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Survey shows security, compliance and OS upgrades are top of mind
By Jim Utsler
Platinum Sponsor:
ANALYZING
the AIX User
SPECIAL REPORT: AIX USER SURVEY
I t’s no secret that many
Fortune 500 companies
rely on the performance
and stability of the AIX* OS. In
fact, an IBM strategic road map
whitepaper (ibm.co/1Umgage)
cites that the combination of AIX
and Power* supports:
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telecommunication companies
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The reason, the whitepaper
states, is simple: “Organizations
generally choose server
platforms based on their
evaluation of application
performance, reliability and
security, and the support
provided by the vendor, and AIX
and Power Systems* qualifies for
these clients.”
To better understand AIX
users and how they’re using
the OS, IBM Systems Magazine
conducted a reader survey in
the summer of 2016. Of the
535 people who participated,
96 percent completed the
entire survey.
Survey respondents, which
included systems analysts/
programmers, consultants and IT
management, revealed their top
IT priorities:
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Given the range of industries
that use the AIX OS, it’s not
surprising that security and
regulatory compliance top the
list. Fourteen percent of survey
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and finance, nearly 12 percent
are consultants, 9 percent are
computer dealers or resellers,
and another 9 percent are
software vendors. The rest
are in 14 other industries,
including medical/healthcare,
manufacturing and government.
Weighing the System Upgrade DecisionThe AIX OS is entrenched
across many facets of everyday
organizational operations. The
reader survey “represents a great
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architect, Meridian IT, and
technical editor, IBM Systems
Magazine, Power Systems edition.
Survey respondents also
showed variety in the versions
of OS their companies use (see
Figure 1, below):
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older versions
Bradley Sheldon, senior
systems administrator,
Australian Government
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participated in the survey and
26 // JANUARY 2017 ibmsystemsmag.com
explained that his organization
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primarily for “application
stability and integration with
WebSphere* technology.”
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version AIX users may be the
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users such as Arjan Lensen,
system administrator, Tatasteel
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steel manufacturing company.
“We have some 5.3 still, quite
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systems,” Lensen says. “We’re
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but his organization doesn’t
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One reason organizations
may be using multiple versions,
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running software from vendors
that have gone out of business
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their legacy software versions,
leaving them with no easy
upgrade path—especially for
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Other companies may decide
not to fix their AIX environment
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zations are essentially saying,
“It’s running and I’m just going
AIX USER SURVEY
Figure 1: Which version of AIX is your organization currently using? [Check all that apply]
80%of survey
participants run AIX 7.1
D
ibmsystemsmag.com JANUARY 2017 // 27
to let it run. Maybe I don’t have
AIX skills in-house, but my
server and software are run-
ning, and that’s good enough,”
McNelly explains.
However, 74 percent of
survey respondents do expect
to upgrade to AIX 7.2 at some
point. As in Lensen’s case, 46
percent of the respondents
plan to upgrade within the
next year. Thirty percent plan
to do so within the next six
months. Another 20 percent
indicated they’ll do it in the
next two years. Only 2 percent
said they’d wait more than two
years to upgrade.
POWER AdoptionThe survey resulted in interest-
ing correlations. Power Systems
deployments somewhat aligned
with AIX version deployments.
Respondents reported that
they currently run on multiple
versions of the POWER* chip (see
Figure 2, above):
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technology
But many survey respondents
also expect to upgrade to the
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system within the next year.
Of those who reported when
they plan on upgrading, nearly
one-third said in six months,
and nearly 40 percent said in
a year. A quarter of that group
indicated they’d do so in two
years, and 4 percent said in more
than two years.
“A big chunk of clients
could benefit from going to
32:(5Űü�0F1HOO\�VD\V��:KLOH�
some organizations still don’t
see a compelling reason to
replace their POWER7 server, he
explains others may have a small
budget and no full-time staff to
manage the server. “I recently
spoke with a client running
on a POWER4 server with AIX
ŭ�Ūü�KH�DGGV��û1RERG\ùV�EHHQ�
touching it. They figured it’s just
running in a corner, running the
business, and everything’s fine.”
But according to the survey, 67
percent of respondents expect to
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The remainder currently have no
such plans.
As of now, Tatasteel
Europe is running POWER6
and above. “We’ve had quite a
few replacements, much of which
was license-driven,” Lensen says.
Sheldon’s organization is
actively planning to upgrade
within the next year. “We just
purchased two high-spec Power
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Application RequirementsWhen asked which databases
they’re running, 70 percent of
respondents selected Oracle,
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cent MySQL. Lensen’s company
is one of many using multiple
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and Oracle, as dictated by appli-
cation requirements.
