new or upgraded iron. The discounts apply to both per-user fees sold in five- or 10-user blocks for specific machines, or the unlimited user licenses that IBM offers for these machines. (Effectively converting per-user licenses to tiered licenses as are sold on larger Power Systems.) The only upgrade supported under this deal is the move from the Power6+ Power 520 (product number 9203-E4A) to the Power 720 (product number 8202-E4B).

On the Power 520 Express server, for instance, it costs $250 per user to fire up i 6.1, i 6.1.1, and i 7.1 licenses on the single-core Power6 machine. Buying unlimited users on this box costs $18,750, which works out to 75 users. If you are adding 75 users to a machine, it makes sense to just buy the unlimited license. With the 40 percent discount announced on August 18, that cross-over point is now 45 users–$11,250, which is $18,750 times 0.6, divided by $250 per user in the pre-deal pricing. On two-core Power Systems rack and tower machines, an unlimited IBM i license on user-based machines is $50,000, and on four-core machines it is $75,000. On the JS12 and PS700 Power blade servers, unlimited IBM i licenses cost $18,750. On the other Power blades–the single-socket PS701 and the two-socket JS22, JS23/JS43, and PS702–an unlimited license for the machine costs $50,000.

None of the charges mentioned above include the IBM i per core activation fees, which are $2,245 on the entry Power 520 (single-core), Power 710, Power 720, JS12, and PS700 machines. On all of the other machines in the entry Power Systems lineup, the per-core activation fee for the three relevant IBM i releases is $14,995 per core. On Express configurations, IBM cuts the price in half on the base processor hardware activations and tosses in a set number of core activations for IBM i. (It varies depending on the machine.)

The point is, you need to do your capacity planning for IBM i carefully. For a lot of customers, particularly those on P20-class machines, it may be so much cheaper to get down to a P05 or P10 machine using Power7 processors. The extra hardware cost (at street, not list, price) could be more than covered by the reduction in IBM i license costs even before the 40 percent discount on user activation fees for the operating system and integrated database.

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Tags: Tags: mtfh_rc, Volume 19, Number 31 -- September 7, 2010

Best Practices for Doing IBM i Cloud Backup & DRaaS Right

In the technology business for 30+ years including more than a decade in cloud backup and disaster recovery, we’ve learned a few things along the way. Here are best practices to follow – and land mines to avoid.

RELIABILITY. Up to 71% of restores from tape contain failures.

BEST PRACTICE: Use disk-to-disk technology for backups.

With disk-to-disk technology, your backup data resides on disk drives, proven to be far more reliable than tapes. When your backup completes, you know the data is secure and accessible on the disk drive. With tapes you never really know if your data is usable until you try to restore it, at which point it’s too late.

BREADTH OF OFFERING. Choice in product and service offerings meet your business’ needs.

BEST PRACTICE: Don’t settle for less than what you need.

Vendor offerings vary widely. Some are designed primarily for consumers and others for enterprise data centers. Choose a solution that scales and offers the features you need to provide the level of service you expect. De-duplication and delta-block technologies will improve performance, reduce your data footprint and save you money. Find out if their de-duplication offering is at the file level or the block level. Make sure the solution can back up servers, PCs, and laptops as well your applications.

SECURITY. 60% of organizations using tapes don’t encrypt their backups.

BEST PRACTICE: End-to-end encryption with no “back door.”

Using encryption with tape makes backups run slowly and often takes too long to fit within a backup window. As a result, most people simply turn encryption off, creating a security risk. Even with the physical safety of disk-to-disk backup, encryption is essential. Look for 256-bit AES. Find a solution that encrypts your data during transmission and storage. Make certain there isn’t a “back door” that would let someone else view your data.

ACCESSIBILITY. Companies waste thousands of hours waiting on tapes.

BEST PRACTICE: Ensure that you can get your data back with minimal delay.

