IBM Z

The Cloud Gets Crowded and more Competitive

2022, Laura's Insights ITIC Blog / By

The cloud is getting crowded.

In 2022 the cloud computing market – particularly the hybrid cloud – is hotter and more competitive than ever.

Corporate enterprises are flocking to the cloud as a way to offload onerous IT administrative tasks and more easily and efficiently manage increasingly complex infrastructure, storage and security. Migrating operations from the data center to the cloud can also greatly reduce their operational and capital expenditure costs.

Cloud vendors led by market leaders like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, SAP, Salesforce, Rackspace Cloud, and VMware, as well as China’s Alibaba and Huawei Cloud, are all racing to meet demand. The current accelerated shift to the cloud was fueled by the COVID-19 global pandemic which created supply chain disruptions and upended many aspects of traditional work life. Since 2020, government agencies, commercial businesses and schools shifted to remote working and learning. Although COVID is generally waning (albeit with continuing flare-ups), a hybrid work environment is the new normal. This in turn, makes a compelling business case for furthering cloud migrations.

In 2022, more than $1.3 trillion in enterprise IT spending is at stake from the shift to cloud, and that revenue will increase to nearly $1.8 trillion by 2025 according to the February 2022 report “Market Impact: Cloud Shift – 2022 Through 2025” by Gartner, Inc. in Stamford, Conn.  Furthermore, Gartner’s latest research forecasts that enterprise IT spending on public cloud computing, within addressable market segments, will outpace traditional IT spending in 2025.

Hottest cloud trends in 2022

Hybrid Clouds

Hybrid cloud is exactly what its name implies: it’s a combination of public, private and dedicated on-premises datacenter infrastructure and applications. Companies can adopt a hybrid approach for specific use cases and applications – outsourcing some portions of their operations to a hosted cloud environment, while keeping others onsite. This approach lets companies continue to leverage and maintain their legacy data infrastructure as they migrate to the cloud.

Cloud security and compliance: There is no such thing as too much security. ITIC’s 2022 Global Server Hardware Security survey indicates that businesses experienced an 84% surge in security incidents like ransomware, email phishing scams and targeted data breaches over the last two years that were especially prevalent and commonplace. The hackers are extremely sophisticated; they choose their targets with great precision with the intent to inflict maximum damage and net the biggest payback. This trend shows no signs of abating. In 2021, the average cost of a successful data breach increased to $4.24 million (USD); this is a 10% increase from $3.86 million in 2020 according to the 2021 Cost of a Data Breach Study, jointly conducted by IBM and the Ponemon Institute. The $4.24 million average cost of a single data breach is the highest number in the 17 years since IBM and Ponemon began conducting the survey. It represents an increase of 10% in the last 12 months and 20% over the last two years. Not surprisingly, in 2021, 61% of malware directed at enterprises targeted remote employees via cloud applications. Any security breach will have a domino effect on regulatory compliance. In response, cloud vendors are doubling down on security capabilities and compliance certifications. There is now a groundswell of demand for Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) cloud security architecture designed to safeguard, monitor and access connectivity among myriad cloud applications services, as well as datacenter IT infrastructure and end user devices. SASE gives users a single sign-on capability across multiple cloud applications while ensuring compliance.

Cloud-based disaster recovery (DR): The ongoing concerns around security and compliance issues has also shone the spotlight on the importance of cloud-based disaster recovery. DR uses cloud computing to back up data and continue to run the necessary business processes in case of disaster. Organizations can utilize cloud-based DR for load balancing and to replicate cloud services across multiple cloud environments and providers. The result: enterprise transactions will continue uninterrupted if they lose access to their physical infrastructure in the event of an outage.

Cloud-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML): Another hot cloud trend is the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). Both AI and ML allow organizations to cut through the data deluge and process and analyze the data to make informed business decisions and quickly respond to current and future market trends.

Top cloud vendors diversify, differentiate their offerings

There are dozens of cloud providers with more entering this lucrative market arena all the time. However, the top four vendors: Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and IBM Cloud currently account for over 70% of the installed base.

Amazon AWS: Amazon AWS has been the undisputed cloud market leader for the past decade. And it remains the number one vendor in 2022. Simply put, Amazon is everywhere and it has amazing brand recognition. Amazon AWS offers a wide array of services that appeal to companies of all sizes. The AWS cloud-based platform enables companies to build customized business solutions using integrated Web services. AWS also offers a broad portfolio of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS).  These include Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2), Elastic Beanstalk, Simple Storage Service (S3) and Relational Database Service (RDS). AWS also enables organizations to customize their infrastructure requirements and it provides them with a wide variety of administrative controls via its secure Web-based client. Other key features include: data backup and long-term storage; Service Level Agreement (SLA) of “four nines” – 99.99% – guaranteed SLA uptime;  AI and ML capabilities; automatic capacity scaling; support for virtual private clouds and free migration tools.

As with all of the cloud vendors, the devil is in the details when it comes to pricing and cost. On the surface, the pricing model appears straightforward. AWS offers three different pricing options. They are “Pay as you Go,” “Save when you reserve” and “Pay less using more.”  AWS also offers a free 12-month plan. Once the trial period has expired, the customer must either choose a paid plan or cancel its AWS subscription. While Amazon does provide a price calculator to estimate potential cloud costs, the many variables make it confusing to discern.

Microsoft Azure: Microsoft Azure ranks close behind Amazon AWS and the platform has been the catalyst for the Redmond, Washington software giant’s resurgence over the last 12 years. As Microsoft transitioned away from its core Windows-based business model, it used a tried and true success strategy: that is, the integration and interoperability of its various software offerings.  Microsoft also moved its popular and well-entrenched legacy on-premises software application suites like Microsoft Office, SharePoint, SQL Server and others to the cloud. This gave customers a sense of confidence and familiarity when it came to adoption. Microsoft also boasts one of the tech industry’s largest partner ecosystem. Microsoft regularly refreshes and updates its cloud portfolio. In February, Microsoft unveiled three industry-specific cloud offerings: Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services, Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing and Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit. All of these services leverage the company’s security and AI functions. For example,  new feature in Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services, called Loan Manager will enable lenders to close loans faster by streamlining workflows and increasing transparency through automation and collaboration.  Microsoft Azure offers all the basic and advanced cloud features and functions including: data backup and storage; business continuity and DR solutions; capacity planning; business analytics; AI and ML; single sign-on (SSO) and multifactor authentication as well as serverless computing. Ease of configuration and management are among its biggest advantages, and Microsoft does an excellent job of regularly updating the platform, but documentation and patches may lag a bit. Azure also offers a 99.95% SLA uptime guarantee which is a bit less than “four nines.”  Again, the biggest business challenge for existing and prospective Azure customers is figuring out the licensing and pricing model to get the best deal.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP): Like Amazon, Google is a ubiquitous entity with strong brand name recognition. Google touts its ability to enable customers to scale their business as needed using flexible, open technology. Google Cloud consists of over 150 products and developer tools. GCP is a suite of cloud computing services provided by Google. It is a public cloud computing platform consisting of a variety of IaaS and PaaS services like compute, storage, networking, application development and Big Data analytics. The GCP services all run on the same cloud infrastructure that Google uses internally for its end-user products, such as Google Search, Photos, Gmail and YouTube, etc. The GCP services can be accessed by software developers, cloud administrators and IT professionals over the internet or through a dedicated network connection. Notably, Google developed Kubernetes, an open source container standard that automates software deployment, scaling and management. GCP offers a wide array of cloud services including: storage and backup, application development, API management, virtual private clouds, monitoring and management services, migration tools, AI and ML. In order to woo customers, Google does offer very steep discounts and flexible contracts.

