After nearly two years since ITG released its last cost of acquisition and ownership study comparing IBM i on Power Systems to the competition, the research firm has done it again. And still, the results are astounding. In six manufacturing, distribution, and retail companies, ITG found that IBM i-based installations are significantly less expensive to acquire and run over the course of three years. 

This isn't news to IBM i fans. 
 
Of course, it ought to be sit-up-and-notice news to most everyone else. 
 
The ITG study compared IBM i 7.1 on Power Systems to Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008, as well as to x86 Linux with Oracle Database 11g. The results? 
 
Initial cost of acquisition for hardware and software licenses average 24 percent less than Windows-based solutions and 47 percent less than x86 Linux and Oracle solutions. Ongoing costs average 51 percent less than Windows solutions and 61 percent less for x86 Linux/Oracle.
 
(If you haven't already let out a low whistle yourself, go ahead and do it now.)
 
When a broader set of IT costs are applied -- hardware acquisition and maintenance, license and support costs for operating systems, databases, and other systems software, as well as personnel costs for system and database administration, plus the electric bills -- the savings remains eye-opening: IBM i 7.1 on Power Systems averaged 44 percent less than x86 with Microsoft Windows Server and SQL Server, and 57 percent less than x86 Linux with Oracle databases.

Even With PowerVM, IBM i Remains Far More Efficient

The bottom line is that a pair of IBM Power Systems can handle workloads better than the 10 x86 systems required to do similar jobs. ITG notes, "In one of the comparisons presented in this report, for example, 10 physical Windows servers, two of which act as VMware hosts, are required to handle the same applications, workloads and instances that run on two partitioned Power Systems configured in a PowerHA SystemMirror for i failover cluster."
 
There are a lot of great nuggets in this report -- as well as detail about the installations and calculations -- so you'll want to check out the entire report, which is available online in .pdf format from IBM. In fact, it might not be a bad idea to save the online .pdf to your hard drive so you can forward it along to your colleagues with a note: "Oh hey, this IBM i on Power Systems cost report is illuminating, to say the least. Might make for some good holiday reading over the break on your iPad."