In looking at IBM’s website I have noticed a number of claims about our product and their offerings that frankly aren’t true. As such, I wanted to give you my thoughts on what IBM is claiming:
IBM Claim 1: z10 mainframes can outperform HP Superdomes on power consumption by a factor of 2.5x or greater.
Faulty assupmtions: Per IBM, 1 mainframe is equivalent to 4 64-way Superdomes, with no reference to source given.
Reality: HP estimates that a fully loaded HP Integrity Superdome is 33% more powerful than a fully configured z10 EC. That changes the equation a bit, doesn't it!!
IBM Claim 2: There is no mainframe skills shortage
Faulty assumption: Mainframe reduces IT staff requirements over "distributed" environments. I honestly can't believe they are serious here. Any time IBM uses "distributed", their basis for comparison is servers that are 5 years old, grossly under-utilized (rougly 5%), non-virtualized and running one application per server. This is the only way IBM can show TCO saving versus the mainframe. IBM also touts "thousands of mainframe-trained graduates", but includes those that have taken just a class or two. Are these the people that companies want to run their mainframe?
Reality: Virtualized environments and the tools from HP reduce IT staff and enable new employees to come up to speed quicker. On the staffing front, analysts say that IT stafffing for legacy systems such as the mainframe is an area of caution.
IBM Claim 3: NonStop and Mainframes have the same availability
Faulty assumptions: Used general system availability used by Gartner to show parity.
Reality: Actual customer environments, as measured by Standish Group, show that NonStop exceeds mainframe availability even if the mainframe is clustered for higher availability.
IBM Claim 4: Mainframes have better TCO than HP Integrity
Faulty assumptions: The study used was one "conducted by IBM", but does not show the basis for comparison to the HP Superdome.
Reality: If IBM really wanted users to compare system performance, they would use industry standard benchmarks to do so.
My advice is don't take what they are saying for granted. Kick the tires and look under the hood to make sure the claims are actually true.
Posted
10-13-2008 7:14 PM
by
Martin Fink