When many IT professionals hear that a workload runs on Power Systems, they automatically wonder if it is hosted on IBM i or AIX. Did you know that in addition to the ‘Watson’ application, there are over 2,500 Linux-based applications that are tested and run natively on the Power Systems platform? As the Linux Enterprise Server has matured and grown rapidly in the marketplace, IBM has continued to work with ISV software partners to bring more applications and solutions to Linux on Power. The trend in recent years is a shift from soloed applications (like Web serving) to more robust and mission-critical workloads (like ERP) being hosted on Linux. PowerLinux offers 22% better application performance for ISVs like SAP. And due to its popularity, there is a wealth of talented IT resources in the workforce who are trained on Linux administration and programming. The OpenSource community also makes Linux a very powerful and flexible operating system choice.
Linux is supported on the entire Power Systems platform, so you have the ability to scale out by leveraging competitively priced dedicated PowerLinux servers like the 7R1 and 7R2, or scale up on one of the traditional Enterprise Class Power 770, 780 or 795 models. If you are consolidating servers in your data center or leveraging a converged infrastructure solution, Linux is also supported on the p24L PureSystems Power node. IBM recently announced a new dedicated Linux on Power server, the 7R4, a very energy-efficient 5U rack-mounted server based on the POWER7+ processor, which is available in either two- or four-socket models that support 16 or 32 cores.
Cloud computing is becoming more popular, and virtualization is the foundation of any cloud-enabled environment. This is a key differentiator for Power Systems servers. Unlike x86-based products such as VMware, the PowerVM hypervisor is built onto the ‘bare metal’ through the hypervisor, so it’s secure by design. The POWER7+ models support up to 20 VMs per processor, with very minimal overhead. The Power Systems platform offers superior virtualization technology while providing up to 41% lower solution cost.
Another great workload to host on PowerLinux is Business Analytics. With Big Data Analytics, testing shows that it takes less than eight minutes to sort 1TB of data on PowerLinux (over 30% faster than comparable x86 servers). And it only takes about three seconds to process 200 million pages of structured and unstructured data!
The Linux on Power solution is robust and reliable, and offers comparable TCA to Linux on Intel with better overall TCO. According to Solitaire Interglobal, “The average PowerLinux has 31.9% less downtime than that reported by Windows environments; deployments averaged 29.6% faster and staffing levels were 18.1% lower.”
If you have any questions or would like to see a demo of a Linux on Power solution, please contact your Sirius client executive for assistance or contact stan.staszak@siriuscom.com.
Stan Staszak is Sirius’ Director of Power Systems Solutions.
