The hum you will soon hear will not be the one that comes from your PCs cooling fan. Rather, it will very likely be buzz surrounding IBM’s Smarter Computing initiative. Actually, if Big Blue’s new online modeling tool dubbed, “IBM Smarter Computing Workload Simulator,” works as intended you’ll find the din inescapable.
The new online tool appeared on IBM’s Power System web site in November and allows IT managers to simulate an IT infrastructure that closely resembles their own Windows-based environment and see with their own non-IBM eyes the substantial advantages that a Power Systems-based computing topology can deliver.
IBM’s “Smarter Computing” campaign asserts that one’s existing x86-based beige-box infrastructure is inefficient. Resource reallocation and accelerated business innovation, it says, can be yours by moving to a Power Systems environment.
The heart of IBM’s new visual simulator is the time-tested Business Partner spreadsheet modeler that was used to sell IBM systems. Now, it has a modern UI that would even impress a sleep-deprived gamer. In exchange for giving them information on your current computing environment, and basic contact information, you get to work though their templates and ultimately arrive at an ROI statement that contrasts the cost of running your existing environment with plugging into some new IBM iron.
One thing’s for sure: You can be certain that all of the dyed-in-the-wool IBM i users out there are saying, “It’s about time!”
