IBM power systems running Linux outperform competition on standard benchmarks

IBM recently announced multiple leading benchmark results for the Linux operating system running on the IBM Power 730 Express, which bested comparable hardware platforms running Linux or Windows. With greater throughput per server, more scalable virtualisation with less overhead, and more efficient scale-out computing with fewer servers to manage, IBM Power Linux systems help enterprises realise the innovation and economics of smarter computing through improved performance.

The IBM Power Linux system easily surpassed results of comparable Dell, HP and Oracle systems on the following benchmarks:

• IBM Power 730 Express achieved the top result of any 12-core system for the two-tier SAP Sales and Distribution (SD) standard application benchmark with a result of 5,250 SAP SD benchmark users. The two-processor, 12-core 48-thread Power 730 Express with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 and IBM DB2 database software handled  10 percent more SAP SD benchmark users than the 12-core HP ProLiant DL380 G7 with SLES 11. The Power 730 Express also topped the highest HP ProLiant Windows Server 2008 result.
• IBM Power 730 Express running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 delivered 14 to 56 percent more throughput than comparable Dell PowerEdge, HP ProLiant and Oracle Sun blade systems based on the published industry-standard benchmarks of SPECint_rate2006, SPECfp_rate2006 and SPECompM2001. As the new benchmark results exhibit, IBM Power Linux systems are more powerful than traditional x86 servers used for Linux applications. This is due to the raw performance advantage of the POWER7 processor, superior memory bandwidth, and workload optimising technologies included within the system like PowerVM virtualisation technology.

 ”New scale-out workloads like Big Data and Cloud are emerging from the Linux community and changing the way the world works,” said Scott Handy, Vice President, Power Linux Ecosystem Acceleration at IBM.

“Industry-standard Linux on IBM Power Systems is tuned to the task, thus helping clients reduce workload costs. IBM is increasing our focus on and investment in exploiting the advantages of Linux on Power Systems to make our clients more competitive for select new Linux oriented workloads.”  

“Since 2007, SAP has recommended SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for running SAP solutions,” said Michael Miller, Vice President, Global Alliances & Marketing at SUSE. “SUSE Linux Enterprise Server combined with IBM Power 730 Express delivers superior performance and scalability, enabling businesses to effectively manage large numbers of users and high volumes of system traffic each and every day.”