IBM: It’s no secret that IBM Cloud lagged behind market leaders AWS and Microsoft Azure, but Big Blue shifted into overdrive to close the gap. Most notably, IBM’s 2019 acquisition of Red Hat for $34 billion gave IBM much needed momentum, solidifying its hybrid cloud foundation and expanding its global cloud reach to 175 countries with over 3,500 hybrid cloud customers. And it shows. On April 19, IBM told Wall Street it expects to hit the top end of its revenue growth forecast for 2022. IBM’s Cloud & Data Platforms unit is the growth driver Cloud revenue grew 14% to $5 billion during the just ended March 31 quarter. Software and consulting sales which represent over 70% of IBM’s business were up 12% and 13%, respectively. IBM Cloud incorporates a host of cloud computing services that run on IaaS or PaaS.  And the Red Hat Open Shift platform further fortifies IBM’s hybrid cloud initiatives. Open Shift is an enterprise-ready Kubernetes container platform built for an open hybrid cloud strategy. It provides a consistent application platform to manage hybrid cloud, multicloud, and edge deployments. According to IBM, 47 of the Fortune 50 companies use IBM as their private cloud provider.  IBM has upped its cloud game with several key technologies. They include advanced quantum safe cryptography which safeguards applications running on the IBM z16 mainframe which is popular with high end IBM enterprise customers. Quantum-safe cryptography is as close to unbreakable or impenetrable encryption as a system can get. It uses quantum mechanics to secure and transmit data in a way that currently makes it near-impossible to hack. Another advanced feature is the AI on-chip inferencing, available on the newly announced IBM z16 mainframe. It can deliver up to 300 billion deep learning inference operations per day with 1ms response time. This will enable even non-data scientist customers to cut through the data deluge and predict and automate for “increased decision velocity.”  AI on-chip inferencing can help customers prevent fraud before it happens by scoring up to 100% of transactions in real-time without impacting Service Level Agreements (SLAs). AI on-chip inferencing can also assist companies with compliance; automating the process to allow firms to cut audit preparation time from one month to one week to maintain compliance and avoid fines and penalties. The IBM Cloud also incorporates the Keep Your Own Key (KYOK) which uses z Hyperprotect in the IBM public cloud.  Another key security differentiator is IBM’s Confidential Computing which protects sensitive data by performing computation in a hardware-based trusted execution environment (TEE). IBM Cloud goes beyond confidential computing by protecting data across the entire compute lifecycle. This provides customers with a higher level of privacy assurance – giving them complete authority over data at rest, data in transit and data in use. IBM further distinguishes its IBM Cloud from competitors via its extensive work in supporting and securing regulated workloads, particularly for Financial Services companies. The company’s Power Systems enterprise servers are supported in the IBM Cloud as well. IBM Cloud also offers full server customization; everything included in the server is handpicked by the customer so they don’t have to pay for features they may never use. IBM is targeting its Cloud offering at customers that want a hybrid, highly secure, open, multi-cloud and manageable environment.

Conclusions

Cloud computing adoption – most especially the hybrid cloud model – will continue to accelerate throughout 2022 and beyond. At the same time, vendors will continue to promote AI, machine learning and analytics as advanced mechanisms to help enterprises derive immediate, greater value and actionable insights to drive revenue and profitability.

Security and compliance issues will also be must-have crucial elements of every cloud deployment. Organizations now demand a minimum of four nines of uptime – and preferably, five and six nines of availability – 99.999% and 99.9999% to ensure uninterrupted business continuity. Vendors, particularly IBM with its newly Quantum-safe cryptography capabilities for its infrastructure and IBM Z mainframe, will continue to fortify cloud security and deploy AI.

 

 

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IBM’s New z16 Aims for the Cloud; Delivers Quantum-safe Cryptography & AI on-Chip Inferencing

2022, Breaking News, Laura's Insights ITIC Blog, Year / By

IBM has once again outdone itself with its latest z16 mainframe server.

This latest offering has it all: unbreakable security; fast low-latency performance; top notch, easy-to-use analytics and true fault tolerant reliability that provides the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) and immediate return on investment (ROI) among 15 mainstream servers, industrywide.

The new IBM z16 delivers a cornucopia of embedded, and enhanced functions. This includes hardened security, leading edge AI and performance improvements. The result: the z16 delivers even greater cost efficiencies and a solid “seven nines” – 99.99999% – of uptime and reliability. The AI on-chip inferencing is icing on the cake. It makes readily accessible for all employees — not just data scientists.

The IBM z16 is indisputably the most powerful enterprise system from the zSystems family, to date. It incorporates 7nm technology with clock speeds of 5.2GHz, and it supports a maximum of 200 cores and up to 40TB of memory. According to IBM, this results in 25% more processor capacity per drawer and an 11% per core performance improvement. Overall, IBM said the z16 will deliver 40% better performance than the prior z15 models. And it’s engineered for hybrid cloud environments and provides interoperability with a wide range of environments including Linux and open source.

As impressive as those performance statistics are, the immediate and strategic impact of the IBM z16 is far more than a laundry list of “speeds and feeds.”

In a pre-briefing with analysts Ross Mauri, General Manager of IBM zSystems and LinuxONE, said IBM designed the IBM z16 to address enterprise customers’ need for top notch system performance, resiliency, security/data privacy and protection; dedicated workload accelerators and optimization across IBM’s entire product stack. Barry Baker, VP of Product Management for IBM zSystems said the openness of the IBM z16 enterprise system in supporting multiple operating system environments including Linux, z/OS and a variety of open source distributions like Ubuntu is a win for customers.
Mauri and Baker said the IBM z16 delivers automation, predictive and security capabilities across environments to help enterprise customers on their journey to hybrid cloud and AI. “We are focused on the entire ecosystem. IBM’s strategy has the zSystems platform integrated throughout our products and services offerings to build more value to our clients,” Mauri said.

IBM’s z16 addresses all of the hot button issues confronting organizations in the digital age: AI; performance and low latency; resiliency/security; hybrid cloud; workload optimization; cost efficiencies; interoperability and application modernization.