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“none,” which may reflect what
Sheldon’s organization is doing.
“We use an in-house mainframe
database with portals to AIX on
Power,” he says.
McNelly isn’t surprised Oracle
came out on top. “This is very
common,” he says. “If you’re
using Oracle and all of your
skills are there, you wouldn’t
necessarily think of migrating
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said, this is usually a financial
decision. If Oracle becomes too
expensive, you’re going to look
at another solution.”
When asked which AIX
applications survey takers
were using, responses varied.
WebSphere came out on top at
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all-that-apply question.) Other
Survey Demographics29%: Systems analysts/programmers
21%: Consultants
15%: IT management
3%: Database administrators
2%: Executive management
< 30%: Other
Figure 2: What version of IBM Power Systems is your organization currently deploying? [Check all that apply]
Visual COBOL and Linux on IBM Power - the scope to cope
For AIX customers supporting IBM COBOL applications, keeping the lights on is just not enough. In a digital economy where organizations are going mobile and stepping into the Cloud,dd just ‘ticking over’ by maintaining current IT operations makes sense, but feels regressive. So how can organizations harness the strength of Power Systems servers for future innovation?
An operating system (OS) should be a launchpad, not a bottleneck. So the AIX® OS complements IBM Power Systems servers with the reliability, availability, flexibility, and performance needed to support enterprise-class private and hybrid cloud infrastructures.
But powerful servers alone are not the answer. Organiza-tions are now serving an increasingly tech-savvy customer base who expect ever- higher levels of innovation - and facing increasingly complex and multi-faceted challenges.
/��""#*�(��%)��� -��"�+�(#)(�&�'����How can enterprises make their technology do the new and exciting things their customers demand without compromis-ing the everyday functionality the business requires?
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So, how can organizations make the leap to next gen technologies such as Linux, the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and the Cloud using the infrastructures they already have?
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No enterprise can survive without the right people to maintain the applications underpinning mission-critical business processes.
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Visual COBOL is the agent of changeThe Micro Focus Visual COBOL® solution is already enabling innovation, making the link between older applica-tions and contemporary innovation. This is what happens when COBOL development and integration tools are presented in the developer’s IDE of choice, either Visual Studio or Eclipse, to create a future-friendly development experience. But the choice of platform is key.
Linux means built-in future flexibility Linux is popular for many reasons. �## ��)'�'���"),, as does �����##� - two brands known for combining innovation with reliability. IBM are also demonstrating their commitment, through�������"),���™, the platform made with open source apps in mind. Enterprise Linux distributions such as SUSE, Red Hat and Ubuntu are secure, and supported by commercial offerings, as well as large user communities.
Highly adaptable, Linux easily integrates with Java and JVM technologies and provides an easy on-ramp for the new talent needed to support future innovation – good news for owners of longer-established business applications and environments, such as UNIX.
This open source platform offers costs savings as compared to proprietary offering but also delivers the flexibility, choice and agility necessary to plan for an uncertain future.
microfocus.com/LinuxOnPower
Linux and Visual COBOL– the flexibility to deliver innovation The familiar development tools within Visual COBOL will help to ensure the supply of skills for years to come. Developers like modern IDEs, such as Eclipse aligned with the low maintenance, adaptability and system performance of Linux. Moving core application processes to a Linux infrastructure ensures business continuity and a future path to new talent. No code changes, no worries.
Re-platforming enterprise applications with Visual COBOL can prepares them for the future. Perhaps that is why Linux is now the fastest-growing platform for enterprise applica-tions using Visual COBOL technology, uniting Tux the penguin, the Linux !�'�#(, and the ���&#��#�)'��'(&#"�)(.
Linux, Visual COBOL and Power – the complete pictureIn short, using Visual COBOL to re-purpose and re-use IBM COBOL applications on Power is like creating a short-cut to future application development potential.
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Uniting established applications with a Linux LE architecture embraces the future. Replatforming to IBM Power Systems on Linux equips organizations to leverage enterprise-scale performance and availability, while modernizing using REST, JSON, JVM and Cloud technologies.
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Tomorrow-proofIt is difficult to predict what the business will need in years to come, beyond agreeing that it will continue to depend on its mission-critical applications that are in many ways, inseparable from a future IT strategy. For many organiza-tions, that means embracing the flexibility of open source.
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they have. Another 30 percent indicated that they’re
migrating certain applications to other OSes, and
14 percent noted that they’ll eventually migrate all
applications off of AIX (see Figure 3, above).
The figures regarding application migration
leave room for interpretation, McNelly says. “This
indicates that they’re partially or entirely going
somewhere else,” he explains. “But to where?
