Need links and info on why HP > IBM for meeting in 45 minutes

[Timothy Czarnik]

Hey all,

I've just discovered that my bosses are being courted by IBM to switch Unix platforms. I'm looking for white papers, links, Gartner reports, etc... anything to keep my bosses from making this huge mistake and to keep me from having to work with AIX for the next 30 years (like AIX will even be around that long, eh?).

I'm scrambling to find hard proof/facts to refute the claims of the IBM sales team comparing the pSeries (p630, p650) against HP hardware (rp5400, rp7400, etc...). If anyone has anything or any info that could help me out, I'd be greatly appreciative! This was just sort of sprung on me, so I'm surfing like mad :)

Thanks in advance!

Tim

[Massimo Bianchi]

http://www.tpc.org may be a good start point !

[Massimo Bianchi]

Another:

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1094895,00.asp

Massimo

[James Murtagh]

Hi Tim,

On the software side this shows the analyst comparisons on the four major players over the last few years:

http://www.hp.com/products1/unix/operating/infolibrary/index.html

You will see HP has gained first spot in all reports I think, AIX down in 3rd mainly.

Regards,

James.

[Massimo Bianchi]

See also:

http://esp.sell.hp.com:2000/nav24/compet/cpi/ibm/powerResul/

Good luck.
Massimo

[doug mielke]

Don't forget pending SCO litagation vs IBMs AIX.

[Mark Greene_1]

I don't think bringing up the SCO suit is a good idea. SCO claims are tenuous, and IBM has already gotten Linux certified as a secure platform under the standards for use by the US government, so neither IBM nor Linux are going to be adversely affected in the long-term by whatever the outcome of this is.

I'd point out levels of in-house expertise with regard to HP-UX and IBM. If you are using any Oracle dbs, I'd also point to the much stronger relationship that Oracle has with HP, and that IBM actually competes with Oracle with DB2 and the entire Informix db line of products (about a dozen).

HTH
mark

[Ken Hubnik_2]

This just came out last week.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/030730/305486_1.html

[Zeev Schultz]

DH Brown post annualy UNIX/Linux function reviews.The summary can be obtained from here:
http://www.dhbrown.com/dhbrown/02UnixFunRev.cfm
For the full report one should subscribe.

[Timothy Czarnik]

Hey all,

Thanks for the quick responses! They really helped!

Tim

[Tim Sanko]

Tim,

Here is my treatise on the subject of HP > IBM.

IBM can afford to ignore the middle market as long as there are both ends. HP makes its money in the middle. HP pays attention to you on occasion, It is harder to get IBM's attention once you have signed on the dotted line...

An RP will out benchmark the comparable retail IBM, but remember IBM will occasionally virtually give away hardware to get the Maintenance contracts. Especially in the AS400 market. A risc an't just a risc. a PA-RISC is ~ 20% faster than a comparable IBM offering.
When you add in bus speeds, fibre channel card throughput performance later purchase RAM COST!!!(never have too much RAM).


IBM will try to sell you a Shark (raid). You want EMC or Hitachi you get less support from IBM afterwards, as per personal experience.

HP can route you through to the SUPERDOME. It compares favorably to the BIG IRON mainframes.

Don't believe IBM's claims of compatability with the industry. what you want is an OPEN environment, (Solaris/HP) good raid's (EMC/Hitachi/HP)and

However I prefer SMIT to SAM.

Tim Sanko

[Alzhy]

What is important these days is overall performance of a vendor -- not just the hardware and software it sells but support.. It's not the Mhz or TPC disparities but stability, scalability and overall "harmony" of the components.... I once was adamant when I learned we switching to HP's PARISC platforms (even if its on the way out -- replaced by the Itanic err Itanium). The PARISC chips were always tail-enders to Intel, Power4 and Sparc chips .. (we will be getting just the 750-875 Mhz 8700+ chips) -- but as I am getting comfy with HPUX .. so am I aslo being amazed by the stability of the platforms and the just amazing support orgnaization of the New Hp!

It is good to be loyal/partial to a particular dialect of UNIX or vendor but you will find out in the future -- this is not always good...

If a vendor offers you better deals -- then learn to adapt to that environment... It won't hurt to add AIX5L and Linux to your repertoire of UNIX dialects - would'nt it?