IBM Power Systems Reviews

We use the solution for Oracle databases mostly. We are trying to bring in some new workloads, like Open Shift and Linux. 

It's been very reliable for Oracle databases. The performance has been very good. 

The reliability and availability are both excellent.

It offers very good security.

The performance and stability are great.

Technical support is helpful.

The solution can scale well. 

They simply need to promote or provide more support to open applications like .NET.

We'd like to see the solution support skill servers. 

The pricing is high.

I've used the solution since 1990.

I'd rate the stability ten out of ten. There aren't bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It is very reliable and offers very good performance.

I'd rate the scalability ten out of ten. 

We do have plans to increase usage in the future. 

Technical support has been excellent so far.

Positive

The initial setup was very easy to set up. It's not a complex process. 

We have witnessed an ROI while using the solution. 

The pricing is a little high. Some models have a good price. However, many are expensive. We do have a lot of taxes in our company, and that adds to the cost.

I would rate the solution ten out of ten. 

I'm using a variety of versions of the solution. I use Power nine, six, five, ten, et cetera.

I'd recommend the solution to others. The performance is great, and it offers excellent reliability. It is a very good platform. However, it is expensive. 

We are running two of our ERPs with IBM Power Systems.

The best features of the solution are its robustness and service level.

The solution is highly-priced. The first thing for me in terms of improvement is reducing the price.

I have been using IBM Power Systems for ten years. I am a customer of the solution.

Breakdowns are there in the solution, but since their service level is high, such issues get taken care of within 24 to 48 hours maximum.

In my company, we have around 250 or 300 end users.

The support team of IBM is good. I rate the technical support a seven or eight out of ten.

Positive

I also have experience with IBM iSeries.

The initial setup is easy. There's nothing great in it. With the help of IBM, one can do the setup.

The price of the solution depends upon the configuration part of it. Based on what configuration you want to go for it, there is a range like IBM Power Systems POWER9 and IBM Power Systems Power10. The price depends on what you want to have and what configuration you want for yourself, which varies.

Without a doubt, I can say that IBM Power Systems are strong. They are also good at processing. However, we do not have actual experience with Intel servers since it is only used as an entry-level system.

The disadvantage of the solution is its price. Also, the database is paid. Regarding the subscription for the OS, there are different AMCs. Based on robustness, service level, and stability, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

Most of our landscape is on IBM Power Systems.

IBM Power Systems' best features are its reliability, resilience, and performance per rack unit. IBM Power Systems gives a 75% reduction compared to Intel.

One of the main challenges with IBM Power Systems is the functionality of live partnership mobility. When you're running an L4 on one physical machine, and you want to migrate to another physical machine running live, it's very cost-intensive. In addition, IBM Power Systems is less user-friendly than competitors like VMware or Hyper-V. With IBM Power, you have to go to a command line and configure things one by one. In the next release, I would like IBM Power Systems to include a visual operational management console where I can manage all my IBM Power machines end-to-end. I would also like to see hyperconverged systems with their own storage.

I've been using IBM Power Systems for a year and a half.

IBM Power is pretty stable - I would rate its stability at 4.5 out of 5.

IBM Power is scalable - the amount of memory and number of CPU codes that one system can host is twice that of an Intel machine.

IBM takes its support very seriously - whenever you contact them for support, the people who onboard will know how to resolve the issue smoothly. Also, because IBM owns all the hardware in its machines, they don't refer you anywhere else, they take care of everything themselves.

Positive

IBM Power is a bit complicated to set up compared to Intel-based hypervisors. 

Everything that is available on the cloud version is available on-prem as well. IBM Power is more expensive than other rack-mount servers, and you have to have a license for everything, including cores and memory.

I would give IBM Power a rating of nine out of ten.

We are consultants. Usually, those permissions are provided for core banking operations, so we need to do the infrastructure sizing first.

We tailor the hardware to their specific needs. 

It is primarily used for core banking solutions.

Compared to x86 platforms, their reliability is unbeatable. They also excel in security, especially with specific features like HIPs, Postgres, intrusion prevention systems, and even built-in AI for specific goals. 