IBM z16 Quantum Cryptographic Security and AI on-chip Inferencing
The IBM z16 also includes several ground-breaking technology “firsts.” Two of the most noteworthy are the AI on-chip inferencing function and the quantum-safe cryptographic security capability.
The AI on-chip inferencing, which is available at no extra cost, is “a game changer”, IBM executives said. It can deliver up to 300 billion deep learning inference operations per day with 1ms response time. IBM executives also said that the IBM z16’s accelerated on-chip AI “effectively eliminates” latency in inferencing. The result: businesses can cut through the data deluge and predict and automate for “increased decision velocity.” It enables even “non data scientist” customers and users to analyze data and derive insights at heretofore unprecedented speeds. Additionally, leveraging AI in routine daily operational processes can proactively assist businesses to take preventive actions, like identifying and stopping outages before they occur.

AI on-chip inferencing can assist customers in preventing fraud before it happens by scoring up to 100% of transactions in real-time without impacting Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and helps companies keep up to date on fast-changing regulatory issues. The AI on-chip inferencing can also assist companies with compliance; automating the process to allow firms to cut audit preparation time from one month to one week to maintain compliance and avoid fines and penalties.

On the security front, the IBM z16 takes the pervasive encryption introduced in the z14 model and z15 System Recovery Boost and turbo charges it with quantum-safe cryptographic security. The z14 pervasive encryption model provided security at every layer of the stack. The z15 System Recovery Boost capability allowed businesses to drastically reduce the time it takes to shutdown, restart and process the backlog that occurred during a system outage.

Quantum-safe cryptography is as close to unbreakable or impenetrable encryption as a system can get. It uses quantum mechanics to secure and transmit data in a way that cannot be hacked (at least not yet).

The IBM z16 is the preeminent mainstream server platform for digital enterprises requiring nothing less than seven nines – 99.99999% — best-in-class fault tolerant reliability; quantum cryptographic security and AI on-chip acceleration across multi platforms from datacenters to hybrid clouds and the network edge while delivering the lowest TCO and immediate ROI.

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ITIC 2021 Global Server Hardware, Server OS Reliability Survey Results

2021, ITIC Reports & Surveys / By

The technical and business challenges posed by the ongoing global pandemic didn’t compromise the core reliability of IBM, Lenovo, Huawei, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and Cisco servers.

For the 13th straight year, IBM’s Z mainframe and mission critical Power servers achieved the highest server hardware reliability and delivered the strongest server security, among 15 different platforms, in ITIC’s annual 2021 Global Server Hardware, Server OS Reliability Survey.

And for the eighth consecutive year, Lenovo’s ThinkSystem servers again matched their best recorded uptime among all Intel x 86 servers along with Huawei’s KunLun and Fusion platforms. The HPE Superdome and the Cisco UCS hardware (in that order), rounded out the top five most reliable vendor hardware platforms (See Exhibit 1).

ITIC’s 2021 Global Server Hardware, Server OS Reliability independent Web-based survey, polled 1,200 corporations across 28 vertical market segments worldwide on the reliability, performance and security of the most popular server platforms from January through June 2021. Additionally, the preliminary findings from ITIC’s 2021 Global Reliability updated survey conducted from September through November 2021, indicate that the IBM Z, IBM Power servers; the Lenovo ThinkSystem and Huawei KunLun and Fusion servers continue to dominate and deliver the highest uptime, availability and security in datacenters and the cloud.

Among the top survey findings:

  • Server Reliability: IBM z14 and z15 outpaced all rivals, matching its best ever results: just 0.60 seconds of per server monthly unplanned downtime. The IBM Power models also equaled their best uptime scores over the last 13 years, with just 1.49 minutes of unplanned per server downtime. The Lenovo ThinkSystem and Huawei KunLun platforms followed closely, each with 1.51 minutes of unplanned per server outages. Inspur was in the middle of the pack with 11 minutes of unplanned per server downtime, while the Dell PowerEdge servers posted 26 minutes of unanticipated outages. Unbranded White box servers (which often run unlicensed or pirated software) again were the least reliable servers with 57 minutes of unplanned per server downtime; this is up two (2) minutes from 2020.
  • Server Availability: The IBM Z servers are in a class by themselves, a 94% majority of IBM Z customers said their businesses achieved unparalleled fault tolerant levels of six and seven nines – 99.9999% and 99.99999% reliability and continuous availability, the best among all server distributions. The IBM Power is close behind with 91% of customers reporting that the Power9 and latest Power10 models deliver a minimum of five and six nines availability/uptime. Meanwhile, 90% of Lenovo ThinkSystem, Huawei KunLun and HPE Superdome enterprises said their businesses achieve a minimum of five and six nines server availability.
  • Cost Effectiveness/Total Cost of Ownership: The most reliable IBM z14 and z15; IBM LinuxONE III and the PowerPower8 and PowerPower9 servers deliver the best TCO and near immediate Return on Investment (ROI). A single minute of per server unplanned downtime on an IBM z14 or z15 server, calculated at a rate of $100,000, costs enterprise customers $1,002. One minute of unplanned downtime on a single IBM Power8 and Power9 calculated at $100,000 an hour costs $2,488. The upcoming Power10, slated to ship in September will likely offer better reliability and lower costs even further. The Lenovo ThinkSystem and Huawei KunLun and Fusion offerings each averaged 1.51 minutes of unplanned per server outages; that equates to per server/per minute downtime charges of $2,521. Unbranded White box servers with 57 minutes of unplanned per server downtime could cost corporations $95,190 when hourly downtime losses are calculated at $100,000 (See Exhibit 3 and Exhibit 4).
  • Security hacks, user error and remote working/remote learning are the top three causes of unplanned downtime. A 73% majority of survey participants cited security as the number one cause of unplanned server downtime; 64% said human error caused unplanned server outages. Meanwhile, 58% of survey participants attributed increased downtime to management and security issues related to COVID-19 issues like remote working and remote academic learning via Zoom meetings for K-through-12 and college classes. While offices and schools were closed during the global pandemic during 2020 and much of 2021, IT and security administrators were hard pressed to effectively manage and secure remote PCs, laptops, notebooks and tablets. Consequently many employees and students did not adequately secure their personal devices. An April 2021 Fortune magazine article   noted that hybrid and remote workplace and academic environments created many positive opportunities for businesses and schools, but they also represent a potential boon for hackers.

 

In 2020, cybercriminals transmitted 61% of malware through cloud applications to target remote workers, according to the July 2021 Netskope Cloud and Threat Report  . The report said that utilizing cloud-based applications enables hackers to circumvent older, legacy Email and Web-based security solutions. The Netskope report further noted that security risks are exacerbated by the fact that 83% of employees and students access sensitive personal data via applications installed on corporate and academic devices e.g., laptops, notebooks and tablets. This can result in dire consequences in the connected digital era. To cite one example, in March 2020, the California State Controller’s Office, which handles $100 billion a year, suffered an email phishing attack on an employee that enabled cyber criminals cloud access to internal documents; once they gained entrance to the employee’s device they were able to successfully phish another 9,000 employees.

 

The reliability and security of server hardware, server operating systems and mission critical applications are critical elements of the core datacenter, network edge and cloud infrastructure.

