IBM Launches New Generation of IBM Power Servers for Hybrid Cloud

IBM has launched the new IBM Power E1080 server, the first in a new family of servers based on the new IBM Power10 processor, designed specifically for hybrid cloud environments. The IBM Power10-equipped E1080 server is engineered to be one of the most secured server platforms and is designed to help clients operate a secured, frictionless hybrid cloud experience across their entire IT infrastructure.

The IBM Institute of Business Value’s 2021 CEO Study found that of the 3,000 CEOs surveyed, 56 percent emphasized the need to enhance operational agility and flexibility when asked what they’ll most aggressively pursue over the next two to three years.

Many see the answer to this need in a hybrid cloud computing model, which combines on-premises resources with cloud-based infrastructure and can offer up to 2.5x greater value than a public cloud-only approach. However not all hybrid cloud models are designed equally.

“When we were designing the E1080, we had to be cognizant of how the pandemic was changing not only consumer behavior, but also our customer’s behavior and needs from their IT infrastructure,” said Dylan Boday, VP, Product Management for AI and Hybrid Cloud, IBM. “The E1080 is IBM’s first system designed from the silicon up for hybrid cloud environments, a system tailor-built to serve as the foundation for our vision of a dynamic and secure, frictionless hybrid cloud experience.”

The new IBM E1080 was designed to introduce several key features including:

• Enhancements for hybrid cloud like planned industry-first, by the minute metering of Red Hat software including Red Hat OpenShift and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, 4.1x greater OpenShift containerized throughput per core vs x86-based servers, and architectural consistency and cloud-like flexibility across the entire hybrid cloud environment to drive agility and improve costs without application refactoring.
• New hardware-driven performance improvements that deliver up to 50 percent more performance and scalability than its predecessor the IBM Power E980, while also reducing energy use and carbon footprint of the E980, allowing customers to do more with less. The E1080 also features four matrix math accelerators per core, enabling 5x faster inference performance as compared to the E980.
• New security tools designed for hybrid cloud environments including transparent memory encryption so there is no additional management setup, 4x the encryption engines per core, allowing for 2.5x faster AES encryption as compared to the IBM Power E980, and security software for every level of the system stack.
• A robust ecosystem of ISVs, Business Partners, and support to broaden the capabilities of the IBM Power E1080 and how customers can build their hybrid cloud environment, including record-setting performance for SAP applications in an 8-socket system. IBM is also launching a new tiered Power Expert Care service to help clients as they protect their systems against the latest cybersecurity threats while also providing hardware and software coherence and higher systems availability.

“The newly launched IBM Power E1080 server is designed to be the backbone of a hybrid cloud platform that can provide maximum inter-operability and control to the clients. It will help for seamless deployment of workloads across the hybrid platform as well as faster development of new cloud-native applications, helping enterprises in India to scale their operation and deliver enhanced services to their customers. We see opportunity from BFSI, Telecom, Manufacturing, Retail and Healthcare sectors for the IBM Power10 servers in India and our ecosystem partners will be an integral part of our go-to-market strategy. As part of our go-to-market strategy for Power10 server, we will also be reaching out to Independent Software Vendors who work with clients in a garage format to implement their solution through IBM servers,” said Ravi Jain, Director – Server Sales, IBM India/South Asia.