IBM Power

What is IBM Power?

IBM Power are servers with Power processors - an alternative to standard Intel/AMD (x86) servers. Power10/Power11 processor has a different architecture than Intel Xeon or AMD EPYC - it is designed for critical business systems.

Main difference vs x86: One Power core does ~2x more work than Intel/AMD core. A Power server with 16 cores can replace an x86 server with 32-40 cores. This matters for per-core software licensing (Oracle, DB2, SAP).

Who uses Power instead of x86?

• Banks and insurance - core banking systems, where a minute of downtime = millions in losses
• SAP HANA - highest performance for large in-memory databases
• Oracle Database - fewer cores = lower license costs
• IBM i (formerly AS/400) - only platform that supports it

Why Power instead of Intel/AMD?

1. Performance per core

Power10/Power11 has 2x higher performance per core than Intel Xeon. In IBM testing Power10 achieved 4.2x higher throughput per core vs Intel Xeon Gold 6348.

Practically: Oracle license costs ~$47,500 per core annually. If you need 40 x86 cores, but only 16 Power cores - you save $1.1M per year on licenses alone.

2. Reliability (RAS)

Power has built-in Reliability, Availability, Serviceability features:

• 99.9999% uptime = max 31 seconds of unplanned downtime per year
• Live Partition Mobility - move VMs between servers without downtime
• Concurrent firmware updates - updates without restart
• Predictive failure - system informs about failure before it occurs

x86 can achieve similar level, but requires additional HA software and more effort.

3. Hardware security

Power has built-in:

• Memory encryption - all data in RAM encrypted, without performance degradation
• Secure Boot - firmware verification at startup
• Quantum-safe cryptography (Power11) - preparation for quantum computers

x86 needs additional software or special processors for this.

Which operating systems?

Power supports 4 types of systems:

System	What it is	Typical use
AIX	Unix from IBM	Core banking, Oracle DB, legacy apps
IBM i	Integrated OS with database	ERP, RPG/COBOL applications
Linux	RHEL, SUSE, Ubuntu	Modern applications, containers
OpenShift	Kubernetes from Red Hat	Cloud-native, microservices

PowerVM is the hypervisor - you can have AIX, IBM i and Linux on one physical server.

Power server models

Enterprise (largest)

Model	Cores	RAM max	For whom
E1180	40-240	64 TB	Largest banks, SAP HANA
E1150	15-60	16 TB	Large enterprise

Scale-Out (medium)

Model	Cores	RAM max	For whom
S1124	8-48	8 TB	Medium companies, SAP
S1122	4-22	4 TB	Mid-range
S1012	1-8	256 GB	Entry AIX/IBM i

Linux-Optimized

Model	Cores	RAM max	For whom
L1122	4-22	4 TB	Linux/OpenShift
L1022	4-22	4 TB	Linux workloads

Power vs x86 - cost comparison

Scenario: Oracle database for 1000 users

Element	x86 (2x Xeon)	IBM Power
Server	~$50,000	~$150,000
Cores needed	40	16
Oracle license (3 years)	$5.7M	$2.3M
TCO 3 years	~$5.8M	~$2.5M

Power is more expensive in hardware, but cheaper in TCO when you pay for per-core licenses.

Built-in AI (MMA)

Power10/Power11 has Matrix Math Accelerator - AI accelerator in processor:

• Inference of smaller models without GPU
• Supports TensorFlow, PyTorch
• Lower latency than GPU for some workloads

This won’t replace NVIDIA for model training, but for inference in business applications it may suffice.

Specifications (Power E1180 - high-end)

Processor	Power10 or Power11
Cores	40-240 (SMT8 = up to 1920 threads)
RAM	Up to 64 TB DDR4/DDR5
I/O	PCIe Gen5, NVMe
Virtualization	PowerVM
OS	AIX, IBM i, Linux

FAQ

How is Power different from regular Intel/AMD server? Different processor architecture - higher performance per core, better RAS, hardware encryption. More expensive hardware, but lower TCO with expensive licenses.

Does Windows run on Power? No. Only AIX, IBM i, Linux (RHEL, SUSE, Ubuntu).

Can I run regular Linux applications? Yes - most Linux applications run on Power. Some require recompilation. Containers work natively.

What is IBM i? Operating system with built-in DB2 database. Used mainly for ERP applications written in RPG/COBOL. Runs ONLY on Power.

When is Power profitable? When you pay high per-core licenses (Oracle, DB2, SAP) or need 99.9999% uptime without additional HA software.

When is Power NOT profitable? For standard Linux workloads without expensive licenses. Web servers, containers without special requirements - x86 is cheaper.

Can I test before buying? Yes. IBM offers PoC and Power Virtual Server in IBM Cloud (pay-as-you-go).

What is the warranty? 3 years standard, expandable. IBM has service in Poland.

How much does Power server cost? Entry-level (S1012): from ~$30,000. Mid-range (S1124): from ~$100,000. High-end (E1180): from ~$500,000+.

Does nFlo help with Power? Yes. We do sizing, deployments, migrations from x86, PowerVM configuration.