Key IBM i Posts from 2012 “You and i”

This has been an excellent year for IBM i, from many points of view. Professionally, it’s been excellent for me as well – and these two facts are definitely related. I’ve been more involved in talking to clients and partners than ever before, the IBM i team has delivered several key enhancements, and I am excited about the plans we have for 2013 and beyond.

As 2012 draws to a close, I want to leave you with a “summary” post that can serve to gather together the most important messages I’ve delivered here through the year. I’ve organized them into themes

 

Key Announcements

Two Technology Refreshes came out in 2012, and those are important, but they are not the only big announcements: 

• IBM i 7.1 TR4 – with Live Partition Mobility
• IBM i 7.1 TR5 – Navigator, Guardium, BRMS Enterprise & more
• V5R4 End of Service coming 9/30/13
• Software Group Announcements around Rational Open Access and Sub-Capacity Virtualization Pricing

 

IBM i and Smarter Planet

A theme of our messages this year was to show how IBM i fits into the larger message from IBM about building a smarter planet.

• Cherry Central – an IBM i client selected as an example of Smarter Planet when the initiative first began.
• IBM i - Designed for Data Video – The first of three pillars for Smarter Computing, and a clear strength of IBM i.
• IBM – Workload Optimized – The second pillar, in which IBM i benefits again from our DB2 implementation, plus our focus on integrating with applications and storage.
• IBM i – Managed with Cloud Technologies – Finally, the Cloud video, which features Live Partition Mobility.

 

Strategic Messages and Customer Resources

I use this blog to more clearly articulate messages we want you to know about IBM i’s strategy and to share material that you might find useful.

• IBM i Information Strategy – Here is an overview that describes the relationship between blogs, the Information Center, developerWorks and so on. This is likely to be a key theme in 2013.
• “Why IBM i?” Presentation refresh and some overview material about the architecture – We make this presentation available for people to use if they find it helpful. We updated it a couple of times this year and will likely publish more “Why i?” content next year. Watch this space.
• IBM i into the 2020s – A recent blog discussing the long life we are planning for IBM i.
• ITG Studies for IBM i Midsize and Enterprise Clients – The most recent post, with very important information about the financial benefits of using IBM i & Power Systems.

 

I’ve also had a couple of customer reference posts, one about Turner Industries and another about Nishii Paint Industry, a customer IBM i won from the competition. I hope to have more of these next year, because I’ve received quite a few positive comments about the value of these examples.

I look forward to continuing this blog into 2013. I know we have many new things to tell you about throughout the year. I also want to share some of the stories of clients using IBM i solutions to enable their businesses to succeed.

But first, vacation! I’ll enjoy some time off around the holidays. I hope you all can, too. See you next year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

TCO, TCA and Low Cost of Downtime – the ITG Studies and IBM i

Two studies have recently been completed by the International Technology Group (ITG) that should be of particular interest to the IBM i community. I wrote about the previous ITG study back in February of 2011. Now, almost two years later, the refreshed study confirms what the prior study showed, and what we all know from experience: IBM i on Power Systems is not only a great platform for function and stability, but it’s also a great platform for a company’s bottom line.

The first new study is the ITG study called “IBM i for Midsize Businesses.” The short URL for it is http://bit.ly/IBMiTCO_ITGMidsize and it confirms that the total cost of ownership for IBM i is significantly less than for the typical x86-based competition. Here’s a key chart.

The numbers are impressive. Over a three year period, running a midsize business on the combination of IBM i and Power Systems costs 44% less than running that business on Microsoft Windows Server and x86, and 57% less than Oracle/Linux on x86. These numbers continue the value proposition the platform has had for years, enabled as they are by the integrated nature of IBM i, and the automated nature of DB2 for i.

What remains a surprise for many customers and prospective customers, however, is how those three-year costs break down between Total Cost of Acquisition (TCA) and operational costs. The numbers are in the following chart:

Again, IBM i and Power Systems combine to beat the competition on average for acquisition costs; by 24% vs. Windows and x86 and by 47% vs. Oracle/Linux and x86. This means that ongoing operating expenses for IBM i are less than half of what they are for competitive environments; on average 51% less than Windows and 61% less than Oracle/Linux.

ITG did more than one study this time. They created a study that is of more interest to our larger clients. That study is called “IBM i for Enterprise Businesses: Quantifying the Value of Resilience” because one of the most important aspects of a platform for large clients is “How much money will it cost me when it doesn’t work?” The short URL for that study is http://bit.ly/IBMi_ITGEnterprise.

