SPECIAL REPORT: AIX USER SURVEY ANALYZING shows security, compliance and OS upgrades are top of mind By Jim Utsler Platinum Sponsor: ANALYZING the AIX User SPECIAL REPORT: AIX USER

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

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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

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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.

Uniting our innovative toolset with Linux ��(( �"��" on IBM Power is a new opportunity for organizations to align longer-es-tablished COBOL applications with future IT strategy.

Micro Focus understands this opportunity so Visual COBOL now supports Linux LE on IBM Power in two enterprise flavors, Red Hat and � ��"),.

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.

The key is to bring it all together and the productivity of Micro Focus tools, the flexibility of Linux LE and the proven reliability of IBM Power will enable the enterprise to build a platform for the future.

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Why not take a look for yourself? Take advantage of our trial download offer for Micro Focus Visual COBOL here microfocus.com/LinuxOnPower

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


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?


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?


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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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SPECIAL REPORT: AIX USER SURVEY ANALYZING shows security, compliance and OS upgrades are top of mind By Jim Utsler Platinum Sponsor: ANALYZING the AIX User SPECIAL REPORT: AIX USER