Director of Power Systems
On July 30, IBM accelerated its open source Power Systems initiative with a new high-performance Linux-based system, the PowerLinux 7R4, geared for big data analytics and cloud computing.
The PowerLinux 7R4 is a 4-socket, 32-core system that serves as the Linux version of the Power 750.
Here are a few of the significant points of the recent announcement:
- The new PowerLinux 7R4 (4 sockets/32 cores), an open platform server built on the Power 750 – the same hardware as IBM’s Watson cognitive computing solution – and equipped with POWER7+ technology.
- Two new next-generation Linux applications – Cognos for Business Intelligence on Linux on Power and EnterpriseDB, an open-source database to exploit the proven performance of the Power platform running Linux.
- Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL) – Linux Workload Capacity for Power 770, 780 and 795 which provides flexible, affordable high-performance capacity for Linux applications.
This new solution gives you more choice, as well as the capability to handle compute intensive workloads, including big data analytics on Linux. This version lets you use a higher valued Power solution to handle mission critical workloads and applications.
And another fantastic part of this announcement is that IBM has priced the PowerLinux 7R4 to match pricing of comparable x86 offerings. Previous to this announcement, you had to either rely on multiple servers to support Linux workload requirements, hence increasing the operational costs of administration, or implement Linux on Power Enterprise class servers and pay the enterprise class premium justified by AIX and IBM i.
In sum, the affordability of Linux on Power is now better than ever and offers an alternative to scale out Linux on x86 while utilizing the administrative and operational strengths of Power.
Mainline has deep design and technical skills in Power Systems, PowerVM and Linux to assist you in analyzing and implementing the new PowerLinux offerings. If you would like to discuss this solution further, please contact me directly: ron.gordon@mainline.com.