Big Blue Chops Power6 Activation Prices on Installed Gear

November 15, 2010 Timothy Prickett Morgan

I would have thought that IBM would have made this move months ago when it was clear that customers were hesitant to buy new servers in the face of a struggling recovery from the recession. But the company has finally gotten around to slashing prices on processor core activation fees on installed Power6 and Power6+ servers.

In announcement letter 310-285, which IBM snuck out on November 4 (a Thursday, not the traditional Tuesday announcement day, so I missed it), IBM said that between now and December 29, customers with latent processor capacity on System i 570 servers using 4.7 GHz Power6 cores can activate cores with a 50 percent discount. Power 550-M50 machines with 4.2 GHz Power6 cores also get a 50 percent price cut. Those using Power 570 machines using Power6+ cores running at 3.5 GHz, 4.2 GHz, 4.4 GHz, 4.7 GHz, and 5 GHz can get a 60 percent discount. Ditto for Power 595 shops using Power6 chips spinning at 4.2 GHz and 5 GHz–they get 60 percent off, too.

Also on November 4, IBM modified its Power Systems First-In-Location rebate offering from June to tweak configurations customers have to buy and the eligible list of independent software vendor applications that are now part of the deal. See announcement letter 310-283 for more on that, and also check out announcement letter 310-284 to see how IBM has similarly tweaked the configurations and qualified ISVs on the Power Systems Competitive Rebate Offering, which was also launched in June. Both of these deals were tweaked back then and were first announced in September 2009 to help move Power6+ and Power6 iron ahead of the Power7 launches in 2010.

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