Timothy Prickett Morgan
-
IBM’s Competitive Analysis For Power10 Entry Machines
August 22, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan
Long gone are the days when IBM, and indeed most other server vendors, clamored to run TPC-C, SAP SD, and SPEC JVM transaction processing benchmark tests on their new machines to prove they had the performance and they had the bang for the buck to compete in the broader market.
To be fair, many of those tests had their flaws, allowing a certain amount of gaming of the benchmarks (as happened with the TPC-C and SPEC JVM tests) or not having official pricing attached to them (as happened with the SPEC JVM and SAP SD tests). Still, those benchmarks, as …
Read more -
Big Blue Taps FalconStor To Move Data To PowerVS Cloud And Protect It
August 22, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan
When IBM i shops want to move some or all of their applications to the cloud, they have a lot of options. But there is still only one cloud that is designed and run by the same company that actually makes the Power Systems server and the IBM i operating system and database platform. And that, of course, is the Power Systems Virtual Server, colloquially known as PowerVS these days.
Over the longest of hauls, we expect that a fair number of IBM i shops will use the cloud in some capacity, and some will move their infrastructure entirely to …
Read more -
PowerVM, vHMC, HMC, And Cloud Management Console Get Their Tweaks
August 22, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan
Whenever the system hardware is updated, the virtualization and control plane software for that system also has to be tweaked, and we are finally getting around to covering some of improvements and changes that Big Blue has put into the PowerVM server virtualization hypervisor, the HMC and vHMC management consoles, and the Cloud Management Console that were part of the July 12 Power10 entry and midrange system announcements.
In announcement letter 222-191, we get the hardware tweaks to the stacks mentioned above, and in announcement letter 122-053. There are not earth-shattering updates, mind you. (Why do we want …
Read more -
A Slew Of Add-On Services For Power10 Systems
August 17, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan
Back in February, we told you about a new set of services called Power Expert Care that offered enhanced services above and beyond Software Maintenance (SWMA) for the operating system and systems software stack and the hardware maintenance that comes with support contracts. In recent weeks, IBM has rolled out more services under the Power Expert Care umbrella.
In announcement letter 122-006, the based Power Expert Care services are extended to the Power10 entry servers – the Power S1014, the Power S1022s, the Power S1022, the Power L1022, the Power S1024, and the Power L1024 – and in announcement …
Read more -
Power10 Midrange Machine: The Power E1050
August 15, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan
This is fifth part of our in-depth coverage of the entry and midrange Power10 machines that were announced on July 12. This week, we end the hardware deep dives with a look at the Power E1050 midrange machine. This is one of the best and most capable servers that Big Blue has ever designed, and it is a damned shame that it does not run the IBM i operating system.
But, as we have pointed out before, it can any time IBM is convinced by enough of you that it should. The lack of IBM i support is a marketing …
Read more -
Get Your Security Education, And Not From The School Of Hard Knocks
August 15, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan
If there is one thing that is consistently hard for human beings, it is learning from the experience of others. When it comes to IBM i security, it is safe to say that many IBM i shops are in over their heads and they have to get all of the help they can to try to batten down the hatches against the many threats that all systems – even the IBM i platform – can be the victim of these days.
That’s why IBM i security software vendor Raz-Lee has put together a series of webinars in September to help …
Read more -
Power10 Entry Machines: The Power S1024 And Power L1024
August 8, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan
This is fourth part of our in-depth coverage of the entry and midrange Power10 machines that were announced on July 12 and that started shipping a few weeks later. This week, we go over the last of the machines that can run the IBM i operating system, the Power S1024 and its quasi-Linux-only companion, the Power L1024.
We already went through the Power S1014, the Power S1022s, and the Power S1022 and its quasi-Linux-only variant, the Power L1022. And next week, we will take a look at the midrange Power E1050 – which does not support the IBM i operating …
Read more -
Power10 Entry Machines: The Power S1022 And Power L1022
August 1, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan
This is third part of our in-depth coverage of the entry and midrange Power10 machines that Big Blue launched on July 12, which will focus on the Power S1022 and its Linux-only variant, the Power L1022. Not to be confused with the Power S1022s – that is a small “s” not a plural – that we covered last week.
We will cover the Power S1024 and Power L1024 machines next week, and then finish the series with an analysis of the Power E1050 – which does not support the IBM i operating system but which could any time IBM …
Read more -
IBM Finally Shows Some Growth In Sales And Profits
August 1, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan
We got so excited about our coverage of the new Power10 entry and midrange servers in the past few weeks that we didn’t go into Big Blue’s financial results for the second quarter ended in June. Considering the past several years, and all off the bad news on the financial front from bug players like Intel, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, it is probably a good thing that our IBM analysis is coming a week later because we now have a better perspective of how IBM is doing relative to its peers.
It is a refreshing change to see IBM doing …
Read more -
Power10 Entry Machines: The Power S1022s
July 25, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan
This is second part of our in-depth coverage of the entry and midrange Power10 machines that Big Blue launched on July 12, and today we are going to take a look at the Power 1022s, a new class of machine in the Power Systems lineup that shoots the gap between the lowest-end Power S1014, which we reviewed last week, and the Power S1022 and Power L1022 that offer more expandability and more features.
We will cover these machines next week, followed by the Power S1024 and Power L1024 the week after that, and finish off with the Power E1050 – …
Read more