The Smart Choice- x86 Can Weigh You Down With Hidden Costs

The Smart Choice

x86 Can Weigh You Down With Hidden Costs

The Smart Choice | Power | IBM Systems Magazine

The January 2011 IBM System Magazine has an article highlighting how the computing platform that uses the x86 processor or equivalent has hidden costs.  As the article says, "You get what you pay for".

The article goes in to some detail about the hidden costs of the x86 platform versus the Power Systems/Iseries/I5/AS400 platform.  The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is a generally understood concept, but identifying the actual cost metrics can be difficult. 

The power and performance of the new Power Systems is unmatched in the "business transactional computing" environment.  The system reliability (up time), server consolidation (maintenance, power supply and cooling, physical space), and performance are key metrics to start with.

Companies love this platform.  Once implemented a company may change their software, but will rarely change the hardware.  It is not perfect, but it is superior to the alternatives. 

If another processor based server is required the versatility of the Power System enables running other operating systems as a "guest" of the system.  Still reducing the hardware maintenance, while taking advantage of the resiliency of the system.


I encourage everyone to take a few minutes to read the full article by clicking the link at the top of this post.  For more information about how Dolvin uses this technology in their solutions provided by VAI, click the link below.

Dolvin Consulting