For this study, ITG looked at large businesses in various industries that run on IBM i, and those in the same industry that run on competitive platforms. I’ve selected on chart that shows the huge difference platform choice makes.

Again the study looks at a three-year period, and again, IBM i + Power Systems is a winning combination. With the integrity and reliability of the system, and with the features we’ve added over time to allow more changes to be made in the environment without disruption, the cost of downtime is significantly lower on IBM i. And this is a trend. A great quote from the study:

"No matter how one rates the value of IBM i’s distinctive strengths, that value is increasing over time."

Please, take a few minutes to look at one or both of the studies. And the next time you encounter someone who wonders if trusting your business to IBM i and Power Systems is the right business decision, point them to the documents. The numbers in the study, plus your personal experiences with the stability and function of IBM i make a pretty powerful story.

 

 

 

 

 

Future of IBM i – CAAC Buzz

Recently, the COMMON Americas Advisory Council (CAAC) was in Rochester to see what IBM has planned for IBM i, Power Systems and related products. During my presentation to them, I showed a couple of charts that caused a significant amount of excitement – and quite a few people commented on Twitter. Here’s one of those tweets:

Now, you might wonder if these CAAC members broke some rule by letting out some confidential information. But, in fact, they did not. These people are very professional and treat IBM’s information carefully.

We’ve been using a couple of charts to describe the IBM i strategy as it relates to new function and as it relates to the length of support for releases. We typically only use them in face-to-face meetings, though. Why? Because taken on their own, without the words we’re saying face-to-face, people can misinterpret them. But, because these charts have been presented at several events, the charts are out in the public domain. I figured I’d show them to you today, and I’ll write the key messages we typically deliver verbally.

You promise to read the words, right? The words are important. You’ll read the words? OK, with that promise, here’s the first chart.

IBM i 7.1 added the capability to update key parts of the operating system with Technology Refreshes (TRs), and so far, we’ve delivered five of them. Before TRs, we delivered a new major release every two years. (They used to be even more frequent than that.) With TRs, IBM i has been able to deliver key features such as Live Partition Mobility without a major release. In fact, we have delivered enough function since 7.1 that a full release would have been required to deliver it. Because TRs are more granular, more self-contained, these updates have been delivered without making changes in the surrounding operating system.

However, there will be more major releases. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, there are some enhancements that are simply too large and too pervasive for Technology Refreshes. In fact, our IBM i development team is working on two major releases after 7.1 already.

This was the message that got the members of CAAC excited first, and they wanted to know if it was public knowledge. Indeed it is. In fact, a version of the chart is included in the Strategy Paper released by Colin Parris, the Power Systems General Manager. If you’d like to see that, go to the “Power of i” website and download the latest version at http://bit.ly/Powerofi. Now, to be fair, the paper does not specifically mention the future releases that are under development, but the chart is there, and the “i next” and “i next + 1” releases are on the chart.

The second chart – and the one that started the activity on Twitter – points out that the V5R4 release will reach “End of Service” on September 30, 2013. But another point that jumped out at the CAAC members is the time span covered by the chart. Take a look at it, but then please read the words I have after it.

So, there it is: a chart that shows IBM i out past 2025. That’s certainly worth tweeting about. As I’ve said quite a bit recently, though, “it’s just math.” Because the first chart showed two releases under development, clearly they are going to be delivered at some point, and they will have a period of support. Given how frequently IBM i major releases are produced, and how long they are likely to be supported, it’s pretty easy to build a timeline that carries those releases out into the middle of the next decade.

The point I like to make right away is that any line on the chart that has an arrowhead on it represents a rough timeframe. For example, IBM is not announcing an “End of Service” date for 6.1 or 7.1. The chart’s 6.1 and 7.1 arrows merely mean “if these releases have a life cycle as long as V5R4 did, their EoS date will be out to about here.” V5R4 is the longest-lived release ever for this platform. Customers keep asking us to keep releases in market longer, so there’s no reason to believe we’d support 6.1 and 7.1 any less time than we did V5R4, but we have not made any announcements.

Similarly the arrowheads for the “i Next” and “i Next + 1” releases do not indicate dates when we will announce those releases, when they will be available or when we will stop supporting them. However, because we do plan to have new releases, and we’ve told our customers that very clearly, this chart lays out what that would mean, on a calendar.

Many of the messages I give to clients are designed to give them a view of the commitment IBM has for the platform. When the CAAC saw these charts, they thought that the combined message of the two is very powerful. What do you think? Feel free to respond in the comments section.