More companies are relying on business applications designed for their industry and tuned for specific business needs. Localization is key to business success for both multinational and regional companies. Interactions with clients, supply chain partners and other departments must be in the...

1. IBM Systems and Technology Power Systems
Solution Brief
IBM PowerLinux Industry
Application Solution
Editions
Optimized business solutions from IBM, OEMs,
ISVs and SIs
More companies are relying on business applications designed for their
Highlights industry and tuned for specific business needs. Localization is key to busi-
ness success for both multi-national and regional companies. Interactions
Deliver industry-specific services faster
●● ● ●
with clients, supply chain partners and other departments must be in the
with IBM® PowerLinux™ workload
optimized solutions
native language, use the local currency, and adhere to country-specific
regulations. Large global software houses provide localized applications
●● ● ●
Apply trusted IBM and local expertise in for most every size operation. For midsize businesses, the optimal IT
business and technology to help create
value in your organization solutions are often industry-specific applications from regional software
providers and systems integrators.
●● ● ●
Exploit resiliency and security provided
by POWER7® and PowerVM® for critical
industry applications Platform selection is typically determined by the combination of what
the firm has used in the past and the software architect’s hardware recom-
Simplify operations and lower acquisition
●● ● ●
costs
mendation. This can result in inefficient use of server and system software
resources.
IBM has teamed with global and regional software providers to deliver
localized industry solutions designed to maximize the return on invest-
ment of the total solution, with built-in efficiency and simplicity.
IBM PowerLinux Industry Application Solution Editions are complete
systems, optimized by leading global and regional independent software
vendors (ISVs), original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and systems
integrators (SIs) in partnership with IBM.

2. IBM Systems and Technology Power Systems
Solution Brief
Built on POWER7 technology, and leveraging IBM experience Simplified server configurations for an industry solution can
in Linux and virtualization, these workload-optimized systems be achieved through full exploitation of IBM PowerVM—often
help midsize IT organizations focus on delivering the applica- to a single server. A PowerLinux server can support to up to
tions’ business value rather than managing the system 160 virtual machines with near linear virtual machine scaling.
environment. Studies show that the the greater the number of virtual
machines used, the more throughput can be obtained1. The
Faster time to value system resources including processors, memory, I/O and
IBM PowerLinux technology provides a feature-rich and network adapters can all be virtualized. PowerVM’s dynamic
resilient stack that is optimized for data-intensive industries resource management can add and remove them from running
such as manufacturing, healthcare, government and research virtual machines as each workload’s demands fluctuate. This
and development. Industry Application Solutions Editions allows workloads small and large, compute and I/O intensive,
leverage this foundation to help companies realize the solution transactional and batch, to co-exist on a single server with each
value more quickly through being allocated exactly the resources it needs, when it needs
them. A single server environment can be quickly and easily
●● ●
pre-integration, testing and optimization of the complete deployed and managed.
hardware and software stack
●● ●
server landscape simplification via exploitation of The IBM PowerLinux Solution Edition for SAP Applications
IBM PowerVM for IBM PowerLinux virtualization is an example of a simple, single server environment for midsize
●● ●
rapid high quality implementation by industry and IT companies. Supporting up to 500 SAP ERP users, the
skilled OEMs and cohesive teams of IBM Business Partners virtualized solution can be configured with virtual machines
supporting a multi-tier SAP ERP landscape:
IBM provides Industry Application Solution software providers
with rich enablement and optimization support to help them,
in turn, provide well-tuned solutions to clients. This support
includes tools, programs and personal assistance. For example,
IBM optimizing compilers and the IBM Advance Toolchain for
PowerLinux are key performance improving technologies. The
IBM Chiphopper™ offering helps ISVs build their applications
to open Linux standards creating a single source code tree for
better portability and customer support.
Systems integrators may build custom solutions for particular
industries and markets. For example, RAMEC-VS provides
a system optimized for the Russian market, including the
IBM PowerLinux 7R2 rack server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux,
IBM PowerVM for IBM PowerLinux, IBM DB2® Universal
Database, and several local ISV applications.
2

