System iNetwork

June 30, 2008 9:09 AM

A Very Busy Virtual Future

Every now and then I stumble upon an interesting nugget -- this one comes courtesy of Joe Clabby, president of Clabby Analytics. I asked him where we're headed with IBM's PowerVM virtualization product and IBM's efforts with virtualization, especially since the System i world was already swimming in the virtualization pool back when VMware was toddling around in x86 diapers. His answer alluded to an interesting vision of the future enterprise data center as well as the likelihood that the vast majority of servers and operating systems are eventually going to be virtualized.

Here's a snip from Clabby:

Start with the mainframe that has been virtualizing stuff for 40 years . . . then what you're seeing is the advanced mainframe functionality like the advanced virtualization management and granularity being naturally rolled down into the Power Systems line, which was the former System p and i. It's key to IBM's new enterprise data-center strategy to highly virtualize these systems in order to handle the service-oriented workloads that those systems are going to be running in the future.

So yes, System i has had the ability to run LPAR since the mid-90s or earlier, and System p has had logical partitioning, too, but now you're seeing it become more advanced, more granular, better managed, and the whole emphasis there is to prepare for their new enterprise data center push.

If you take a look at information systems in general and the basic principles of on-demand computing, what we're trying to do as an industry is to build our information systems to transparently flow business processes, regardless of what platform those processes are running on. Information systems, if they are utilized properly, serve process flows, not the other way around.

So if that's the big picture, then what you've got to do is build your information systems so that they can handle this heavy message-oriented traffic that's created by Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). If you move your information systems to SOA, then you're going to drive those SOA process flows over virtualized consolidated underlying systems . . . that's the design point the industry in general is working toward. So in terms of advanced virtualization and all the stuff you're starting to see in Power Systems, that's all toward building these highly optimized, finely tuned, very busy systems.

Posted by cmaxcer on June 30, 2008 at 9:09 AM | Comments (3)

June 23, 2008 9:16 AM

The AS/400 Turns 20

Weathering two decades of industry and technology changes, including a few adjustments to its name, the AS/400 turned 20 on June 21. IBM is holding a celebratory event in Rochester, Minnesota, today, with representatives from COMMON and a handful of customers, some of whom won a trip to Rochester to help celebrate the milestone. What a milestone it is! Last week I spoke with Ian Jarman, IBM's manager of Power Systems software, who expressed a few interesting aspects of the 20-year-old system that are worth sharing. Here are some snips:

Customers First

"It's very appropriate through the event to recognize that although this is an anniversary of a system and a technology, more than anything else it's an opportunity to reflect on the unique community that the AS/400 spawned of loyal and passionate customers around the world. We want to recognize the community of ISVs and Business Partners who made this the marketplace what it is today," Jarman said.

Six-Figure Performance Improvements

When it comes to technology and performance, quite a lot has changed since IBM introduced the original AS/400. IBM has announced the Power 595 64-way behemoth, but it won't be available with IBM i until September.

"The original AS/400 B10 had a CPW rating of 3. If we look at the 595, it has a CPW rating of 300,000. So it's 100,000 times more powerful than the original AS/400, which is quite an incredible growth in terms of technology," Jarman noted.

"Equally important to us and to our customers is the fact that applications written on the original AS/400 or even on the 36 or 38 can still run today without recompilation. So we've managed to maintain the promise of application compatibility through the unique architecture of the system all these 20 years," he added.

Case in Point

"When we made the move to 64-bit in 1995, a lot of people were excited and interested in that, and as it turned out, that was the key point which demonstrated that the AS400 architecture was indeed something special and unique in the industry because that change really brought the AS400 forward -- unlike our competitors such as DEC, Wang, and Data General, who weren't able to overcome technology changes in the industry," Jarman explained.

"From a technology point of view, when we look back 20 years, the AS/400 architecture has delivered the ability to overcome technology changes and continue to run applications unchanged. That's why I think you can look to the future with great confidence because that same architecture is what's brought us to Power Systems and is allowing us to take advantage of new technologies today, such as blades and so on, and is allowing us to take our customer community into the mainstream of IBM and the customer community going forward," he said.

