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by jl6 1288 days ago
AIX on POWER hardware, because it runs SAP, and between IBM and SAP they provide all-encompassing certification and support. Swapping out the OS would invalidate those assurances. Yes, modern SAP runs on Linux. Yes, it would be a good idea to migrate off AIX. But the system has been in place for 20 years and it will be another 5 years at least before that migration happens.

There’s a bunch of enterprisey technology that is not yet dead, but dying very slowly.
3 comments
grandiego 1288 days ago
I have a client (banking sector) which "recently" (5 years ago) started with AIX since they already had POWER systems running IBM i (i.e. modern AS/400), and had to select a Unix for a new vendor's EFT system; it was reasonable to use the (almost) same hardware and provider.

Another similar client is using Solaris (Sparc) for an analogous application; they are using it since 1996, I think because Sun (Oracle) always provided an easy migration path, so the applications didn't need to be ported.

As in most medium/big enterprises, in both cases the hardware/software price is not the main decision driver, but (IMO) it is the support/SLA, compliance checklists, and overall risk management.

BTW, in these cases Linux is also used for more "internet oriented" applications.

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Tor3 1288 days ago
Here as well. Because of a customer using AIX, though it'll be phased out (as planned - they went with IBM/AIX because IBM could give them up to 20 years of guaranteed support and maintenance). In the not-so-far past there were also customers with all the well-known *nix platforms, IRIX, Solaris, Tru64, but that was some years ago. AIX is still alive though. Definitely not a bad Unix, and it has some unique features for large scale systems. IBM added a lot of Linux compatibility to AIX over the years, after all they were one of the earlier supporters of Linux. Which means it's relatively easy to develop and test on Linux before moving to the main AIX system.
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newman314 1288 days ago
AIX on POWER here too but planning to move to Linux on POWER everywhere as part of the P10 refresh cycle.

HANA is already Linux on POWER so it will be nice not to have the AIX/SUSE split once we fully migrate over.

We tend to run pretty up to date config wise so it's helped quite a bit while planning upgrades. Only AIX 7.3 and SLES 15 SP3. Already moved from P7 => P8 => P9.

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