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IBM PowerVM pros and cons

Vendor: IBM
4.3 out of 5
2,320 followers
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Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

IBM PowerVM is valued for its stability and reliability, handling workloads easily with minimal downtime.
It offers advanced features like Live Partition Mobility and dynamic resource allocation which enhance system management and maintenance.
IBM PowerVM's performance is emphasized on high availability and optimal database workload handling.
The technical support for IBM PowerVM is highly regarded for being responsive and effective.
IBM PowerVM is appreciated for its ability to manage hardware resources such as RAM and CPU with flexibility and precision.

CONS

IBM PowerVM has limited solutions for virtualizing containers and lacks support for a wide range of operating systems.
The pricing of IBM PowerVM is high compared to competitors, posing financial challenges in some regions.
The integration with other platforms is subpar, and improvements are needed in clustering capabilities and automatic LPM features.
IBM PowerVM lacks a GUI for VIOS and remains command-line based, making it less user-friendly for those transitioning from different hypervisors.
IBM PowerVM does not integrate well with Microsoft and currently offers limited cloud-focused developments.
 

IBM PowerVM Pros review quotes

reviewer1752768 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 15, 2022
A valuable feature of PowerVM is a feature that is used for higher availability plus stream for posting, which is very useful. There's a flash copy feature which we are using. PowerVM itself, I know, helps us to control and manage our Oracle licensing compliance, since it is our hardware partitioning. This is very important. If you use VMware, there will be a licensing issue. This PowerVM is a hardware partitioner, which is very important for license compliance. We are happy with this solution.
MN
May 29, 2021
Technical support is great.
Atif Najam - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 18, 2022
IBM PowerVM has the highest clock speed.
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Atif Najam - PeerSpot reviewer
May 14, 2024
PowerVM is perhaps the only virtualization platform that offers 99.999% availability.
Sujeet-Kumar - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 10, 2024
Managing other operating systems is also straightforward with IBM PowerVM.
Atif Najam - PeerSpot reviewer
May 17, 2021
Active Memory Sharing dynamically reallocates memory of running partitions based on changing workload demands. The memory for the pool is carved out from Physical memory and is made logical memory. The said memory is not available to be assigned to partitions as dedicated memory. A min, max and desired as well as weight is assigned to the memory of each lpar to help hypervisor make a decision in case a condition where priority is to be given to a certain lapr to use the memory form shared pool.
WA
Jun 6, 2024
It offers stability, resilience, and reliability. They handle the workloads very easily.
Kevin Honde - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 2, 2020
It's scalable. Whenever we buy another product other than hardware, it's easily integrated into the virtualization software that we download.
AS
Jun 12, 2021
The most valuable features in this solution are you do not get degradation in the performance like you could get in other solutions. There is a physical adapter that is better than a virtual one and you can assign adapters to a VM.
JeffreyVergara - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 20, 2024
The support is easily reachable.
 

IBM PowerVM Cons review quotes

reviewer1752768 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 15, 2022
I don't know whether this has been trialed already, but IBM should give us an alert when we reach seven or eight failovers so that we can automatically switch it to manual mode. That would be great because if we cross the 10-day licensing limit, we have to pay a hefty license cost to Oracle. If IBM could view that feature, it would be helpful in license compliance.
MN
May 29, 2021
The licensing could be better.
Atif Najam - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 18, 2022
The hardware licensing model could be improved because the licensing model is a bit different from the standard hardware procured.
Learn what your peers think about IBM PowerVM. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
823,547 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Atif Najam - PeerSpot reviewer
May 14, 2024
It is solely command-line based.
Sujeet-Kumar - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 10, 2024
As understand it, IBM sells all its hardware to Lenovo, and only PCs servers are managed by IBM. It's uncertain how much longer IBM will continue in this way, especially with the current trend of transitioning from on-premises to cloud and hybrid models. The market is evolving. Given this market shift, it's essential to identify areas for improvement. IBM has introduced the PowerVM Series, including Linux, which is a positive step. However, customers are already moving towards x86 servers due to cost considerations. The cost of PowerVM compared to x86 servers appears to be a significant factor.
Atif Najam - PeerSpot reviewer
May 17, 2021
A GUI version of VIOS would be a great plus for people moving from Intel-based hypervisors.
WA
Jun 6, 2024
The biggest challenge is the limited flexibility in operating system compatibility. PowerVM, for instance, supports only a select few operating systems, which can restrict the types of workloads deployed.
Kevin Honde - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 2, 2020
If it could actually virtualize the entire platform it might be better. If you're having more than one virtualization technology, maybe there's a way to actually have less - one technology to run the data center and maybe one special virtualization for power. If it integrated with other platforms more effectively it might be better.
AS
Jun 12, 2021
This solution is lacking the ability to have servers act as a cluster, such as in VMware. IBM has come out with a feature similar to VMware's vCenter but it is not as mature. They need to add LPM shared-nothing feature, such as in vMotion.
JeffreyVergara - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 20, 2024
In terms of the technology used in the product, I feel that there are some areas where improvements are required. The tool should offer better clustering options.