Coming Back to Community

"Probably even more important is to recognize that there is something special about the community of customers, Business Partners, and ISVs that has grown around the platform," Jarman noted. "When you step back and look at other architectures and other systems, there's something very special here. The AS/400 was a catalyst for software houses that became ISVs and a different approach to marketing through Business Partners instead of directly from IBM -- there were a whole series of changes the system spawned way beyond the technology itself."

Posted by cmaxcer on June 23, 2008 at 9:16 AM | Comments (41)

June 17, 2008 10:33 PM

Having It Easy with i

So Mike Pavlak over at Zend hasn't forgotten the i, but he's a bit shy -- or perhaps appropriately quiet -- in a crowded room. His second blog post covers the php|tek conference, which occurred in late May, and his post is a great read for IBM i enthusiasts. Here's a snip:

Oh yeah, we got it easy…One of the sessions I attended was given by a network professional who specializes in clustering lots of little Intel boxes in order to scale PHP websites. I guess this is a cool thing for the Intel world. It involves a lot of complicated networking and servers and more. He went on and on about BGP and round robin DNS and all kinds of topics. The room was packed and the entire audience was absorbed! People really wanted to hear what this guy had to say. If only they knew. If only they were aware of the power of the Power systems like the IBM i. It was everything I could do to keep from shouting 'Go get an i'! Maybe I should have.

For the rest, go to Pavlak's post.

Posted by cmaxcer on June 17, 2008 at 10:33 PM | Comments (2)

June 16, 2008 9:30 AM

i and AIX: Not Exactly the Same on Power Systems

There are still some differences in how IBM is rolling out its converged System i and System p server lineup -- though it's not so much the hardware that's different as it is the availability of the operating system. In the IBM i world, we'd pretty much always rather be first, but is being first really that critical? Last week IBM announced that its POWER6-based Power 595 running AIX with DB2 9.5 smoked by HP in the latest TPC-C benchmark by delivering nearly three times the performance per processor core of HP Superdome at a lower cost.

According to the Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC-C) benchmark result, the IBM UNIX system is the first and only server to achieve more than six million transactions per minute, IBM reports, which is 6,085,166 tpmC at $2.81/tpmC. Of course, the true cost of a multi-million dollar system is rarely calculated from a so-called sticker price, but at least it can help a buyer work the numbers. In any event, here's IBM's take:

The performance of the Power 595 can replace three 128 core HP Superdomes (384 cores spanning six computer racks) with two 64 core Power 595 servers (128 cores spanning just two computer racks), which also reduces the number of processor cores by 66 percent, which can save 20 percent on energy costs and 55 percent on software licensing purchased by the core, which also can reduce floor space by 59 percent. Per-core performance matters to customers because most major UNIX software vendors charge per core for software licenses.

i in September, Linux in October

So, yes, this is just another proof-point that the POWER6-based Power Systems are superbly scalable, etc., etc., and the assumption might be, in this post-era of System i and p consolidation, that IBM i and Linux would also be available to run on the fast new 595 that started shipping in May. Well, they can't. IBM will support the IBM i operating environment in September, followed by Linux in October.

So back to the question: Is being first really that critical? Probably not. Sure, if you're a customer in the middle of an upgrade cycle, you might find yourself in the position of needing to wait and not wanting to. Seriously, the 595, etc., is a multi-million-dollar Power System. I doubt many of these customers are quibbling with IBM over a couple of months, and if they were, I'm positive the delivery date would be sooner. Besides, if business growth had somehow rapidly expanded beyond a large customer's ability to have existing i-based boxes handle the workload, I'm sure an IBM rep could come up with a mutually beneficial solution in the meantime.

Still, I did query IBM just on the off chance that something has changed in the company's delivering strategy. Rick Bause, communications manager of the IBM Systems & Technology Group, says the availability of AIX, i, and Linux on Power 595 is simply a matter of optimizing testing schedules and resources. AIX has a smaller stack versus the integrated i environment, so it has been IBM's first OS tested with POWER6 on the high end.

Basically, not a lot has changed, just the availability of the operating system and how it's rolled out. From a business perspective, it seems odd to me to ever deliver a Power System to market by staging OS efforts in some sort of changing pattern, i.e., so that i or Linux becomes available first. However, I could see IBM holding a Power System until all three were ready in order to manipulate customer upgrade cycles or achieve some new marketing mission.

