Dispelling the top myths about IBM Power Systems

31 July, 2018
Skip Garvin
IBM

Greek, Roman and Norse mythology gave us a treasure chest of stories to read and enjoy. Their mythology, like many other legends, fables and folklore is fun to learn about. It’s interesting to think about why they were created, how they survived for thousands of years, and what impact they had on their cultures.

The problem with myths in business, especially those about a product or set of products, is that if left unchallenged they can become widely perceived as reality in the marketplace and in the minds of clients and prospective clients. There are countless examples of companies that have made exaggerated claims about their own products or their competitors’ products and services. Many were dismissed or ignored, but over time some were accepted as the truth because no one took the time to challenge them with facts.

Other constituencies also aid in the myth-making process. They may have misconceptions about the product, lack understanding about how a product works or just have a prejudice for or against a particular product.

Over the next few months, we’re going to look at the top myths surrounding IBM Power Systems. Using data and real client examples, we will dispel these myths in a way that makes it easy to understand why these claims are untrue and why you should consider IBM Power Systems for all of your critical workloads. IBM POWER9-based servers provide the infrastructure foundation for future-looking organizations, and we look forward to sharing the advantages of POWER9 with you.

The top myths about IBM Power Systems

Here are some of the most common myths we hear in the marketplace today:

  • Power has no cloud strategy.
  • Migrating to Power is costly, painful and risky.
  • x/86 is the de-facto industry standard and Power will soon be obsolete.
  • Power solutions are more expensive than x/86 solutions.
  • Linux on Power operates differently and is managed differently than Linux on x/86.
  • x/86 is the best platform to run SAP HANA, Nutanix and open source databases like Mongo DB, MariaDB and EnterpriseDB.
  • Reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) features are no longer a differentiator because every platform is the same.
  • Oracle software runs better on Exa and/or Sparc systems than it does on Power.
  • Power is a closed, proprietary architecture.
  • The OpenPOWER Foundation is weak and not really important to anyone in the industry.

There are many other myths and misconceptions in the industry today about IBM Power Systems, and we’re always here to answer your questions and provide the facts you need to make an educated choice about the best infrastructure to support your business needs and strategy. If you are considering an infrastructure purchase, don’t hesitate to contact IBM Systems Lab Services. We have a team of experienced IBM Power Systems consultants here to help you learn how to put data to work across your business.

Please visit ibm.com/power to learn more about our new POWER9 servers. And stay tuned for the rest of this series, in which we’ll dive into these myths one by one.

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