A couple of months back, on September 8 2021, IBM introduced its latest Power server powered by the Power 10 microprocessor chip – the IBM Power E1080. Already the most secure and resilient platform in the marketplace, the Power10 takes the IBM Power servers to new level by incorporating such capabilities as transparent memory encryption, efficient scaling and faster insights with production-ready AI at the point of data.
The E1080 is the first in the family of the Power 10 servers, but the roadmap suggests that mid-2022 will see the launch of the scale-out and midrange versions, with PVS on IBM Cloud following suit after that.
The introduction of the Power 10 chip demonstrates that IBM continues to protect the investment of its IBM i customers by keeping its hardware up to date, state-of-the-art, and non-legacy! Specifically, the chip is optimised for better security, resiliency, scalability, and the cloud. All of which is available to users of the IBM Power i when they upgrade to this server. What this means is that even those enterprises running critical legacy applications, can rest assured that these applications are running on very modern machines, with the benefits of the latest modern technologies available to them. Furthermore, they retain the superior security, stability, resiliency, and performance that they have always enjoyed over competitive servers.
While the E1080 server may not be for everyone, and many will be more eager to learn of the features specifically available on the yet-to-be-announced scale-out and midrange editions of the Power10, for now, let’s have a look at impressive numbers that have been revealed about the E1080.
Responds Faster to Business Demands
- World record 8-socket 2-tier SAP SD standard application benchmark
- 4.1 time greater containerised throughput per core than x86 running Red Hat OpenShift
- 2.5 times per core vs x86 SPECInt rate
- 50% more capacity, for the same energy consumption (providing an opportunity for data centres to reduce their carbon footprint)
- Capability for instant scaling, on a pay for use basis (buy a base capability, then pays for spikes in usage as you need them)
Protect Data from Core to Cloud
- Transparent memory encryption
- Support for Quantum safe cryptography and Fully Homomorphic Encryption
- 2.5 times faster AES crypto performance per core, when compared to the E980
- Advanced protections for ROP (Return-oriented programming)
Streamline Insights & Automation
- In-core inferencing and ML where data resides
- Provides alternative to using separate GPU systems
- Train AI models anywhere, deploy on Power without changes for AI with high RAS
- Support for libraries, AI frameworks, ONNX runtime
Maximise Availability & Reliability
- 2 times better memory RAS than IS-DIMMs
- Advanced recovery, self-healing and diagnostic capabilities reducing application downtime
In Summary
Security
Security and reliability are key points for IBM i customers. For many, these are among the primary reasons that they originally settled on the platform, and why they remain on it today. Security threats are going to increase. Alas, that is just the nature of the world we live it. And this is why IBM keeps working to improve on this already highly securable platform; and why IBM i customers need to consider moving on to the latest hardware technologies so they can arm themselves against the latest kinds of threats.
Artificial Intelligence
One of the major issues for enterprises wanting to operationalise AI is that a separate platform from the operational applications is generally required for the new AI systems. This is because the platform running the existing operational applications does not have the capacity to run the two systems on a single machine. This causes a number of challenges for such businesses. First off, there is the need to extract the data from the application machine to the AI machine – and not just once off, but regularly. This can also have an effect of reducing end-to-end availability for application and data access. Then there is the issue that, by moving the data to a new system, there is the risk of violating service level agreements. Finally, there are the additional costs involved in managing the new environments for the AI system to run on.
However, for enterprises running their core applications on the IBM i on Power, these challenges are overcome by the fact that they can run their AI systems on the same platform. The Power platform, in addition to being able to run IBM i, Linux and Unix operating systems on the same system, has the performance and scalability required to operate AI systems. Hence, the operational applications and the AI systems can run together on the same platform, with the AI system accessing the application database directly. Which also means it can include real-time data in its datasets.
Modern Platform
While many IBM i businesses are still running their tried and tested green screen legacy applications, being able to interface these legacy apps with modern technologies is critical. IBM’s latest work on the Power servers continues to ensure this requirement. Open development tools have been available on the IBM i for many years now, and the further enhancements in the Power10 ensure that the IBM i applications have accessibility to the latest technology trends in IT, including in the areas of Cloud and DevOps. For example, the “Cloud” options on IBM Power allow container-based applications and native IBM i applications to provide value to each other.
Conclusion
Remaining on Power, now with Power10, ensures that the total cost of ownership (TCO) over the years keeps getting better for those invested in the platform. There is no need to re-tool or re-app due to a change in hardware. And you do not miss out on the potential benefits of AI, the cloud, and other modern technologies. IBM continues to demonstrate that it is enhancing this range of servers and to keep it relevant for its users.
Business who first invested in the IBM i system did so for very clear reasons. Whether that was in the early 1990s as the AS/400, or any time since. At each juncture in time, it has been a leader in security, reliability, and modernity. With the release of the latest Power10, IBM i users can rest assured that their core applications, whether legacy or not, are running on and have access to the latest technologies in the most secure, reliable, and modern manner.