 

Eighty-nine (89%) percent of organizations require a minimum of “four nines” – 99.99%  reliability to ensure uninterrupted daily business operations and secure data assets to sustain the company’s revenue stream and mitigate risk. And over one-third of organizations now strive for “five nines” 99.999% of uptime; this equals 5.25 minutes of per server unplanned downtime.

Each second and minute of server downtime and the associated mission critical applications costs the business money and raises transactional operations and monetary risks.

In the digital era of interconnected intelligent systems and networks, unplanned downtime of even a few minutes is expensive and disruptive and can reverberate across the entire ecosystem. This includes datacenters; virtualized public, private and hybrid clouds; remote work and learning environments and the intelligent network edge.

ITIC’s 2021 Hourly Cost of Downtime survey indicates a single hour of server downtime totals $300,000 or more for 91% percent of mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large enterprises. And among that 91% majority – nearly half or 44% – of corporations said, hourly outage costs exceed one million ($1M) to over five million ($5M).

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IBM, Lenovo and Huawei Servers Most Secure, Suffer Fewest Hacks As COVID-19 Data Breaches Surge

2021, ITIC Reports & Surveys / By

IBM, Lenovo, Huawei, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and Cisco hardware are the most secure and reliable servers. These platforms experienced the fewest successful hacks and recorded the least amount of unplanned downtime due to data breaches among mainstream servers in the last year.

Those are the results of the latest ITIC Global Server Hardware, Server OS Reliability and Security survey which polled over 1,000 businesses worldwide across 28 different vertical market sectors from October 2020 through March 2021.

The most recent ITIC survey statistics indicate that reliability and security are closely intertwined and even symbiotic. The top five most reliable server platforms: the IBM Z, the IBM Power Systems, Lenovo ThinkSystem, Huawei KunLun and Fusion Servers, the HPE Superdome Integrity and Cisco UCS (in that order) also boast the strongest security.

ITIC’s most recent Global Security poll similarly found that IBM, Lenovo, Huawei and HPE mission critical servers experienced the lowest percentages of downtime due to successful security hacks and data breaches.

The IBM Z mainframe outpaced all other server distributions and is in a class of its own as it achieved its most robust security and reliability ratings to date in the latest ITIC study.

Only a miniscule – 0.3% – of IBM Z high end servers, suffered a successful data breach. Among other mainstream hardware platforms, just four percent (4%) of IBM Power Systems and Lenovo ThinkSystem users reported their systems were successfully hacked, while five percent (5%) of Huawei KunLun and HPE Integrity Superdome server customers reported a security breach between March 2020 and April 2021.

Just over one-in-ten or 11% of Cisco UCS servers were successfully hacked. Cisco’s hardware performed extremely well, particularly when one considers that many of the UCS servers are deployed in remote locations and at the network edge, which frequently are the first line of defense and take the brunt of hack attacks.  Unbranded White box servers were the most vulnerable to security penetrations: 44% of ITIC survey respondents reported they were successfully hacked.

The global pandemic sparked a wave of COVID-19 related data breaches, ransomware, phishing, Business Email Compromise (BEC), CEO fraud and attacks that continue unabated.

Overall, ITIC’s survey findings indicate that there is a clear and widening gap in server hardware security and reliability among the top performing platforms and the most insecure offerings. The global pandemic sparked a wave of COVID-19 related data breaches, ransomware, phishing, Business Email Compromise (BEC), CEO fraud and attacks that continue unabated.

Security and reliability issues are closely intertwined: a successful data breach immediately compromises server, application and network uptime and availability. Security will likely persist as the chief threat that causes expensive unplanned downtime and outages.

Survey Highlights

Notably, despite a 31% spike in security hacks and data breaches during the COVID-19 pandemic over the last 16 months, IBM, Lenovo, Huawei, HPE and Cisco maintained their top positions as the most reliable and secure server platforms.

Additionally, the top five server distributions achieved the best security ratings of among all mainstream server hardware platforms in every security category in ITIC’s latest poll, including:

  • The least number of attempted security hacks/data breaches
  • The fewest number of successful security hacks/data breaches
  • The fastest Mean Time to Detection (MTTD) from the onset of the attack until the company isolated and shut it down

The strong security results posted by IBM, Lenovo, Huawei, HPE and Cisco (in that order) are especially noteworthy since they occurred during the height of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Some 31% of ITIC survey respondents said their servers, operating systems and critical business applications suffered successful penetrations by myriad security hacks and data breaches since the outset of COVID-19 in early 2020. This is an increase of 12 percentage points, up from the 19% in ITIC’s 2020 Global Server Hardware, Server OS Reliability survey.

Security is a core component of every organization’s network. Robust security is even more crucial in the COVID-19 era which ushered in a variety of new scams. Some 69% of organizations cited security and data breaches as the greatest threats to the reliability of server, application, data center, network edge and cloud ecosystems. The hacks themselves are more targeted, prevalent, pervasive and pernicious: They are designed to inflict maximum damage and losses on their enterprise and consumer victims.

Data Breaches are Big Business

Data breaches are big business and a primary business for the burgeoning professional hacking community. A successful hack is expensive on many levels. In 2020, the cost of a data breach averaged $3.86 million, according to the 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Study jointly conducted by IBM and the Ponemon Institute[1]. This represents a 10% increase since 2015.

ITIC’s latest survey data also indicates that the Hourly Cost of Downtime now exceeds $300,000 for 88% of businesses. Overall, 40% of mid-sized and large enterprise survey respondents reported that a single hour of downtime, costs their firms over one million ($1 million). A data breach that occurs during peak usage hours and interrupts crucial business operations can cost businesses millions per minute.

Besides the obvious monetary losses due to productivity and disrupted operations, businesses must factor in amount of manpower hours and the number of IT and security administrators involved in remediation efforts and full return to operation.  Companies must also determine whether or not any data or intellectual property (IP) was lost, stolen, damaged, destroyed or changed.  Organizations must also add in the cost of any litigation as well as potential civil or criminal fines/penalties associated with security incidents and data breaches.  Some costs, like damage to an organization’s reputation are incalculable and may result in lost business.

Hackers pick and choose their targets with great precision and are quick to take advantage of every opportunity. The COVID-19 pandemic is a prime example. Hackers immediately set their sights on teleworkers and remote learning students taking online and Zoom classes. They zeroed in on so-called “soft targets.” Local and state municipalities; small and mid-sized school districts, hospitals, health care clinics, doctors’ offices and branch bank offices that may lack full-time onsite security and IT administrators and may not have installed the latest security.

It’s no surprise that vendors like IBM, Lenovo, Huawei, HPE, which perennially achieve top server reliability ratings were also among the most secure hardware platforms.  These vendors and more recently Cisco, have made server security – and in Lenovo’s case server, PC and laptop security – a top priority and have invested heavily in bolstering the inherent security of their product offerings over the last several years. So when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, they already had strong, embedded security and this stood them and their customers in good stead.

