So Power11 has been announced, which I think we can safely say is what we expected it to be called, with the previous announcement of the Power11 processor. It’s also no surprise that there are even more elements of AI, however enough what we could have guessed and let’s discuss Zero planned down time – now that is impressive! The ability to provide system maintenance without taking the system offline. The ability to view and assess CVEs and remediate them using IBM Concert and produce compliance reports for areas like SOC2 and PCI. So when it’s not compliant you can then provide the required evidence, alternatively you can raise a ticket in your ticketing system like Salesforce and Jira, with all the information about the CVE and recommended remediation provided by watsonx.
An area that is normally considered last on the list are the applications because they ‘just work’. Normally you have updated the hardware, move the OS and on IBM Power it just works. Therefore, if it didn’t work, we would be more surprised, and this is the expectation with the long history of the IBM Power platform. However, as we move to a world where the estimated number of applications is 1 billion by 2028 and cyber-attacks are on the rise, the cost of not having your system operational and online is extremely high. So now is a great time to ask, what is your patching availability cycle? What is your certificate management process? What is automation strategy? While IBM Power11 is new, Red Hat Ansible is not and is still powerful against this platform (no pun intended) as well as others, bringing integration and collaboration together across different teams. It’s estimated that approx. 75% of companies are running a hybrid environment of which IBM Power11 can be consumed on prem, managed private clouds or public clouds like IBM Power VS and did I mention AI.
AI is not new (certainly not for IBM) and while IBM might not be considered #1 in this area, if you haven’t heard of IBM watson and watsonx, please reach out because they have some fantastic use cases that I’m happy to discuss. Now with IBM Power11, they are bringing AI infused workflows to assist with AI adoption, combining Red Hat OpenShift AI to support modernisation and containerising workloads. Speaking of modernisation IBM recently announced IBM watsonx Code Assistant for i (formally known as RPG Assistant) to help developers extend their business-critical RPG applications.
If you are running IBM Power, you will already be aware of the reliance, reliability and security, which is why it’s the enterprise platform of choice. Now IBM Power11 has built in quantum-safe cryptography where it is designed to help protect systems and should be highly considered, especially with the Quantum Safe Act 2030. With data sovereignty becoming more of discussion topic on most agendas, by the end of 2025 IBM will be supporting IBM watsonx.data, its own hybrid, open data lakehouse on IBM Power11.
Therefore, if you are looking at running AI workloads then look further than IBM Power and at Meridian we have Power managed services, SOC services along with AI and Automation capabilities. Meridian IT are trusted advisors of why you should upgrade to Power11 and it is not “well it’s faster”, but to assist your journey to adopting your own next generation digital transformation.
If this blog entry has piqued your interest, please contact your Meridian IT Client Director, or myself ([email protected]), for a chat.