Posted by cmaxcer on June 16, 2008 at 9:30 AM | Comments (1)

June 9, 2008 9:43 AM

Bullish on Blades -- But Customers Hard to Find

Ninety percent of System i clients can fit on a POWER6-based blade, currently the 2-core 3.8 GHz JS12 and 4-core 4.0 GHz JS22, according to Mark Shearer, vice president of marketing for IBM Business Systems. Both blades are wicked fast, but it turns out that "fit" is more closely aligned with horsepower than trunk space. Although a Chevy Silverado pickup customer could theoretically upgrade to a Corvette, the driver might have to customize the Corvette with a hitch to drag along a storage trailer loaded with reality.

To put this in perspective and see how early interest in i blades is shaping up, I spoke with Stan Staszak, director of System i/x products for Sirius, an IBM Premier Business Partner. Interest, it turns out, is high, but sales are super low.

"We've been struggling to find the ideal customer or the perfect fit for the new blades," notes Staszak. "Ideally it would be a customer who already has the BladeCenter H chassis. Optimally you'd also want the customer to have either the DS4000 or DS8000 [series] external storage server. The challenge is, that's a really small subset of our customers. I'm sure those customers are out there and exist, but they also have to have the overlap of being an i-based shop."

Officially, in the BladeCenter H chassis for IBM i storage, IBM supports the IBM System Storage DS4700, DS4800, 8100, and DS8300 products connected via the VIOS partition.

Non-Compatible Storage

"It seems like the external storage has been the show stopper. Even if they are considering adopting the blade technology, they already have an investment in a non-compatible storage server," Staszak explains.

"I think the way we are ultimately going to overcome that is that IBM is going to have to do some additional testing to certify other storage servers. Based on the fact that we are utilizing Virtual I/O Server, it really shouldn't matter," he adds, noting that customers who have a different storage solution might be able to use it -- but it wouldn't be supported.

"I respect the fact that Rochester is being very conservative, and that's why they've only certified initially the DS4000 and 8000 because those are the only two they've tested. I think in the future we'll see some additional testing," Staszak says.

RAIDing the S

"Another thing I'd like to see is RAID support for the BladeCenter S chassis. If we could take advantage of the onboard disk in a JS12 or JS22 and utilize a subset of the 12 disks that are in a BladeCenter S chassis, but also support RAID, I think that would be a nice little offering. Right now we're forced to do either non-protected or mirroring and we're very limited by the maximum of 12 disks in that enclosure," Staszak explains. "So we're back to, 'OK, Mr. Customer, do you have any other external storage, and, if so, what type?'"

Where's the Fit Now?

If a customer doesn't already have a supported storage solution, who's going to buy a BladeCenter S? Staszak can see it going into organizations that have multiple distributed small servers, for example a retail environment that might also have a couple of Intel servers that could also be installed on the BladeCenter S.

Customers migrating from an older server that doesn't necessarily have a nice upgrade path might look at migrating to a blade-based environment. "But if they've got multiple towers worth of I/O adapters . . . probably not a good fit, so that's another important consideration: what kinds of adapters do they have today? And what are they actually using?" Staszak says, noting that some customers can be weaned off some of their more esoteric adapters.

Still, "If you're looking at the JS22, which has 13,800 CPW, you need a fair amount of disk arms to support that," he says.

"Based on the fact they are very powerful processors, we need to see some benchmarks as far as disk I/O performance, even using the DS4000 or 8000 with Virtual I/O Server, I'm hesitant to recommended it until we do some testing to make sure disk I/O is not a bottleneck," he explains.

Sirius has run through a lot of different scenarios for customers, but in most cases, the standalone box running IBM i 5.4 or 6.1 has remained the more attractive option -- though that's not to say blades aren't going to become a better solution as IBM keeps refining its offerings.

"I think blades are going to help people stay on the platform, and I'm ecouraged to see Rochester take these steps. I'm a big fan, a big proponent of the blade in general," Staszak says. "In the future, five-to-ten years, it's going to be widely adopted. We're still in the ramp-up phase."