The most secure server hardware platforms experienced the fewest successful security breaches. The IBM Z running the z/OS and RHEL Linux and IBM LinuxONE III respondents all said those platforms had no successful security hacks over the 16 months. They were followed by the IBM Power Systems and Linux ThinkSystem servers with one each; Huawei KunLun which averaged two hacks; the HPE Integrity with three successful penetrations and Cisco’s UCS servers with seven data breaches. The unbranded White box servers were the most porous, averaging 20 successful data breaches in the past 16 months.

Data breaches are big business. And they are expensive. The average cost of a data breach in 2020 is $3.86 million, according to the latest 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Study jointly conducted by IBM and the Ponemon Institute[2]. While the report indicates that the average data breach cost declined by a slight 1.5% compared with 2019’s study, the $3.86 million figure still represents a 10% increase since 2015.

A DTEX Systems Report found that “only 30% of organizations were prepared to secure a complete shift to remote work.”  The DTEX Systems study also found that almost 75% of organizations are concerned about the security risks introduced by users working from home and 73% of businesses admitted they have partial or no visibility into user activity if their VPN is disabled by remote workers. Another alarming finding is that teleworkers use their work laptops for personal use; with 25% of respondents acknowledging this increases the risk of drive-by-downloads, with 15% saying their firms are more susceptible to Phishing attacks.

 Conclusions and Recommendations

Security is now the number one issue that negatively undermines the reliability of server hardware, server OS and business critical applications. All organizations should make security a priority and work closely with their vendors to mitigate security risks to an acceptable level.

Every added second and minute of server downtime and application unavailability negatively impacts business operations, employee productivity and revenue.

No server platform, server OS or business application will provide foolproof security. However, IBM, Lenovo, Huawei, HPE and Cisco which are among the most reliable server platforms also provide the greatest levels of inherent security. This enables customers to achieve the greatest economies of scale and safeguard their sensitive IP and data assets. That said, security is a 50/50 proposition. While vendors must deliver robust security, corporations are responsible for maintaining the reliability of their server and overarching network infrastructure. ITIC strongly advise businesses to:

  • Take inventory of all devices and applications across the ecosystem.
  • Conduct security vulnerability testing at least annually and work with third party experts.
  • Have a remediation and governance plan in place in the event your firm is successfully hacked.
  • Ensure that Security and IT professionals receive adequate training.
  • Ensure that end users as well as contract workers and temporary employees receive adequate security awareness training on the latest Email and Phishing scams and ransomware threats.
  • Implement strong security policies and procedures and enforce them.
  • Regularly replace, retrofit and refresh server hardware and server operating systems with the necessary patches, updates and security fixes as needed to maintain system health.
  • Keep up-to-date on the latest security patches and fixes.
  • Ensure that your firm’s hardware and software vendors and cloud vendors meet or exceed the terms of their Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for agreed upon security and reliability levels.

[1] “2020 Cost of a Data Breach Study,” IBM and the Ponemon Institute. URL: https://www.ibm.com/security/data-breach

 

[2] “2020 Cost of a Data Breach Study,” IBM and the Ponemon Institute. URL: https://www.ibm.com/security/data-breach

 

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ITIC 2020 Reliability Poll: IBM, Lenovo, HPE, Huawei Mission Critical Servers Deliver Highest Uptime, Availability

2020, 2021, ITIC Reports & Surveys, Laura's Insights ITIC Blog / By

For the 12th straight year, IBM’s Z mainframe and Power Systems, achieved the highest server; server operating system reliability and server application availability rankings, along with Lenovo’s ThinkSystem servers which delivered the best uptime among all Intel x 86 servers for the last seven consecutive years, in ITIC’s 2020 Global Server Hardware and Server OS Reliability survey.
ITIC’s latest independent survey data finds that the most reliable mainstream server platforms – the IBM Power Systems, Lenovo ThinkSystem, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Huawei KunLun deliver up to 26x more uptime and availability than the least dependable unbranded “White box” servers.

The superior uptime of the above top ranked mission critical hardware makes them up to 34x more economical and cost effective than the least stable White box servers.

High end mission critical servers from IBM and Lenovo both registered under two (2) minutes of per server, per annum unplanned downtime due to inherent flaws in the underlying hardware or component parts. Cisco, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Huawei server platforms were close behind: each recorded approximately two minutes or a few seconds more downtime attributable to inherent issues with the hardware. Among mainstream servers, IBM POWER8 and POWER9, along with the Lenovo x86 ThinkSystem servers; the HPE Integrity Superdome X and Huawei’s mission critical KunLun servers continue to deliver the highest levels of reliability/uptime among 18 server platforms. (See Exhibit 1).

The least consistent hardware – unbranded White box servers – averaged 53 minutes of unplanned per server downtime due to problems or failures with the server or its components (e.g. hard drive, memory, cooling systems etc.). This represents an increase of four (4) minutes of downtime compared with ITIC’s 2019 Global Server Hardware, Server OS Mid-Year Update survey.
ITIC’s independent Web-based survey polled over 1,200 businesses worldwide from November 2019 through March 2020. The study compares and analyzes the reliability and availability of over one dozen mainstream server platforms and one dozen operating system (OS) distributions. To obtain the most accurate and unbiased results, ITIC accepts no vendor sponsorship.

IBM’s System Z server is in a class of its own. It maintained its best in class rating among all server platforms. An 83% majority of IBM respondent organizations said their firms achieved five and six nines – 99.999% and 99.9999% – or greater uptime. Nine-in-10 IBM Z customers reported that the mainframe recorded just 0.62 seconds of unplanned per server downtime each month and 7.44 seconds annually due to inherent flaws in the server hardware or its component parts. Less than one-half of one percent of IBM Z respondents said the mainframe experienced unplanned outages exceeding four (4) hours of annual downtime.

The economic annual downtime cost comparisons among the top performing and the least reliable server hardware platforms is staggering.

A single hour of downtime estimated at $300,000, equates to $4,998 per server/per minute.

According to that metric, organizations using the most reliable IBM POWER8 and POWER9; Lenovo x86-based ThinkSystem; HPE Integrity or Huawei KunLun servers that experienced just under or just over two (2) minutes would spend $9,996 in annual per server downtime costs due to inherent flaws in server hardware or component parts (See Table 2).

By contrast, corporations using Dell PowerEdge servers which experienced 26 minutes of per server/per minute downtime at the same $300,000 per hourly downtime rate potentially would rack up yearly outage costs of $130,026 for a single server.

Corporations deploying the least reliable unbranded White box servers that registered 53 minutes of per server, per minute downtime can expect to incur possible downtime losses of $264,894 specifically related to server hardware flaws and bugs in the OS and applications. The four additional minutes of downtime – from 49 minutes per server in ITIC’s 2019 poll, to 53 minutes of per server outage time in 2020, represents a cost increase of $19,992 compared with the White box server 2019 per server, per minute downtime price tag of $244,902.

Time is money.

