Is IBM Going To Raise Prices On Power10 Expert Care?

May 19, 2025 Timothy Prickett Morgan

We have a feeling that Big Blue let the cat out of the bag a little early on a price increase for its Power Expert Care technical support services for the Power10 platform. We have this feeling because IBM on May 1 canceled a price increase in the Americas region in announcement letter AD25-1009 and in the Japan region in announcement letter AD25-1048.

This is weird, and we are showing you the Americas announcement below in case IBM takes it down:

First of all, the letter number referenced for May 1 does not match the actual letter number, which is odd. (The one in Japan does.) The price increase for Power10 Expert Care, which was not specified, was set to go into effect on July 1.

IBM did raise Power10 Expert Care prices on the Power E980 (9080-HEX) back in February, which we reported on. This machine was not on the list in the announcement shown above as getting a price increase and then having it reversed. (If that indeed did happen.) Usually, IBM puts out a letter that says it has been withdrawn, not sends out the original letter with the words “This announcement has been withdrawn” in the actual announcement letter purporting to be a price increase.

This is sloppy, or at the very least, confusing. IBM has been putting out announcement letters consistently for the 36 years I have been reading them, which is why I say this is weird.

As I said, I think someone released an announcement letter too early, or someone changed their minds and wanted to time it better to the Power11 announcements that have also been pushed out from June or so to later this year.

When and if that announcement does come, it will probably cover the machines shown in the image above. That is the Power S1012 (9028-21B), Power S1022 (9105-22A), Power S10124 (9105-42A), Power S1022s (9105-22B), Power S1014 (9105-41B), Power L1022 (9786-22H), Power L1024 (9786-42H), and Power E1050 (9043-MRX).

We will keep our eyes peeled.

In case you didn’t know: The Power Expert Care services are designed to offer supplemental support for customers using IBM i, AIX, or Linux on Power Systems. There are two tiers, Advanced and Premium. You would think there would be a Standard or Basic tier, but there isn’t. Perhaps that will come with Power11 machines.

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