Maxed Out
Because the System i can run at redline speed all day long . . .
May 7, 2008
Revisiting the New Power Names
Ian Jarman, who is now the manager of Power Systems Software for IBM, was reading Maxed Out and noticed my disdain over the "i for Business" phrase, as well as my softer, more positive side on the new Power-related logos. So in a proactive move, he set up a conference call to go over the latest IBM naming conventions, which I'll share here, because, hey, these name changes are confusing. Besides, I've got some really great news.
In referring to what was formerly known as i5/OS, IBM i is the official product name, and that's a deliberate pairing of both terms -- IBM and i -- so that it will show up well in Web searches. In its own publications, IBM will typically use IBM i at least on the first reference, thought it's also possible to use i separately when referring to the operating system or the OS-related world, like i applications, i community, i solutions, or i running on a 520. 
As for specific releases, that's IBM i 6.1, i 6.1, i 5.4, or even just 6.1.
"One thing that we never use is 'i for Business'," Jarman noted. "That's just in the logo."
So, thankfully, "i for Business" is not part of the official name, and in fact, it has more to do with trademark issues in the logos than it does with promoting the heritage of i5/OS. It turns out that "i" is quite popular as a trademark element, as is "i" inside of a circle for logo usage. IBM had to find a way to create a logo that wouldn't infringe on other logos, and including "for Business" helped. Plus, that little underline slash graphic . . . same deal.
The unintended side effect of the tweaked logo is actually good for the i world -- it distinguishes i from AIX and Linux, properly positions the OS as an operating system for business, and it creates a logo that's harder to glance over or ignore.
"The whole purpose [of the logos] is to bring together the marketing and branding of our software under Power Systems Software, and that's going very well because we want to raise the profile of all this, and in particular, raise the profile of PowerVM because that's a new brand -- and better position the operating systems as a group that run on Power Systems," Jarman explained.
PowerVM, by the way, is the new brand for the logical partitioning that System i customers have been using since 1999 -- so the underlying core of it isn't new to the System i world. More importantly, PowerVM is the special mojo that makes the Power System so flexibly strong.
Posted by cmaxcer at May 7, 2008 8:17 AM
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