SAP has certified Power8 systems for its HANA in-memory database and Business Suite application, allowing IBM to announce 2 new ‘solution edition’ systems today. Hitherto this software only ran on servers based on Intel’s Xeon E7 chips – version 3 of which has also been announced today. So there’s relief for the IBMers who thought the SAP business had walked out of the door as System x went to Lenovo and a potential for an interesting new fight between Intel and IBM over high-end chips. It’s early days, but you will want to think about the consequences.
IBM launches Power Systems Solution Editions for SAP HANA
IBM and SAP have had a successful relationship stretching back 40 years, although that took a knock when IBM offloaded its System x servers to Lenovo last year. Since then SAP has certified all of IBM’s Power8-based machines to run its flagship HANA data platform and associated Business Suite. In addition to this IBM has just announces 2 new Power Systems Solution Editions for SAP HANA. In particular:
- IBM Power Systems S824 based, with 24 cores and up to 1TB of memory. It’s positioned to run SAP Business Warehouse application running on HANA, with compressed databases up to 512GB. The S824 is the largest of IBM’s 2 socket ‘scale up’ Power servers.
- IBM Power Systems E870 based with 40 cores and up to 2TB of memory, aimed at those running compressed databases of up to 1TB. The E870 is currently IBM’s largest Power server with 4 or 8 sockets.
The relationship between IBM and SAP doesn’t revolve exclusively around its platforms. In fact IBM offers a number of services, such as Cloud and Mobility solutions and those that integrate its DB2 database with SPA applications. In addition both companies share a rich industry sector approach to their businesses.
Competition for Intel’s new Xeon E7v3
IBM announcement is a poignant move given Intel’s introduction of its new Xeon E7 version 3 today – a ‘tock’ architectural improvement over its version 2, rather than a ‘tick’ process improvement (as such the new chip uses the same 22nm process as before). Intel has, however increased the maximum number of cores from 12 to 18. The new processor has already been endorsed by Atos/Bull, Cisco, Dell, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, Huawei, Inspur, Lenovo, NEC, Oracle, PowerLeader, Quyanta, SGI, Sugon, Supermicro and ZTE, according to Intel.
Obviously both of these are top-of-the range processors ideal for in-memory databases and other applications requiring scale up architectures. So how should we think about this head-to-head competition?
Last week I was lucky enough to be on an analyst call with Doug Balog, the GM of IBM Power, who talked up IBM’s position. It looks forward to the competition, pointing out Power’s strong position, being used in 9 of the top 10 banks, 8 of the top 10 telcos in the world, etc. It also has a ‘blooming ecosystem’ through the OpenPower Foundation, which already has 120 members including 10 which have already produced Power-based motherboards. As for Power8 itself – it already scales to 80 cores and 8 sockets. PowerVM as a virtualisation platform is ‘very secure in delivering containers’ according to Doug and offers near linear scaling. Power8 also has some interesting features such as CAPI for linking other processors at the memory level. Its IFLs should also allow you to run HANA on part – rather than across the whole – system.
Who’s going to win?
There’s no question that Intel’s Xeon E7 has been successful – SAP indicated that there were 6,400 HANA customers by the end of 2014 for instance (see Figure). But IBM is definitely ahead in terms of the overall size of its Power installed base, although probably behind with Power8 given it was only introduced last year.
But the market for in-memory databases is much bigger than that for HANA and IBM has an end-to-end engagement from services to its DB2 database… to its analytics activities.. even to the introduction of bare metal Power systems into its SoftLayer cloud. For Intel to win here it will have to demonstrate that it can compete at the high-end of the scale-up market, which is made more difficult by having to operate through its OEMs. I don’t think an argument that x86 is ‘industry standard’ works effectively at this level: users are more likely to want to compare the performance of systems based on E7, Power8 and Sparc for running their chosen in-memory applications and make a judgement.
For myself I’m not going to make a prediction until I’ve had a chance to talk a greater length to Intel and a few more of its OEMs and SAP and look at any new systems and processors IBM introduces as well. Whatever happens, it’s going to be an interesting time…