3. IBM Systems and Technology Power Systems
Solution Brief
●● ●
SAP ERP production environment POWER7 processors provide the foundation for designing
●● ●
SAP ERP development environment optimized systems in conjunction with software and expert
●● ●
IBM DB2 database software domain knowledge. POWER7 workload-optimizing technolo-
●● ●
SAP Solution Monitor gies such as Intelligent Threads enable PowerLinux solutions
to execute faster than on x86 based systems. With up to four
PowerLinux Industry Application Solution Editions are Intelligent Threads per core—x86 processors only have two
delivered by skilled solution providers which help bring the “non-intelligent” ones—the technology dynamically switches
solutions’ value to the business quickly with IBM assistance. the processor threading mode to deliver optimal performance
for different workloads. Emerging applications such as big data
●● ●
Optional RHEL or SLES operating system factory pre-load analytics are scale-out, thread intensive workloads and software
●● ●
IBM Installation Toolkit for PowerLinux for fast installation providers like Fixstars in Japan are taking notice. With
and optimized default configuration parameters PowerLinux servers, Fixstars clients can gain new industry-
●● ●
PowerVM Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM) to sim- specific insights faster to help outpace their competition.
plify virtual machine creation and management—a browser-
based tool designed specifically for midsize businesses.
●● ●
Classroom and online technical education, and how-to
guides on PowerLinux architecture, PowerVM, and The initial Fixstars Hadoop big data
solution architecture, sizing, implementation and tuning. appliances will be optimized for the medical,
Most of the tools and services are available at no additional
manufacturing and finance industries for
charge to client staffs which choose to deploy the solutions small to mid size organizations. Each
in-house. solution will consist of 3 - 5 PowerLinux
7R2s in a single clustered configuration.
Superior economics
The IBM PowerLinux platform helps lower total solution —Owen Stampflee, Linux Product Manager, Fixstars
costs in several ways. In addition to low purchase prices on
high-value servers, virtualization software and operating system
support, PowerLinux-based solutions can drive more through-
put with less overhead than x86 servers running VMware. PowerVM efficiencies contribute to acquisition savings for
Fewer servers are required to support the same workloads, Industry Application Solution Edition clients. The unique
whether they require a virtually consolidated or scale-out capabilities of PowerVM enable clients to achieve extremely
configuration. Fewer system administrators and management high levels of sustained utilization—80 percent to 90 percent
tool licenses are needed to manage fewer servers. With fewer in some cases—for more throughput on fewer servers compared
servers comes additional savings on power, cooling, per-socket to x86 servers with VMware. A recent study shows the
software licenses, cabling, networking – and a less complex IBM PureFlex system with POWER7 processor-based
IT environment.
3

4. IBM Systems and Technology Power Systems
Solution Brief
compute nodes running Linux and PowerVM delivers Less downtime
72 percent higher throughput performance than VMware PowerLinux Industry Solution Editions take advantage of
vSphere v5 on x86, running the same workloads on Linux Linux and potentially open source infrastructure services such
across virtualized resources.2 as the LAMP stack—Linux, the Apache web server, MySQL
relational database server, and PHP/Perl/Python scripting
Incremental throughput is also achieved through the use of languages. Through the IBM Linux Technology Center,
the IBM Advance Toolchain for GNU compilers and tools, IBM brings decades of experience in mission-critical systems
Post-Link Optimization and IBM Compilers for Power and RAS, virtualization and emerging industry capabilities to
Systems™ servers—all designed to exploit IBM Power Linux and open source software, bettering Linux for all. IBM is
Architecture®. The more efficient the pathways through consistently among the top commercial contributors of Linux
the code and linked programs, the greater performance and code as measured regularly by The Linux Foundation’s “Who
throughput can be attained, freeing cycles for additional writes Linux” series3. Linux continues to be a fundamental
workloads. A leading regional Information and Communication component of IBM business—embedded deeply in hardware,
Technology (ICT) solution provider to the Italian market, software, services and internal deployment.
Zucchetti Group’s testing has shown excellent performance
on applications for accountants, employment consultants and A totally integrated approach to the design, development,
associations and on their HR and ERP solutions for enterprises. and testing of every PowerLinux server ensures the resiliency
required for today’s industry solutions. All POWER7 server
models include innovative reliability, availability and serviceabil-
ity (RAS) features that help avoid unplanned downtime.
The new IBM [PowerLinux] machines IBM RAS engineers optimize server design to help ensure
produce a performance improvement of that IBM PowerLinux servers support high levels of concurrent
at least 40 percent compared to Linux error detection, fault isolation, recovery, and availability.
High availability software solutions from IBM Tivoli and
machines based on Intel x86 and represent SUSE complement the inherent hardware reliability.
an ideal tool to assure continuity over time,
supporting the needs of development and RAS is an imperative to the healthcare industry. IBM Watson is
growth of applications without the need an optimized system comprised of 90 POWER7 based servers
running Linux4. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and
for further investments. IBM have agreed to collaborate on the development of a pow-
erful tool built upon IBM Watson in order to provide medical
—Alberto Cazzulani, HR Business Unit Technologies & Services Manager, professionals with improved access to current and comprehen-
Zucchetti Group
sive cancer data and practices. The resulting decision support
tool will help doctors everywhere create individualized cancer
diagnostic and treatment recommendations for their patients
based on current evidence.5 The ability to use Watson to
4

