IBM relaunches its POWER Virtualization as PowerVM

IBM is trying to gain momentum relaunching its virtualization platform for POWER architecture under a new name.

Unfortunately Big Blue is missing the market in any case because its platform is unable to virtualize Windows operating systems, which are the large majority of guest OSes worldwide.

Other non-Microsoft-oriented companies recognized this and focused on providing interoperability and smooth performances for Windows virtual machines. It’s not a case that its partnership with Microsoft is driving Novell virtualization business. Sun will follow soon.

Quoting from the official announcement:

…IBM introduced today a new virtualization platform — PowerVM Express — specially made to enable customers to better manage their IT costs, drive maximum energy efficiency and increase resource utilization. PowerVM provides virtualization solutions for the broadest range of operating systems in the industry, including AIX — IBM’s UNIX operating system, Linux, and i5/OS for System i customers…

PowerVM software — formerly known as Advanced POWER Virtualization (APV) — is now available in Express, Standard and Enterprise Editions. New to all three PowerVM editions is a feature — at no additional charge — that allows System p servers to run Linux x86 binary applications unmodified without recompilation, in addition to UNIX and Linux on POWER applications…

IBM also published a new 58-pages paper about the product: Getting started with PowerVM Lx86.