The higher monetary costs associated with unbranded White box servers are not surprising. The unbranded White box servers frequently incorporate inexpensive components. And some businesses recklessly run unsupported or pirated versions of operating systems and applications. The aforementioned hourly downtime examples are for just one server. Downtime costs can mount quickly and reach into the millions for corporations with dozens or hundreds of highly unreliable servers.

Survey Highlights

Among the other top survey findings:

• Reliability: IBM Power Systems and Lenovo ThinkSystem hardware and the Linux operating system distributions were once again either first or second in every reliability category, including server, virtualization and security.
• Availability: IBM Z mainframe, Power Systems, Lenovo ThinkSystem, HPE Integrity and Huawei KunLun all provided the highest levels of server, applications and service availability. That is, when the servers did experience an outage due to an inherent system flaw, they were of the shortest duration – typically one-to-five minutes.
• Technical Support: Businesses gave high marks to IBM, Lenovo, HPE, Huawei and Dell tech support. Only 1% of IBM and Lenovo customers and 2% of HPE and Huawei users gave those vendors “Poor” or “Unsatisfactory” customer support ratings.
• Hard Drive Failures Most Common Technical Server Flaw: Faulty hard drives are the chief culprits in inherent server reliability/quality issues (58%) followed by Motherboard issues (43%) and processor problems (38%).
• IBM, Lenovo and Huawei KunLun Servers Had Fewest Hard Drive Failures: IBM, Lenovo and Huawei’s KunLun platforms experienced the fewest hard drive quality or failure issues among all of the server distributions within the first one, two and three years of service. Less than one percent – 0.4% – of IBM Z mainframes, for example, experienced technical problems with their hard drives in the first year of usage, followed by the IBM Power Systems and Lenovo ThinkSystem with one percent (1%) each during the first 12 months of deployment.
• Security is Top External Issue Negatively Impacting Reliability: Security and data breaches now have the dubious distinction of being the top cause of downtime.
• Minimum Reliability Requirements Increase: An 88%majority of corporations now require a minimum of “four nines” of uptime – 99.99% for mission critical hardware, operating systems and main line of business (LOB) applications. This in an increase of five (5) percentage points from ITIC’s 2018 Reliability survey.
• Patch Time Increases: Seven-in-10 businesses now devote from one hour to over four hours applying patches. This is primarily due to a spike in wide ranging security issues such as Email Phishing scams, Ransomware, CEO fraud as well as malware and viruses.
• Increased Server Workloads Cause Reliability Declines: The survey data found that reliability declined in 67% of servers over four (4) years old, when corporations failed to retrofit or upgrade the hardware to accommodate increased workloads and larger, more compute intensive applications. This is up 23% from the 45% of businesses that said uptime declined due to higher workloads in the ITIC 2018 Reliability poll.
• Hourly Downtime Costs Rise: A 98% majority of firms say hourly downtime costs exceed $150,000 and 88% of respondents estimate hourly downtime expenses exceed $300,000. Just over one-third of ITIC survey respondents – 34% – estimate the cost of a single hour of downtime now tops one million ($1,000.000).

Server hardware, server operating system – and by extension, virtualization reliability, uptime and availability are the core foundational elements of the overarching health of an organization’s entire Digital Age ecosystem and the life blood of daily business operations.

The core reliability of corporate servers, server operating systems and the mission critical applications that run on them are absolutely imperative. The inherent reliability of enterprise hardware, OS and applications are necessary to maintain daily, uninterrupted business operations; ensure secure access to proprietary assets; mitigate risk and drive revenue.

ITIC 2020 Reliability Poll: IBM, Lenovo, HPE, Huawei Mission Critical Servers Deliver Highest Uptime, Availability Read More »

IBM Power Systems, Lenovo System x and ThinkSystem, HPE Integrity and Huawei KunLun Top ITIC 2019 Server Reliability Poll

2019, ITIC Reports & Surveys / By

ITIC’s 2019 Global Server Hardware and Server OS Reliability Survey finds that for the 11th straight year, the IBM Z and IBM Power Systems achieved the highest server reliability rankings with Lenovo’s System x and Lenovo ThinkSystem servers, delivering the best uptime among all x86 servers for the sixth year in a row. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) Integrity and Huawei’s KunLun mission critical servers continue to make impressive gains and have also moved up in reliability. 

The ITIC independent annual, Web-based survey polled over 1,000 businesses worldwide from October 2018 through January 2019.  It compared the reliability and availability of 18 different server platforms and one dozen operating system (OS) distributions. To obtain the most accurate and unbiased results, ITIC accepted no vendor sponsorship.

IBM’s Z is in a class of its own: 83% of respondents said their firms achieved five and six nines – 99.999% and 99.9999% – or greater uptime; that’s about 8.8 seconds annually due to inherent flaws in the server or component parts.

Among mainstream servers, IBM POWER8 and IBM POWER9, along with the Lenovo System x and ThinkSystem servers, HPE Integrity; and Huawei’s mission critical KunLun platforms delivered the highest levels of uptime. Each platform averaged just under or approximately two (2) minutes of unplanned per annum/per server downtime due to inherent quality issues involving the server or components like hard disk or memory flaws.

Among the other top survey findings:

  • Availability:The IBM Z and IBM Power Systems, Lenovo’s x86 serverportfolio, HPE Integrity and Huawei KunLunall provided the highest levels of server, application and service availability. That is, when the servers did experience an outage due to an inherent system flaw, they were of the shortest duration – typically one-to-five minutes.
  • Technical Support:Businesses gave high marks to IBM, Lenovo, HPE, Huawei and Dell tech support. Eight-in-10 respondents rated IBM and Lenovo support as “Excellent” or “Very Good.” Only 1% of IBM and Lenovo customers and 3% of HPE and Huawei usersgave those vendors “Poor” or “Unsatisfactory” customer support ratings.
  • Hard Drive Failures Most Common Technical Server Flaw;Faulty hard drives are the chief culprits in inherent server reliability/quality issues (58%) followed by Motherboard issues (43%) and processor problems (38%).
  • IBM, Lenovo and Huawei KunLun Servers Had Fewest Hard Drive Failures:IBM, Lenovo and Huawei’s KunLun platforms experienced the fewest hard drive quality or failure issues among all of the server distributions within the first one, two and three years of service. Less than one percent – 0.4% – of IBM Z, for example, experienced technical problems with their hard drives in the first year of usage, followed by IBM Power Systems and Lenovo System x with one percent (1%) each during the first 12 months of deployment.
  • External Issues Negatively Affect Reliability: End User Carelessness (74%),Human Error (59%) and Security (51%) are the top external causes of downtime and unanticipated reasons for taking servers offline.

IBM and Lenovo executives offered their perspective on the ITIC reliability poll results.

“For our clients, the security and reliability of IBM Z and IBM Power Systems are essential building blocks for high-performance workloads from core banking transactions, to AI and Blockchain,” said Jamie Thomas, General Manager, Strategy and Development, IBM Systems. “As our clients enter Chapter 2 of digital transformation, IBM Systems are best positioned to support the AI and Hybrid Cloud agenda.”