Posted by cmaxcer on June 9, 2008 at 9:43 AM | Comments (3)

June 5, 2008 8:08 AM

Zend Hires PHP Expert-Advocate Mike Pavlak

So I just noticed that Zend has hired Mike Pavlak. Although this move isn't exactly super important in the big scheme of things, it is kind of cool. Here's why: Pavlak was one of the first guys to recognize the value of PHP on System i, and he put it into production at his former company, Trippe Manufacturing. Not only did he make himself available to the press for comments and advice on PHP with System i, but he has also done some work for System iNetwork and System iNEWS. For example, he taught an online e-learning class and wrote "The Essential Guide to PHP", plus he's working on a piece for System iNetwork on the implementation of PHP CLI on IBM i.

In his first blog post for Zend, Pavlak writes, "Before joining Zend I was a passionate advocate for PHP on the IBM Power i server. Now I actually get paid to follow my passion! How cool is that? The real point I'd like to make here is that if you don't think PHP is ready for enterprise then guess again. Zend is delivering, and I just bet my career on it."

So what's the bottom line here? If you're an IBM i developer, you may not be willing to bet your career on PHP, but PHP is still an important tool to hang on your belt. Pavlak, working for Zend, may very well help introduce it to more people than ever.

Posted by cmaxcer on June 5, 2008 at 8:08 AM | Comments (2)

June 2, 2008 9:34 AM

So the i Has It, Eh?

As news editor for System iNetwork, I operate in two distinct, yet closely aligned realities -- electronic and print. In the first reality, everything happens quickly. News breaks, we publish it, readers comment on stories and blog entries, and the whole thing is constantly shifting and evolving. In print, I write a monthly Industry Report for System iNEWS magazine. After it heads to the printer, it's done, but what's alien to a guy like me is that there's at least a two-month lag between the time I write something and the time it ships out in hard copy form. A lot can change in two months.

Earlier this year, I made a couple of predictions in print that IBM would likely converge System i with p sometime soon, and although those notes panned out sooner rather than later, it can look a little quaint to read something vague in print that's essentially already played out in fact online.

In June's "The i Has It: IBM Powers On," much is the same, though there is a sarcastic reference to "i for Business" that has since been smoothed out by IBM. What's really different now -- what doesn't come through -- is that I was much closer to the material back then. It was more raw with the issues both exciting and irritating, and now I've settled down and am waiting to see what the old System i industry does with the new IBM i Power reality. You can now purchase or lease IBM i and Power systems. Will 23 percent of System i shops migrate to POWER6-based hardware this year? Will 6 percent install IBM i on a blade? What will the 25 percent who are undecided about i on a blade actually do? Will shops ignore all the new options and opt for i Editions?

Now, more than ever, the doing will define the new direction of our ecosystem. These choices are in the hands of customers who are tasked with running their own businesses. In two months, in four months, in six . . . how will customers act on IBM's shift?

Posted by cmaxcer on June 2, 2008 at 9:34 AM | Comments (2)

May 28, 2008 9:26 PM

COMMON Belgium Tips to Power, Is COMMON Next?

Now that IBM's System i group is part of the IBM Power Systems group, COMMON Belgium has wasted little time shifting its focus to be more inclusive of the latest related IBM technologies. The user group posted a letter on its website a few weeks ago noting, "We are pleased to announce that COMMON Belgium, the users association that used to profile itself strongly as a System i-user group, has decided to become the users association of medium-sized and small enterprises that are or want to become clients of IBM."

This means that the user group will cover different server types, storage, management, middleware, and applications whether or not they run on IBM i. So with COMMON Belgium shifting focus, are COMMON and COMMON Europe next?

To find out, I queried COMMON President Randy Dufault, asking if the topic had come up for discussion either formally or informally at COMMON, if COMMON was considering any sort of name change, and, moreover, what he -- as president -- was thinking on the matter.

"Any time IBM restructures itself or its products there certainly is an impact on the user community, and most certainly, an impact on the organized user group community. Over the course of the 48 years COMMON has been serving users of IBM midrange computing products, things have changed a bunch of times, and despite those changes, COMMON's core mission of providing advocacy, education and community for its members is as relevant today as it was nearly half a century ago. There hasn't been any discussion or consideration for changing the name," he noted.

"That said, the key question is, 'What defines a user of IBM midrange computing products?' It could easily be argued that the umbrella of Power Systems now encompasses much, if not most, of that community. IBM i is a huge part of the community and will continue to be. However, it seems right now that the other parts of the Power Systems community are not well represented by independent user groups, and I think COMMON has a lot to offer to them," he added.

