Big British IBM business partner APSU is holding three major events to fly the flag for Power Systems.
Its Technology Showcase events take place at Manchester United FC’s Old Trafford ground on June 24, London’s Canary Wharf on July 9 and the Silverstone racing circuit in Northamptonshire on September 16.
Sky News presenter Martin Stanford (pictured) will compare all three dates. Entrance is free via registration on the APSU website.
The three fixtures are APSU’s way of celebrating the launch of Big Blue’s Power8 hardware as well as the new 7.2 version of the IBM i operating system. Experts from IBM and APSU will discuss what Power8 will really mean for users looking at upgrading from Power5 and Power6 architecture.
There will be an exploration of AIX and Linux workloads, a guide on how to use ILMT (IBM’s Licence Metric Tool) and a demo of IBM’s Virtual Server Recovery (VSR) offerings for IBM i, AIX and x86.
IBM’s new PureSystems are also in there in the mix. The APSU team will look at how Flex and PureFlex are positioned for SAP, data management and the cloud. They also promise to demonstrate how PureFlex and Flex can reduce licensing costs and provide fast set-ups with a single management interface for x86, IBM i, AIX and Linux on one platform.
As well as a look at working with IBM’s Technical Support Appliance (TSA), there will also be presentations on FlashSystem and Storwize V7000.
Attendees at the Manchester event will get the chance to tour Manchester United’s ground with one of the club’s former players and watch the Group D England vs Costa Rica fixture live on screen after the event.
APSU’s Canary Wharf date will feature an added session on XIV storage hosted by Eyal Zimran, IBM’s chief technology officer.
The Silverstone event is actually being held in the Silverstone Pit Garage and features a special display of Watson working via SoftLayer. Visitors will be able to test Watson’s capabilities by asking the system questions which will apparently provoke immediate responses.
The September event will also feature brand-new IBM hardware on display in a Silverstone pit garage. Organisers say that this will work well for presenters as they can showcase the gear’s physical characteristics during their pitches and attendees can view the latest technology up close during breakout sessions.
