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IBM Power Systems pros and cons

Vendor: IBM
4.4 out of 5
428 followers
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Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

IBM Power Systems offers robust virtualization capabilities, allowing for easy scaling and resource management through features like PowerVM and Active Memory Expansion.
It provides high reliability and stability, supporting critical applications like core banking with minimal downtime.
Performance is a key strength, with IBM Power Systems delivering high levels of processing power and system optimization for various workloads.
Security features are frequently updated, including regular patches and system hardening tools to protect data and operations.
IBM Power Systems is known for excellent technical support and client service, enhancing user experience and operational reliability.

CONS

There is a lack of software vendors moving onto the IBM Power Systems platform, which impacts its adoption.
Oversubscribing and advanced features are not supported on Linux on Power, limiting certain use cases.
IBM Power Systems are expensive, with pricing being a significant concern for many users.
Scalability is complex and depends heavily on the initial sizing, unlike more flexible solutions.
Technical support and documentation need significant improvements to assist users efficiently.
 

IBM Power Systems Pros review quotes

SA
Nov 4, 2020
The availability of a solution depends on the requirement of the customer. The most valuable feature is the virtualization. You can have this one system or you can use it for many. They were using almost 120 servers within that specific service.
FA
Oct 29, 2020
Active Memory Expansion allows you to compress your memory on the run time to allow you to have less physical memory available, but provision more memory to your partitions, as everything will be compressed on the fly.
it_user756285 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 17, 2017
From a software developer standpoint, virtualization is really the key, as we can more easily spin up a new partition, virtual instance of IBM i.
Learn what your peers think about IBM Power Systems. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
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it_user758181 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 19, 2017
The virtualization and the quality you get from it is one reason we like the solution.
SysArchi8bbf - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 19, 2017
From a reliability standpoint it has provided us with excellent performance.
BF
Oct 19, 2017
PowerVM.
it_user758208 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 19, 2017
It scales a lot, you can just keep on adding frames, you can add on CPUs, you get capacity on demand, you can tune the machine very easily to handle different workloads.
reviewer1070442 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 27, 2021
What we like the most is the ability to upgrade the scaling of the system itself. Whenever we need extra storage, we can do that. Whenever we need extra memory, we can do that as well. It's fast and it's available.
reviewer1456134 - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 29, 2020
The technical support that clients get from IBM is excellent.
CP
Oct 19, 2017
The SMT that they've improved has really helped open up boundaries for other applications that can use it.
 

IBM Power Systems Cons review quotes

SA
Nov 4, 2020
The scalability process should be simplified.
FA
Oct 29, 2020
It does not offer the ability to run any X86 or X64 Intel architecture-based application on Power Systems. There are a lot of applications, lots of business use cases that do not support this architecture as of now. If somehow application tasks can be ported on to IBM Power Systems, that would be a big improvement.
it_user756285 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 17, 2017
Better manage heterogeneous footprints of all the different operating systems that are out there across one common interface.
Learn what your peers think about IBM Power Systems. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
817,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user758181 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 19, 2017
If you take advantage of some of these real advanced features, for oversubscribing as an example, it's not supported on Linux on Power. So that stops us, in particular, from going that way.
SysArchi8bbf - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 19, 2017
The lack of software vendors moving onto the platform, as opposed to fleeing the platform, is an issue.
BF
Oct 19, 2017
I think IBM needs a little more work on managing the overall environment with eliminating Systems Director.
it_user758208 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 19, 2017
I know lab services does a lot of work but systems, if they could include some kind of lab services and bundling of services to get you to the greatest and latest feature at the already included cost
reviewer1070442 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 27, 2021
The pricing of the product could always be lowered.
reviewer1456134 - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 29, 2020
IBM should be more flexible with marketing or offer marketing events themselves and invite the partners to attend. That might be far more productive.
it_user758217 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 19, 2017
I would like to see firmware available to all of the systems.