Additionally, the processing power is far superior, especially with the RSA feature for reliability, serviceability, and availability.

We've found that sometimes, certain setups require better servers. Ideally, the next level of model that IBM offers would be perfect for those situations.

Sometimes, the availability of additional services can be a challenge for some software. Certain IBM software takes time to deliver to the client. It can be slow.

So deployment is an area for improvement.

We have been familiar with this product for about nine years. 

It's very, very stable. I've never seen it go down for any reason. I would rate the stability a ten out of ten. 

IBM is much more stable than Oracle or HPE. We find it the most stable system in the market.

Scalability depends on the person scaling the solution. Web applications do the horizontal scaling, while databases get vertical scaling. We keep 30-45% of the headroom for future needs.

Scalability depends on who sizes the hardware. If they choose the right configuration, it can be very scalable. 

I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten. Our clients are mostly enterprise businesses.

We've been getting excellent service from IBM resellers and their management teams.

The resources and support depend on location. For example, metro cities get better service.

Positive

We had Oracle SPARC.

It definitely requires more expertise than x86 systems, especially considering the importance of reliability and availability for our clients' banking solutions.

So, I would rate my experience with the initial setup a seven out of ten, where one is difficult, and ten is simple.

The hardware installation itself is quick, but migrating data from old systems or integrating new solutions can take time. Usually, it's anywhere from a few weeks to a month or two, depending on the complexity of the application being migrated. Usually, a team of three to four people is needed.

It's more about the value you get for the price. Considering its stability and performance, the pricing is good. So, it is fairly priced after getting a good discount. In India, we get a good discount. 

If your application is designed for IBM OS servers, it can be a very stable and reliable solution. Otherwise, it might not be the best fit.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. 

IBM Power Systems provides very good performance and stability compared to other brands or processors.

IBM should provide a platform where users can learn about the storage and security of IBM Power Systems.

We have had some minor issues with IBM's technical support. However, IBM support is good overall.

I have previously used Intel and Oracle Solaris servers. The performance of IBM Power Systems is very good compared to Intel. IBM Power Systems provides more stability compared to Intel. You have firmware and malware issues with Intel, but IBM Power Systems has no security issues.

You must consolidate and consider with other stakeholders regarding implementing IBM Power Systems.

The solution's pricing is very, very high compared to other platforms.

You can use IBM Power Systems instead of other brands if you want something with a critical application.

Overall, I rate IBM Power Systems a nine out of ten.

We use IBM Power Systems for bank systems and databases. All banking systems use IBM Power Systems. Our additional operating and virtual and vRO systems, expansion systems, everything is IBM.

IBM Power Systems get updated every two years and are scalable and stable. It is 99.99% easy to update.

Power VMA integrations are unique to IBM in that they are free.

In my country, there are power supply interruptions. IBM could find ways to make the product stable through these interruptions.

Also, each time we have to go outside the storage, it fails.

We've used IBM Power Systems for about 12 years.

The product is stable.

I rate the scalability an eight out of ten.

The service and support are up-to-date.

Positive

The initial setup is not complex. You just connect it to the systems, the PCs, and all the laptops before starting.

We deployed the product ourselves.

The machine is good and has a comparatively good price.

A second option after IBM Power Systems is HP Unix servers.

IBM is better than HP Because IBM is a product where all things have to be integrated, including the operating system. But HP is just software.

The IBM product is one of the first power supply systems in the world, and the second is HP. I rate IBM Power Systems a ten out of ten. The only issue is that my country has unreliable power systems.

My company uses IBM Power Systems for databases with Oracle and some IBM solutions.

The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that the hardware is really good and reliable.

Speaking about the disadvantages, the tools available to manage IBM Power Systems are not that good. My company also uses VMware, which is easy to use. In IBM Power Systems, things can get complicated when you try to manage the platform.

Price and complexity related to the management of the solution are areas of concern in the solution where improvements are required.

I have been using IBM Power Systems for fifteen years.