“Uptime and reliability are critical to running efficient data centers. Unplanned downtime often has significant impact to an organization’s bottom line, costing up to $400K per hour,” said Kirk Skaugen, President, Lenovo and Executive Vice President, Lenovo Data Center Group. “For six consecutive years, Lenovo’s x86 servers including the ThinkSystem server portfoliohave received the highest reliability marks – comparable to larger-scale mainframe class competitive systems. The Lenovo ThinkSystem portfolio, paired with ourservices expertise, letsour customers achieve mission critical reliability and security and price/performance from their high-volume x86 systems.”

IBM Power Systems, Lenovo System x and ThinkSystem, HPE Integrity and Huawei KunLun Top ITIC 2019 Server Reliability Poll Read More »

ITIC Poll: Human Error and Security are Top Issues Negatively Impacting Reliability

2018, ITIC Reports & Surveys, Laura's Insights ITIC Blog / By

Multiple issues contribute to the high reliability ratings among the various server hardware distributions.  ITIC’s 2018 Global Server Hardware, Server OS Reliability Mid-Year Update reveals that three issues in particular stand out as positively or negatively impacting reliability. They are: Human Error, Security and increased workloads.

ITIC’s 2018 Global Server Hardware, Server OS Reliability Mid Year Update polled over 800 customers worldwide from April through mid-July 2018. In order to obtain the most objective and unbiased results, ITIC accepted no vendor sponsorship for the Web-based survey.

Human Error and Security Are Biggest Reliability Threats

ITIC’s latest 2018 Reliability Mid Year update poll also chronicled the strain that external issues placed on organizations and their IT departments to ensure that the servers and operating systems deliver a high degree of reliability and availability.  As Exhibit 1 illustrates, human error and security (both from internal and external hacks) continue to rank as the chief culprits that cause unplanned downtime among servers, operating systems and applications for the fourth straight year.  After that, there is a drop off of 22 to 30 percentage points for the remaining issues ranked in the top five downtime causes. Both human error and reliability have had the dubious distinction of maintaining the top two factors precipitating unplanned downtime in the past five ITIC reliability polls.

Analysis

Reliability is a two-way street in which server hardware, OS and application vendors as well as corporate users both bear responsibility for the reliability of their systems and networks.

On the vendor side, there are obvious reasons why hardware makers like HPE, IBM and Lenovo mission critical servers consistently gain top reliability ratings. As ITIC noted in Part 1 of its reliability survey findings, the reliability gap between high end systems and inexpensive, commodity servers with basic features continue to grow. They include:

  • Research and Development (R&D) Vendors like Cisco, HPE, Huawei, IBM and Lenovo have made an ongoing commitment to research and development (R&D) and continually refresh/update their solutions.
  • RAS 2.0.The higher end servers incorporate the latest Reliability, Accessibility and Serviceability (RAS) 2.0 features/functions and are fine-tuned for manageability and security.
  • Price is not the top consideration. Businesses that purchase higher end mission critical and x86 systems like Fujitsu’s Primergy, HPE’s Integrity, Huawei’s KunLun, IBM Z and Power Systems and Lenovo System x want a best in class product offering, first and foremost. These corporations in verticals like banking/finance, government, healthcare, manufacturing, retail and utilities are more motivated with the historical ability of the vendor to act as a true responsive “partner” delivering a highly robust, leading edge hardware. They also want top-notch after market technical service and support, quick response to problems and fast, efficient access to patches and fixes.
  • More experienced IT Managers. In general, IT Managers, application developers, systems engineers and security professionals at corporations which purchase higher end servers from IBM, HPE, Lenovo, and Huawei tend to have more experience. The survey found that organizations that buy mission critical servers have IT and technical staff that boast approximately 12 to 13 years experience. By contrast, the average experience among IT managers and systems engineers at companies that purchase less expensive commodity based servers is about six years.

Highly experienced IT managers are more likely to spot problems before they become a major issue and lead to downtime and in the event of an outage. They are also more likely to perform faster remediation, accelerating the time it takes to identify the problem and get the servers and applications up and running faster than less experienced peers.

In an era of increasingly connected servers, systems, applications, networks and people, there are myriad factors that can potentially undercut reliability; they are:

  • Human Error and Security. To reiterate, these two factors constitute the top threats to reliability. ITIC does not anticipate this changing in the foreseeable future. Some 59% of respondents cited Human Error as their number one issue, followed by 51% that said Security problems caused downtime. And nearly two-thirds — 62% — of businesses indicated that their Security and IT administrators grapple with a near constant deluge of more pervasive and pernicious security threats. If the availability, reliability and access to servers, operating systems and mission critical main LOB applications is compromised or denied, end user productivity and business operations suffer immediate consequences.
  • Heavier, more data intensive workloads. The latest ITIC survey data finds that workloads have increased by 14% to 39% over the past 18 months.
  • A 60% majority of respondents say increased workloads negatively impact reliability; up 15% percentage points since 2017. Of that 60%, approximately 80% of firms experiencing reliability declines have commodity servers: e.g., White box; older Dell, HPE ProLiant and Oracle hardware >3 ½ years old that haven’t been retrofitted/upgraded.
  • Provisioning complex new applications that must integrate and interoperate with legacy systems and applications. Some 40% of survey respondents rate application deployment and provisioning as among their biggest challenges and one that can negatively impact reliability.
  • IT Departments Spending More Time Applying Patches. Some 54% of those polled indicated they are spending upwards of one hour to over four hours applying patches – especially security patches. Users said the security patches are large, time consuming and often complex, necessitating that they test and apply them manually. The percentage of firms automatically applying patches commensurately decreased from 30% in 2016 to just 9% in the latest 2018 poll. Overall, the latest ITIC survey shows that as of July 2018 companies are applying 27% more patches now than any time since 2015.
  • Deploying new technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data Analytics which require special expertise by IT managers and application developers as well as a high degree of compatibility and interoperability.
  • A rise in Internet of Things (IoT) and edge computing deployments which in turn, increase the number of connections that organizations and their IT departments must oversee and manage.
  • Seven-in-10 or 71%of survey respondents said aged hardware (3 ½+ years old) had a negative impact on server uptime and reliability compared with just 16% that said the older servers had not experienced any declines in reliability or availability. This is an increase of five percentage points from the 66% of those polled who responded positively to that survey question in the ITIC 2017 Reliability Survey and it’s a 27% increase from the 44% who said outmoded hardware negatively impacted uptime in the ITIC 2014 Reliability poll.

Corporations Minimum Reliability Requirements Rise

At the same time, corporations now require higher levels of reliability than they did even two o three years ago. The reliability and continuous operation of the core infrastructure and its component parts: server hardware, server operating system software, applications and other devices (e.g. firewalls, unified communications devices and uninterruptible power supply) are more crucial than ever to the organization’s bottom line.