5. IBM Systems and Technology Power Systems
Solution Brief
industrial-strength PowerVM for PowerLinux and unique
workload optimizations, the PowerLinux 7R2 is the ideal
server foundation for tuned to the task solutions for analytics,
infrastructure and industry applications.
The IBM PureFlex System combines compute, storage,
networking, virtualization and management into a single
infrastructure system that is expert at sensing and anticipating
resource needs to optimize IT infrastructures. The IBM Flex
System™ p24L Compute Node is a 12-core or 16-core
POWER7 based server architected for virtualization,
performance and extraordinary efficiency. The compute
node supports Linux operating environments and is designed
to run a wide variety of workloads in a PureFlex System.
IBM PowerVM for IBM PowerLinux
The IBM PowerLinux family of servers is optimized for scale-
out Linux computing, maximizing flexibility and reliability
answer complex questions posed in natural language with speed, when compared to traditional Linux servers. With these servers
accuracy and confidence has enormous potential to improve and IBM PowerVM virtualization, an organization can more
decision making across a variety of industries from health care, efficiently virtualize all server resources and reduce server
to retail, telecommunications and financial services. sprawl by driving higher utilization per core and more through-
put per server. This efficiency results in significantly reduced
IBM PowerLinux servers costs, with improved service levels and security. IBM PowerVM
PowerLinux Industry Application Solution Editions are built on for IBM PowerLinux provides the industrial strength virtualiza-
world-class IBM PowerLinux servers equipped with two sockets tion solution for IBM PowerLinux servers—offering more
and up to 16 cores, running the Linux operating system. These capabilities at lower prices than VMware vSphere v5.
value-priced servers have been designed to go head-to-head
with x86 servers on cost, while delivering greater performance, Why IBM?
higher utilization, and superior availability. PowerLinux servers IBM embeds domain knowledge learned in over 100 years of
enable organizations to realize higher value from their solution experience as a world’s premier information technology com-
deployment. pany, into PowerLinux offerings. The Linux user community at
large recognizes the enterprise-class value IBM brings to Linux
The IBM PowerLinux 7R2 server is a two-socket server and Linux servers such as PowerLinux—and bringing that value
offering with 16 POWER7 cores in a dense, 2U rack-optimized to companies of all sizes. We’re proud that in December 2011
form factor. It is a high-performance, energy-efficient and readers of the Linux Journal selected IBM as the winner in the
reliable server fueled by the outstanding performance of “Best Linux Server Vendor” category in the Journal’s 2011
the POWER7 processor supporting a choice of Linux Readers’ Choice Awards.6
operating systems from Red Hat or SUSE. Combined with
5

6. IBM’s deep understanding of clients’ business challenges and
emerging opportunities across multiple industries, has earned
us the honor of being a trusted partner to global and regional
industry application providers around the world. With presence
in 208 countries, clients and industry software firms alike bene-
fit from global fulfillment of hardware and systems software, as © Copyright IBM Corporation 2012
well as renowned IBM services and support. Systems and Technology Group
Route 100
Somers, NY 10589
IBM facilitates OEM business relationships through programs
that bring together IBM Business Partners with industry solu- Produced in the United States of America
April 2012
tion providers. This program helps them develop integrated
products and solutions based on IBM technologies such as IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, POWER7, PowerVM, Power Systems,
and PowerLinux are trademarks of International Business Machines
PowerLinux and bring these solutions to market quickly
Corporation in the United States, other countries or both. If these
and cost-effectively. The established IBM Business Partner and other IBM trademarked terms are marked on their first occurrence
ecosystem is ready and trained to help size and implement the in this information with a trademark symbol (® or ™), these symbols
indicate U.S. registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at
PowerLinux foundational aspects of the solution, allowing the
the time this information was published. Such trademarks may also be
industry solution provider’s experts to customize the application registered or common law trademarks in other countries. A current list
and train end users to meet requirements of your business. of IBM trademarks is available on the web at “Copyright and trademark
information” at ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml
For more information PowerLinux uses the registered trademark Linux pursuant to a sublicense
from LMI, the exclusive licensee of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux
To learn more about IBM PowerLinux Industry Application mark on a world-wide basis.”
Solution Editions, please contact your IBM representative
Other company, product or service names may be trademarks or service
or IBM Business Partner, or visit the following website:
marks of others.
ibm.com/power/powerlinux
1 “IBM PowerVM Virtualization Technology on IBM POWER7 Systems”,
January, 2012. ibm.com/systems/power/software/linux/powerlinux/claims.html
Additionally, IBM Global Financing can help you acquire the 2 “Virtualization Performance on the IBM PureFlex System”, April 2012.
IT solutions that your business needs in the most cost-effective ibm.com/systems/power/software/linux/powerlinux/claims.html
and strategic way possible. We’ll partner with credit-qualified 3 “Linux Kernel Development: How fast it is going, who is doing it, what
clients to customize an IT financing solution to suit your busi- they are doing, and who is sponsoring it”, March 2012. http://
ness goals, enable effective cash management, and improve your go.linuxfoundation.org/e/6342/ho-writes-linux-2012/879kf/221839922
total cost of ownership. IBM Global Financing is your smartest 4 “System Administration of the IBM Watson Supercomputer”, April 2012.
choice to fund critical IT investments and propel your business http://www.linuxjournal.com
5 Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, IBM to Collaborate in Applying
forward. For more information, visit: ibm.com/financing
Watson Technology to Help Oncologists, March 22, 2012. ibm.com/press/
us/en/pressrelease/37235.wss
6 Linux Journal 2011 Reader’s Choice Awards, “Best Linux Server Vendor”,
December 1, 2011. ibm.com/linux/award.html
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