Dufault noted that the COMMON Board of Directors is constantly looking at how it can best serve the COMMON membership.

"Though final plans are not in place, benefits and services that will address the needs of the broader Power Systems community -- benefits and services across all three pillars of COMMON -- will likely be a part of the organization's very near future. There should be little or no impact to COMMON's members who concentrate primarily on IBM i, just more opportunities if and when they have other needs beyond i in their Power Systems environment," he explained.

From my perspective, the idea that COMMON would naturally expand with IBM's shift isn't particularly surprising -- how it will play out in terms of education, identity, advocacy, and membership growth is certainly up in the air. Instead of juggling a few different kinds of balls, think of a guy trying to juggle a handful of COMMON attendee badges. It's gonna be a tough job.

Dufault also said that the IBM reorganization generated quite a bit of discussion during the recent COMMON Europe board meeting and that he expects that the individual user groups in countries in Europe will likely develop their own strategies -- like COMMON Belgium did.

"Ultimately I suspect all of COMMON's sister organizations around the world will look to serve the broader Power Systems community," he said. "The next few years should be great fun as we learn from each other what the best ways are to serve our members."

Posted by cmaxcer on May 28, 2008 at 9:26 PM | Comments (1)

May 27, 2008 9:50 AM

Making Management Understand the Value of System i

COMMON Europe's Top Concerns 2008 survey has revealed the latest Golden Concern: making management understand the value of System i. A Golden Concern is basically a free-text spot on the survey where respondents can enter any key concerns that weren't listed as pre-populated choices. COMMON Europe just wrapped up its annual Congress 2008 event in Barcelona and released the survey data.

For other top issues, the survey showed that "improve IT security and continuity" and "satisfy internal customers" are the topmost concerns for worldwide System i users. For the first time this year, COMMON Europe extended its multilingual survey for global participation, and 370 people responded from all corners of the globe.

The top concerns were followed by "do fast application development to fulfill business needs," "keep the skills current for the existing staff," and "treat data security and confidentiality as business risks." Surprisingly, COMMON Europe noted, "Virtualise servers" and "Reply with efficacy to ever growing storage needs" came in at 13 and 15 in a list of 15.

The second-most-cited Golden Concern, by the way, was "native graphical user interface (or modernize application)."

IBM's Power Systems Announcements (and Customer Plans)

Customer responses to the recent IBM announcement were:

• Migrate in 2008 to IBM i 6.1: 43% yes, 37% no, 20% unspecified
• Migrate in 2008 to Power 6 processors: 23% yes, 55% no, 22% unspecified
• Migrate in 2008 to Blades with IBM i 6.1: 6% yes, 69% no, 25% unspecified

COMMON Europe uses the Top Concerns survey to understand its member priorities and to influence IBM and its Business Partners.

"IBM looks forward to the feedback from the i community through Top Concerns and especially the requirements from the COMMON Europe and Americas customer advisory councils that help shape our future products," noted Mark Shearer, vice president of marketing for IBM Business Systems, in his keynote speech at the COMMON Europe Congress in Barcelona.

"Feedback from previous surveys has strongly influenced our IBM strategy for the new Power Systems platform," he added.

Posted by cmaxcer on May 27, 2008 at 9:50 AM | Comments (4)

May 14, 2008 11:21 AM

IBM's Eric Hess Covers PowerHA for i and More

I recently did a Q&A podcast, "IBM i High Availability and Disaster Recovery for 2008", with Eric Hess, who is an IBM executive IT specialist for IBM Power Systems. He's only got 27 years of IBM experience in all aspects of availability and storage for the AS/400, iSeries, System i and IBM i, but hey, we won't hold that against him.

In the podcast, Hess covers IBM's availability strategy for the IBM i community, what's new in 2008 for IBM i availability, PowerHA for i, and common mistakes made by organizations, and tops it all off with some advice for moving forward with high-availability and disaster-recovery solutions.

While we're on the subject, IBM has a new HA/DR site for IBM Power Systems that you might want to bookmark: http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/power/software/availability/i5os.html

Posted by cmaxcer on May 14, 2008 at 11:21 AM | Comments (0)