It is clear that corporations – from the smallest companies with fewer than 25 people, to the largest multinational concerns with over one hundred thousand employees, are more risk averse and concerned about the potential risk for lawsuits and the damage to their reputation in the wake of an outage. ITIC’s survey data now indicates that an 84% majority of organizations now require a minimum of “four nines” – 99.99% reliability and uptime.

This is the equivalent of 52 minutes of unplanned outages related to downtime for mission critical systems and applications or just 4.33 minutes of unplanned monthly outage for servers, applications and networks.

Conclusions

The vendors are one-half of the equation. Corporate users also bear responsibility for the reliability of their servers and applications based on configuration, utilization, provisioning, management and security.

To minimize downtime and increase system and network availability it is imperative that corporations work with vendor partners to ensure that reliability and uptime are inherent features of all their servers, network connectivity devices, applications and mobile devices. This requires careful tactical and strategic planning to construct a solid strategy.

Human error and security are and will continue to pose the greatest threats to the underlying reliability and stability of server hardware, operating systems and applications. A key element of every firm’s reliability strategy and initiative is to obtain the necessary training and certification for IT managers, engineers and security professionals. Companies should also have their security professionals take security awareness training. Engaging the services of third party vendors to conduct security vulnerability testing to identify and eliminate potential vulnerabilities is also highly recommended.  Corporations must also deploy the appropriate Auditing, BI and network monitoring tools. Every 21st Century network environment needs continuous, comprehensive end-to-end monitoring for their complex, distributed applications in physical, virtual and cloud environments.

Ask yourself: “How much reliability does the infrastructure require and how much risk can the company safely tolerate?”

ITIC Poll: Human Error and Security are Top Issues Negatively Impacting Reliability Read More »

ITIC 2018 Server Reliability Mid-Year Update: IBM Z, IBM Power, Lenovo System x, HPE Integrity Superdome & Huawei KunLun Deliver Highest Uptime

2018, ITIC Reports & Surveys / By

August 8, 2018

For the tenth straight year, IBM and Lenovo servers again achieved top rankings in ITIC’s 2017 – 2018 Global Server Hardware and Server OS Reliability survey.

IBM’s Z Systems Enterprise server is in a class of its own. The IBM mainframe continues to exhibit peerless reliability besting all competitors. The Z recorded less than 10 seconds of unplanned per server downtime each month. Additionally less than one-half of one percent of all IBM Z customers reported unplanned outages that totaled greater than four (4) hours of system downtime in a single year.

Among mainstream servers, IBM Power Systems 7 and 8 and the Lenovo x86 X6 mission critical hardware consistently deliver the highest levels of reliability/uptime among 14 server hardware and 11 different mainstream server hardware virtualization platforms. Each platform averaged just 2.1 minutes of unplanned per annum/per server downtime (See Exhibit 1).

That makes the IBM Power Systems and Lenovo x 86 servers approximately 17 to 18 times more stable and available, than the least reliable distributions – the rival Oracle and HPE ProLiant servers.

Additionally, the latest ITIC survey results indicate just one percent of IBM Power Systems and Lenovo System x servers experienced over four (4) hours of unplanned annual downtime. This is the best showing among the 14 different server platforms surveyed.

ITIC’s 10th annual independent ITIC 2017 – 2018 Global Server Hardware and Server OS Reliability survey polled 800 organizations worldwide from August through December 2017.  In order to obtain the most accurate and unbiased results, ITIC accepted no vendor sponsorship. …

ITIC 2018 Server Reliability Mid-Year Update: IBM Z, IBM Power, Lenovo System x, HPE Integrity Superdome & Huawei KunLun Deliver Highest UptimeRead More »

ITIC 2018 Server Reliability Mid-Year Update: IBM Z, IBM Power, Lenovo System x, HPE Integrity Superdome & Huawei KunLun Deliver Highest Uptime Read More »

IBM z13s Delivers Power, Performance, Fault Tolerant Reliability and Security for Hybrid Clouds

2016, ITIC Reports & Surveys / By

Security. Reliability. Performance. Analytics. Services.

These are the most crucial considerations for corporate enterprises in choosing a hardware platform. The underlying server hardware functions as the foundational element for the business’ entire infrastructure and interconnected environment. Today’s 21st century Digital Age networks are characterized by increasingly demand-intensive workloads; the need to use Big Data analytics to analyze and interpret the massive volumes and variety of data to make proactive decisions and keep the business competitive. Security is a top priority. It’s absolutely essential to safeguard sensitive data and Intellectual Property (IP) from sophisticated, organized external hackers and defend against threats posed by internal employees.

The latest IBM z13s enterprise server delivers embedded security, state-of-the-art analytics and unparalleled reliability, performance and throughput. It is fine tuned for hybrid cloud environments. And it’s especially useful as a secure foundational element in Internet of Things (IoT) deployments. The newly announced, z13s is highly robust: it supports the most compute-intensive workloads in hybrid cloud and on-premises environments. The newest member of the z Systems family, the z13s, incorporates advanced, embedded cryptography features in the hardware that allow it to encrypt and decrypt data twice as fast as previous generations, with no reduction in transactional throughput owing to the updated cryptographic coprocessor for every chip core and tamper-resistant hardware-accelerated cryptographic coprocessor cards. …

IBM z13s Delivers Power, Performance, Fault Tolerant Reliability and Security for Hybrid CloudsRead More »

IBM z13s Delivers Power, Performance, Fault Tolerant Reliability and Security for Hybrid Clouds Read More »

IBM, Lenovo Top ITIC 2016 Reliability Poll; Cisco Comes on Strong

2016, ITIC Reports & Surveys / By

IBM Power Systems Servers Most Reliable for Seventh Straight Year; Lenovo x86 Servers Deliver Highest Uptime/Availability among all Intel x86-based Systems; Cisco UCS Stays Strong; Dell Reliability Ratchets Up; Intel Xeon Processor E7 v3 chips incorporate advanced analytics; significantly boost reliability of x86-based servers

In 2016 and beyond, infrastructure reliability is more essential than ever.

The overall health of network operations, applications, management and security functions all depend on the core foundational elements: server hardware, server operating systems and virtualization to deliver high availability, robust management and solid security. The reliability of the server, server OS and virtualization platforms are the cornerstones of the entire network infrastructure. The individual and collective reliability of these platforms have a direct, immediate and long lasting impact on daily operations and business results. For the seventh year in a row, corporate enterprise users said IBM server hardware delivered the highest levels of reliability/uptime among 14 server hardware and 11 different server hardware virtualization platforms. A 61% majority of IBM Power Systems servers and Lenovo System x servers achieved “five nines” or 99.999% availability – the equivalent of 5.25 minutes of unplanned per server /per annum downtime compared to 46% of Hewlett-Packard servers and 40% of Oracle server hardware. …

IBM, Lenovo Top ITIC 2016 Reliability Poll; Cisco Comes on StrongRead More »

IBM, Lenovo Top ITIC 2016 Reliability Poll; Cisco Comes on Strong Read More »

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