Even though my company does have connections with a local partner of IBM, whenever we need direct support from IBM, it can be difficult to get support because even though they say that they support technologies from other vendors, we face a lot of issues in my company when we try to deploy machine since there are a lot of issues in this software of those machines provided by other vendors.

I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.

Positive

Oracle SPARC is one of the solutions with which my company has some experience. My company switched from Oracle to IBM since we faced some problems with Oracle, from whom we had purchased eight SPARC T4-1 Servers. The problem arose when we had to create a new contact to support Oracle SPARC T4-1 Servers, and Oracle never cared to help us. Rather than resolving our issues, Oracle told my company that we could either migrate to the cloud or buy new servers from them.

The initial setup of the product is complex. In our company, we had an instructor from IBM who told us IBM prefers to make the setup phase difficult. In other platforms, the deployment phase can be completed with a few clicks, but with IBM, you need to do a lot of steps even though the end result may not be as good as you expected.

IBM Power Systems is a really expensive product.

With IBM Power Systems, you get to use IBM PowerVC, which allows you to automate the deployment process of virtual machines in the platform, especially those virtual machines that are a mix of virtual and physical machines. The definition of virtual machines may seem illogical since we also use physical machines.

I rate the overall product a nine out of ten.

Right now we use Power for high-end AIX systems. We're always looking to leverage what we're using. We have some high-end customers on our P8s. The one thing that makes life easier is it's very dependable.

Power runs our resilient data systems, our high-end databases, stuff that can't go down. I enjoy the isolation factor, that it's not Linux, but then again it can be challenging to keep up. The Linux and VMware stuff, the administration seems to be a little easier than Power, but that's why I'm employed.

Licensing has always been an issue, but with IBM machines a serial number is licensed with support. If you don't pay for it, you don't get it. 

I would like to see firmware available to all of the systems. We have some older systems that we've taken off support, that we're not going get rid of right now, but I'm not able to legally update the firmware on that. That's just a little nitpick that I have.

I'd like them to make stuff that little bit more seamless, a little bit more user friendly. They have come a long way since the early days. You can deploy a system right now in minutes compared to days, in the early days. But that's what growth is all about.

Scalability is very seamless. The new enhanced GUI for the HMCs make adding partitions a lot easier than the classic view, so it's not as involved. I think they're trying to get more like the VMware side where you can add a machine, edit the properties, and turn it on, and go about your business.

We have some AIX 6 that we cannot upgrade because the customers will not let us upgrade it, and we've had to purchase extended support. We put everybody on 7 where we can. I personally have not seen the benchmarking between 6 and 7, but normally people are very comfortable when their mission-critical applications are on it. I'm comfortable with it. I'm comfortable with AIX in general, for mission-critical systems.

If I'm running a web server, or something I don't care if it goes down, I'll put that on Linux. But if I'm running a high-end database, accessing health records at 1000 transactions per second, I want it on a tried and true, supported operating system on high-end hardware.

We have CTS support. They're very white-glove, so I think it's top-notch.

I haven't had any experience in that. Normally we get a P7 box and it runs P7 forever; and we get a P8 box, and it runs P8.

We're an IBM/VMware shop, so all of our AIX runs on Power, and everything else is going to run on VMware. We're a composite type shop.

In terms of how Power uniquely positions us in the healtcare industry, it is an industry that has very little downtime. Nobody likes to take any downtime at all. The Power systems, they're very dependable. We can normally depend on them not going down. We have had a few issues here and there, but for the most it's a set-and-forget type thing.

They don't like to release the systems for updates, unless it's critical and I have to take it away from them. That's the thing I like the Power Systems, that they're just extremely dependable.

I think they've really started down a good path with the HMC; making people go to the enhanced GUI. I think not everybody embraces change, but once they get a hang of the new HMC, there's a lot of cool features in there.

In terms of IBM being a market leader for servers, obviously with the advent of Open Source, and Linux, and virtualization - while I don't do a lot of hardware - I think they're the "big boys." I think they probably need to be more vigilant about VMware and the like. VMware is not exactly eating their lunch because they're two separate business models. Obviously IBM is the leader. But, you can tell that other companies are nipping at their heels, and they want into that market share.