Whilst IBM’s Enterprise range did come out back in September 2021, that provided for the high-end Power clients only.  With this release of low and mid-range servers, the capability of Power10 is made available to everyone.

In a nutshell, the key benefits of Power10 are;

• Enhanced Security – Power10 includes 4 Crypto engines per core, providing hardware acceleration to encryption operations.  With this capability, clients can turn on transparent memory encryption on Power10 to protect data in-flight with no performance impact.  This is designed to enhance security across hybrid cloud environments without impacting performance of business-critical applications.

• Performance – Whilst we have become acclimatised to performance improvement with each generation with IBM Power, it’s fair to say that this is not easy.  Compared to x86 architecture where performance enhancements are mainly only being realised by throwing more cores into a server, IBM have continued to make significant progress with every generation on per core performance.  For instance;

• AIX – Compared to POWER9, Power10 can provide up to 39% improvement per core and compared to POWER8, up to 100% per core
  • IBM i – Compared toPOWER9, Power10 can provide up to 88% improvement per core and compared to POWER8, up to 163% per core

• Energy Efficiency – Despite improvements in processor performance, IBM have targeted a reduction in the region of 33% in power and cooling cost, helping clients control their energy footprint in a time where spiralling energy costs need to be kept in check

What’s being announced?

With this announcement, IBM will release their 1 and 2 socket Scale Out Power10 servers – by far the most popular in the range.  For those familiar with the naming of POWER8 and POWER9, the Power10  Scale Out range will come as no surprise – the new range includes servers from the S1014 to the S1024 being released.  A brief summary is provided below:

• S1014 – 1 socket 4U server aimed primarily at IBM i installations.  This server replaces the S814 / S914 servers popular with IBM i for the lack of limits on LPAR size and options for both P05 and P10 processor groups.  All processor cores and memory are active as standard

• S1022S – 1/2 socket 2U server with up to 16 cores.  This is a new server in the range compared to POWER9 and provides a stepping-stone in between the S1014 and S1022 in terms of processing capacity and cost.  All processor cores and memory are active as standard

• S1022 – 1/2 socket 2U server with up to 40 cores providing excellent compute density for IBM i, AIX or Linux.  Compared to the comparative POWER9 S922 which had a maximum of 20 cores, the S1022 doubles the core count in the same footprint along with offering enhanced performance per core with Power10. 
• The maximum size of an IBM i LPAR on the S1022 is 4-cores but this will suit the majority of IBM i clients and offer a very compelling consolidation platform with a low footprint to assist with co-location charges.  The S1022 is the first in the Power10 range to move to dynamic resource activation – either through Capacity Upgrade on Demand or as part of an Enterprise Pool – more details on this are covered below.

• S1024 – 1/2 socket 4U server aimed at Midrange and Enterprise processing environments.  With up to 48-cores per server, this again doubles the core count compared to the S924 forebear.  The S1024 will be offered with up to 8TB memory per server (although only 2TB at GA), making this an ideal target for applications with large memory footprints.

• L1022/L1024 – 1/2 socket 2U servers with the same layout as the S1022/S1024 above but primarily for Linux.  With the significant memory offered in the L1024, this an ideal target for applications with large memory footprints, such as SAP HANA.  IBM continues its close partnership with SAP and will certify the L1024 for use with HANA.  With all ‘L’ models, IBM allow 25% of the active cores to be used for any other OS (i.e. IBM i/AIX) to allow for server consolidation.

Power with added Cloud

As mentioned above, the servers up to the S1022S come with all processor and memory activated, allowing clients to run workload on any licensed cores.  Starting with the S1022, given the large number of cores installed, IBM are introducing dynamic capacity whereby clients can choose the number of cores they want to activate to reduce the purchase cost of the server. 

Using Power Private Cloud capabilities, server resources can be shared in pools to increase flexibility. Any capacity used above this base is invoiced monthly through pay-per-use consumption so the payment experience mirrors how you pay for public cloud.  However, all the while you maintain control of your critical applications and data wherever they reside today.

Key Takeaways and where next?

The market reception of Power10 so far has been fantastic.  The performance and capability of Power10 are great tools to help clients fulfil their business objectives around improved flexibility and security.  These are the right servers for these uncertain times, with a broad family of options and consumption choices to meet clients’ needs.  

However, with increased server performance comes increased strain on the storage infrastructure that underpins it.  As an IBM Platinum partner specialising in both IBM Power and Storage infrastructure, Northdoor can work with you to identify any potential bottlenecks and help you put a holistic solution together that will enable you to get the most out of Power10.

We’re busy at the moment carrying our briefing sessions with our clients to help them with their Power roadmap.  If you would like to learn more about Power10 or book your session, we would love to hear from you.