When IBM announced two weeks ago that Mike Borman was taking over as General Manager of the iSeries group, the news riveted the attention of the midrange community. Indeed, the buzz about Borman caused many people to overlook another important announcement. Three days after the executive shuffle, IBM released new prices, terms, and conditions for its eServer i5 models.
While I examined the core concepts behind the announcements in an article that I posted two weeks ago, the official "letters"--as IBM calls them--contain details that deserve further exploration. This article starts the exploration process. However, before you venture out with me, I would encourage you to read (and perhaps reread) the aforementioned column as well as my July 19 article that examines the new Model 570 servers. The eServer i5 is a very different animal than the iSeries 8xx, so you should understand how IBM is packaging this versatile beast before tackling its finer details.
The Pricing Is in the Packaging
If there is one thing that you need to understand about eServer i5 prices, it is that the multiprocessor models use a more "unbundled" pricing system than the one that the iSeries 8xx models use. To put it another way, the price of an eServer i5 depends on the optional i5/OS licenses and Enterprise Enablement features--in other words, 5250 capacity--that you add to it. By contrast, the iSeries 8xx models include these options as standard features. This makes the multiprocessor 5xx models somewhat like cars on a showroom floor whose list prices do not include everything that you need or want, such as air conditioning and power windows. Each eServer i5 Standard and Enterprise Edition is more of a starting point than a complete package.
The following table takes this basic principle and applies some hard figures to it. The table shows the number of active processors for each of the multiprocessor eServer i5 models. It also shows the number of i5/OS licenses and Enterprise Enablement features that come standard with each model and edition.
|
New Packaging and Pricing for n-Way eServer i5 Models
|
|||||||
|
Model Number
Active/Standby
Processors Performance
|
Standard Edition
Base Offering |
Enterprise Edition
Base Offering |
|||||
|
Active Processors2
|
Processors with i5/OS Licenses3
|
Base
Price |
Active Processors2
|
Processors with i5/OS Licenses3
|
Enterprise Enablement Features4
|
Base
Price |
|
|
520-0905
2-way 6000 CPW |
2
|
1
|
$59,000
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
$175,000
|
|
570-0930
1/2-way 3300-6000 CPW |
1
|
1
|
$71,000
|
1 + 11
|
1
|
2
|
$300,000
|
|
570-0921
2/4-way 6350-12000 CPW |
2
|
1
|
$82,000
|
2 + 11
|
1
|
4
|
$450,000
|
|
570-0922
5/8-way 15200-23500 CPW |
5
|
4
|
$276,000
|
5 + 11
|
4
|
4
|
$662,000
|
|
570-0924
9/12-way 25500-33400 CPW |
9
|
4
|
$339,000
|
9 + 11
|
4
|
4
|
$970,000
|
|
570-0926
13/16-way 6350-44700 CPW |
13
|
4
|
$404,000
|
13 + 11
|
4
|
4
|
$1,358,000
|
1 The number of active processors includes one additional processor activation provided in the Enterprise Edition.
2 Additional processors may be activated at a cost of $7,700 per processor.
3 Additional i5/OS licenses are available for $45,000 per processor.
4 Additional Enterprise Enablement features may be purchased if required. The cost is $50,000 per feature for the Model 520 and $150,000 for the Model 570. On the Model 570, customers can also purchase maximum 5250 capacity on all active processors for $250,000.
As you study the table, note that it has a "base price" instead of a "list price" column. To determine the list price for a model you are considering, you should take the base price and add to it the cost of any extra i5/OS licenses and Enterprise Enablement features that you might need (the prices are in the footnotes). You should also add $7,700 per processor for any standby processors that you will need to activate. If you are wondering how many extra processors, i5/OS licenses, and Enterprise Enablement features you may need, use the following guidelines:
- Each standby processor that you activate will give you an extra 2,700 to 2,750 CPWs of raw performance over and above the base CPW rating of the server. The base CPW rating is in the far left column of the table. You can use activated processors to run OS/400, Linux, or AIX applications. However, you will need to buy an i5/OS license in order to use the extra performance for OS/400 workloads.
- Each additional i5/OS processor license that you purchase will give you the capacity of one extra processor (again, around 2,700 to 2,750 CPWs) to run OS/400 applications. Understand, however, that if you intend to use that capacity to run 5250 applications, you may need to purchase an Enterprise Enablement feature.
- The Enterprise Editions come standard with a base number of Enterprise Enablement features. Each feature gives you the capacity of one processor to run 5250 applications. As a result, you get around 3,000 CPWs of 5250 performance on the 2-way Model 520, around 6,000 CPWs on the 1/2-way Model 570, and around 12,000 CPWs on the other Model 570 servers. Should you need more 5250 capacity than these levels offer you--and few customers will need more than these levels--you must buy additional Enterprise Enablement features. Each Enterprise Enablement feature will give you around 2,700 to 2,750 CPWs of 5250 application performance--in other words, one incremental processor's worth. By the way, an Enterprise Enablement feature does not limit you to running 5250 applications on a single physical processor. That would require you to use partitions to control where your 5250 applications run, and IBM is not forcing you to do that. An Enterprise Enablement feature simply provides one processor's worth of 5250 capacity that you can use across all of your active processors.
The Price of Freedom
While the new pricing system gives customers greater flexibility to configure their servers, that flexibility comes at a cost. The cost is the added burden that it puts on customers to know the computing resources that each of their iSeries applications is using. That burden was not as great on the iSeries 8xx Enterprise Editions because those offerings were relatively complete bundles. The problem with complete bundles, however, is that they allow their owners to be a little sloppy when it comes to monitoring resource usage. By contrast, you will need to measure and model your capacity usage at a fairly granular level before you order a multiprocessor eServer i5 model. If you don't, you could easily under-configure or over-configure your system.
There are many other details about the new eServer i5 pricing system that deserve examination, and I plan on visiting those details in future articles. Be on the lookout for columns about the costs of upgrading to the multiprocessor models and deploying Linux and AIX on the systems. For now, I would encourage you to power up your Performance Management for iSeries tools, run some capacity usage reports, and prepare yourself for our next journey into the brave new world of IBM's eServer i5.
Lee Kroon is a Senior Industry Analyst for Andrews Consulting Group, a firm that helps mid-sized companies manage business transformation through technology. You can reach him at
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