To Linux* on Intel*? Windows* on Intel? To the
cloud? Am I going to run Linux on Amazon or
SoftLayer* infrastructure? It’s hard to tell without
further discussions.”
application environments
included SAP (35 percent),
Splunk and InfoSphere (both at
10 percent), Lawson (7 percent),
Halcyon Software (1.3 percent),
Netsmart (1 percent), and one-
third responded with “other.”
Both Sheldon’s and Lensen’s
organizations are using
WebSphere technology. Lensen
says, “We’re using it for websites
and as part of applications, but
we don’t have any dedicated
WebSphere tools.”
That Oracle, SAP and
WebSphere applications are pop-
ular on AIX and Power platforms
should be expected, according to
McNelly. Tools such as these are
core to mission-critical business
operations and should be hosted
within a reliable computing envi-
ronment. “I want that to be on
the most stable—the most every-
thing—platform,” McNelly says.
As a follow-up to that, the
survey asked participants to con-
sider how much of their organi-
zation’s workloads run on AIX:
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50to 75 percent
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than 75 percent
It’s 5 percent in Sheldon’s
case, but he says, “That includes
about six of our mission-critical
applications because uptime has
to be 100 percent.” In Lensen’s
case, it’s 50 percent as dictated
by application requirements.
Determining Future DirectionWhen asked about long-term AIX
plans, 40 percent of respondents
said they’ll increase the number
of AIX servers and/or partitions
30 // JANUARY 2017 ibmsystemsmag.com
Both Sheldon and Lensen are
more certain. Sheldon says his
organization plans to keep the
AIX OS for its mission-critical
applications on Power. Lensen
says, “I hope we stick to AIX, as
the performance is quite good.
There’s also the possibility that
Linux will grow.”
While 70 percent said no, 30
percent said yes, they already
have or plan to migrate certain
AIX USER SURVEY
Figure 3: What are your long-term plans for AIX?
Figure 4: What other OSes are you running on an IBM Power Systems server or IBM Power Systems partition?
ibmsystemsmag.com JANUARY 2017 // 31
AIX applications to Linux on
Power. Of the latter group, over
80 percent said they’d do so in
the next two years, 13 percent
in three years, 3 percent in five
years and 2 percent in more
than five years. Tatasteel Europe
is already hosting it, although
the Australian Government
Department of Defense isn’t
quite ready to take that plunge.
McNelly adds, “If I am going in
that direction and I want perfor-
mance, why on earth wouldn’t
I do it on POWER? You can put
more virtual machines (VMs)
and threads on a Power Systems
server, so you can increase vol-
umes of workloads. They’ll run
faster on Power servers. I can do
more work with fewer cores on a
Figure 5: What percentage of your organization’s computing workloads are running on AIX?
ibmsystemsmag.com JANUARY 2017 // 31
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32 // JANUARY 2017 ibmsystemsmag.com
AIX USER SURVEY
Power server, especially if I have
a per-core license. A lot of these
things are the same story we’ve
told with AIX and Power. The
only difference is that it’s Linux
on Power.”
The Linux OS isn’t the only
one running alongside the AIX
OS, although, according to half
of the respondents, it is the
most prevalent. But 27 percent
of respondents run IBM i, and
18 percent run both Linux and
IBM i (see Figure 4, page 30).
“I understand why you would
keep IBM i around,” McNelly says.
“It’s a strong OS that just runs and
runs, and DB2 technology comes
with it. The capability to run all
three OSes on Power Systems is
also an attractive proposition to
people who want to integrate and
consolidate.”
Robust and ReliableGiven that more than half of
respondents’ workloads are
running on AIX at 25 percent
and more, it’s clear that AIX is
a critical part of many organi-
zations’ operations (see Figure
5, page 31). Of course, this also
implies that AIX isn’t their sole
OS, or Power Systems their only
hardware platform.
The Australian Government
Department of Defense, for
example, is also using the
mainframe as well as, according
to Sheldon, to run “hundreds of
Solaris Zones and physical Solaris
servers, and thousands of Linux
VMs.” Tatasteel Europe is in the
same position, using the main-
frame and Windows in addition
to AIX, which, Lensen says, is
used as back end for quite a few
applications, such as SAP, and
some databases.”
“This is kind of what I’d
expect,” McNelly adds. “AIX is
running my enterprise stuff, my
back-end stuff, the critical stuff
for the business—and the rest is
somewhere else. That is definitely
what I’ve seen over the years.
But that’s a testament to AIX and
Power Systems. They’re robust
and reliable enough to do the
heavy lifting.”
Jim Utsler is a senior writer for
IBM Systems Magazine and has been
covering technology for more than
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