IBM Power Systems Software

High-availability solutions aim to achieve virtually uninterrupted availability of applications and services during both planned and unplanned downtimes. Business applications in a cluster are generally configured with at least two systems (VMs). The cluster monitors the critical resources for changes that could indicate an error, pending fault or potential configuration change. Alongside this, a cluster can also be configured for disaster recovery (DR) across far-flung locations through corresponding functions.

PowerHA SystemMirror and VM Recovery Manager for HA/DR deliver stable solutions with excellent availability

An IBM solution is based on high-availability PowerHA for SystemMirror (AIX and IBM i). This monitors one or more VMs and the applications installed there, and switches the services to another VM in the cluster if a server, network or storage system fails. It is the perfect response to service interruptions lasting a few minutes.

The second IBM solution is based on an external instance for monitoring the servers, VIOS and LPARs, and for restarting the service or entire VM on a different server. This server can be located in the same data center or a remote DR data center. In a DR data center, the solution is based on data replication via the connected SAN. This makes it possible to perform rehearsals – separated recovery tests – of the production environment, in order to test the transfer of the services to a DR location and secure it just in case.

OpenStack-based virtualization and cloud management with IBM PowerVC

IBM PowerVC is a virtualization and cloud management solution based on OpenStack for virtual Power Systems environments. It aims to provide a simple and user-friendly solution. IBM PowerVC can be used to reduce the overall operating costs of a virtualized environment, thanks to reduced management costs, optimized resource utilization and infrastructure performance focused on business goals. Beyond this, it can also be integrated at higher levels, such as SAP Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM) or IBM Cloud Pak for Multicloud Management, through cloud orchestrators.

Security and compliance with IBM PowerSC

A closely connected and data-intensive processing model comes with significant security risks for IT infrastructures. Given the significant increase in dependencies and the concentration of systems, there is a greater chance of failures impacting further systems. IBM Power Systems in combination with IBM PowerSC is a security and compliance solution optimized for virtualized environments with PowerVM and AIX, IBM i or Linux. This enables a significant improvement in both security management and fulfillment of compliance specifications.

• PowerSC offers pre-defined profiles to support industry standards such as PCI (v3), COBIT, HIPAA or GDPR, alongside real-time monitoring for changes to the specified security rules.
• This reduces downtimes on PowerSC in combination with IBM PowerVM by a sixth compared to x86 alternatives. No weak points have yet been found in connection with the PowerVM hypervisor.
• Alongside support for open standards, the Power Systems software offers a platform that is both powerful and above all secure. This helps boost trust among customers who run their most important applications and process data on the platform.