You should have direct access to your backups, with no time spent on physical transport (no trucks, no warehouses). Restores should take minutes, not hours or days. Set yourself up to work with your data, not wait for it. Make sure your solution provider can meet your Return-to-Operations (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) which determine how quickly you can recover your data and maintain business continuity. Inquire about onsite and offsite replication that provide both improved performance and a solid disaster recovery strategy.

CYBER SECURITY. More than 80 percent of U.S. companies have been successfully hacked, according to a Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey.

BEST PRACTICE: Regular cyber security training and phishing tests for all employees using company email are essential to your organization.

Your end-users are the weak link in your network security. Today, your employees are frequently exposed to advanced phishing attacks. Trend Micro reported that 91% of successful data breaches started with a spear-phishing attack. Be sure your vendor of choice includes cyber security training as part of their backup and DR package.

SCALABILITY. Some backup systems can’t scale readily.

BEST PRACTICE: Invest in a data protection architecture that can grow with your business.

You should be able to back up your data no matter how large it grows. Starting small? Look for an option that handles your backups automatically. Then, as you grow, gives you tools to manage complex environments. Look for “changes-only” and compression technologies to speed backups and save space. And insist on bandwidth throttling to balance traffic and ensure network availability for your other business applications. Make sure that their solution offerings rely on common technology to scale easily as your business––and data––grow.

COST-EFFECTIVENESS

BEST PRACTICE: Calculate the true total cost of tape-based back up.

A 2019 Server OS Reliability Survey found that one hour of downtime costs at least $100K for 98% of companies to over $5 million for 34% of surveyed companies. When you do the math, the dollars make sense: Go with disk-to-disk. Unlike tape, there are close to zero handling costs—no rush deliveries, loading, accessing, locating, or repeated steps. And there’s one benefit you can’t factor directly: Reputation. Reliability and security can make an incalculable difference with just one avoided breach or failure.

COMPLIANCE. Most companies have problems satisfying privacy, security, and data retention regulations.

BEST PRACTICE: Choose a data protection partner who has deep know-how about compliance, and the technology to ensure it.

Disaster Recovery. Most companies lack a comprehensive, tested plan for disasters.

BEST PRACTICE: Find a vendor that delivers a complete DR solution.

You can’t say your data protection is complete until you have a disaster recovery plan that is itself complete and tested. Your backup vendor should have both the product mix and professional services team to help you prepare for a worst-case scenario. Make sure they can help configure your backups so you rebound quickly. Best bet: A vendor who can train you to deal with disasters confidently, based on your company’s actual configuration.

EASE OF USE. Some companies don’t —or can’t—manage their backups from one place.

BEST PRACTICE: Get control and reporting you can use anywhere, with ease. Managing your backup environment should be simple, and the software you use should eliminate any guesswork that could lead to lost data. You should know at all times if your data is protected across your entire network—including remote offices—by simply looking at a dashboard. The software should be simple to configure using wizards, yet powerful enough to meet your specific needs with customizable views, job propagation, and roles-based security.

OPERATING SYSTEM AND PLATFORM SUPPORT. Most backup vendors support a limited range of OS, server types, and applications.

BEST PRACTICE: Look for broad and deep technology that supports your complete environment. Your backup solution should accommodate your environment, not vice versa.

CUSTOMER SUPPORT. Backup vendors’ product support varies widely.

BEST PRACTICE: Find a vendor whose support is passionate, maybe even slightly obsessed. Customer support should be one of your vendor’s main selling points. You shouldn’t have to wonder if they’ll be there to help when you need them most. Do they offer phone support or email only, and who exactly are you talking to when you call that 800 number? Find a vendor that will treat your data as if it were their own.

REPUTATION. Does your backup vendor have a quality reputation and the financial resources to stay in business for the long haul?

BEST PRACTICE: Find a vendor with strong financial backing and customer references. There are a lot of vendors that have come and gone. When you consider a service provider, look for one that has strong financial backing, a solid business plan and the ability to be in business as long as your data needs to be stored. Ask for customer references and case studies as their customers are the best validation you can get.

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