[Advertorial] Downtime costs every organization a lot of money. Reduce the risk of downtime with reliable IT infrastructure. Comarch makes sure you can sleep on both ears with its PowerCloud on Power servers and IBM i.
IT managers today face complex challenges. They must not only ensure that things stay up and running 24/7, but also constantly look for ways to do more with available resources. Like a house, the IT environment must therefore stand on a solid foundation.
If this is not the case, then IT infrastructure is a liability for your organization. Infrastructure that is constantly down is not only costing your company money in the short term, but also holding back growth in the long term. Investing in reliable and scalable infrastructure lays the foundation for an IT environment that grows with your needs. Together with Comarch, we discuss why you can confidently build your IT house on IBM Power and IBM i.
The cost of downtime
Numb servers that can go down at any time: it’s every IT administrator’s nightmare, but also just a reality for many companies. Research from Forrester shows that four in 10 companies experience unplanned downtime at least once a month or even a week. Every second your IT is not operational, your business is losing revenue.
It is difficult to stick an exact amount on downtime. That’s because the total cost involves much more than lost revenue. Downtime can come with data loss, disruption of continuity and displeased customers if your services are inaccessible too often.
Studies unanimously agree that the cost of downtime is only going up. For large companies, estimates run to hundreds of thousands of dollars per hour. But even small businesses can miss downtime like a toothache.
Downtime is far from the only hassle that can cost your organization money and give IT managers headaches and anxious sweat. Isolated IT systems with associated “information silos” and manual processes are also holding back efficiency and growth. Companies need IT infrastructure that stands for reliability but also encourages integration and automation.
99,9999%
Comarch has the solution for all your IT concerns. The Polish IT specialist runs its PowerCloud on IBM Power servers, and that’s no coincidence: Power servers are a unique piece of IT. We previously took a comprehensive look under the hood.
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The secret behind the unique Power servers: a look under the hood
Thanks to its robust and reliable hardware, IBM Power servers guarantee 99.9999% uptime. Every decimal point makes a big difference here. This means that at worst, you will only face 3.3 minutes of downtime per year.
Power servers are not only reliable but also designed to provide flexibility and efficiency. They remain stable at CPU loads of up to 95 percent. In addition, IBM Power offers many opportunities for virtualization and consolidation of critical applications on a single platform.
IBM i and Power: bread and butter
Reliable hardware is important, but Power servers make all the difference with their operating system. Although you basically have the freedom to run an operating system of your choice on the servers, in many situations the default option is IBM i the obvious choice. After all, this operating system is tailor-made for Power servers, so the hardware and software go together like bread and butter, or even better.
IBM i is the heir to OS400, the operating system of the first generations of Power servers. One of the great strengths of the OS is that it is offered as an integrated operating system. Unlike classic operating systems where the various components are “glued” together, IBM i integrates everything into one cohesive stack.
This enables significant cost savings for businesses. First, IBM i guarantees high uptime. Reboots are rarely if ever needed, and even when they are, a fast recovery process ensures minimal impact. Thanks to its unique architecture, you enjoy increased security against cyber attacks or data loss.
But administrators and end users also benefit from IBM i. The user-friendly interface requires no specialized skills and minimizes maintenance requirements. Time-consuming routine tasks such as invoicing, data management and workflows are fully automated. In this way, IBM i ensures that you only have to worry about your business, and not your IT infrastructure.
Unleash the power
Despite all the proven benefits, Power servers face some persistent biases. One such prejudice is that it is an expensive technology. That might be true if you were to purchase the servers themselves.
A single Power server quickly goes for several tens of thousands of dollars. On top of that comes maintenance. If you don’t take care of your servers, performance will eventually degrade and those promises of high uptime may go in the trash.
You may now be thinking that Power servers are beyond the budget of an average SME, but that doesn’t have to be the case. By partnering with a reliable partner, you can significantly reduce the cost of entry. Comarch offers cloud services on its own IBM infrastructure. In PowerCloud, the power and reliability of Power servers meets the flexibility and scalability of the cloud.
The pay-as-you-go model used by Comarch ensures that you only pay for what you consume. No upfront costs or unpleasant surprises on the final bill. PowerCloud grows with your company: the amount of server power can be adjusted at all times according to your needs. Moving Power infrastructure to the cloud enables cost savings of up to forty percent. Moreover, Comarch ensures a seamless transition to the cloud.
Comarch’s experts take server management out of your hands. That way, the IT team doesn’t have to worry about checking whether all the lights are on. Security is also guaranteed in Comarch’s data center. You can sleep on both ears that your infrastructure is always ready.
This is a commercial contribution in partnership with Comarch and is part of a three-part series on IBM Power. For more information on the PowerCloud-solutions.