Retailers Rely on RPE for IBM Power Systems
With shrinking response time expectations and growing demands, retailers need to efficiently deliver a large amount of information to partners, employees and customers across many devices and channels. With power servers built on advanced technology, IBM Power Systems are innovatively designed to drive faster and more efficient data-centric applications. This state-of-the-art hardware enables organizational transformation and optimal business performance using data-driven insights that are delivered through an open and flexible platform.
IBM recognizes how important it is to provide retailers with the freedom and flexibility needed to address unique business concerns. Being able to choose between multiple operating systems allows retailers to expand their options for efficient technology development and IT integration using existing resources and ecosystem technologies. That’s why IBM built a technology foundation that supports multiple operating systems and applications within a single environment. IBM Power servers for retail support today’s most widely used operating systems (including IBM i, AIX, and Linux) and databases (including DB2 Universal, Oracle, and SQL Server), ensuring compatibility for your retail business.
IBM Operating Systems
IBM i
An integrated operating system, database and middleware built for retailers, IBM i will prepare your retail business for growth. It is optimized for exceptional business resilience and non-disruptive growth on IBM Power Systems and is scalable to support both small retailers and large chains. The IBM i operating system:
- Implements a service-oriented architecture
- Offers single-level storage
- Processes with stability and integrity
- Is optimized for non-disruptive growth on IBM Power servers
- Provides trusted security with auditing and compliance tools
- Furnishes exceptional infrastructure support for mobile devices
- Uses best-of-breed IBM development tools
- Exploits existing application assets with a range of open technologies
- Supports thousands of industry application solutions
- Simplifies operations and storage management
AIX
AIX is an open standards-based UNIX operating system designed to deliver outstanding scalability, reliability, and manageability. It’s popular among retailers, particularly those requiring large-scale computing environments, and virtually every major retail software provider offers AIX-based solutions. AIX provides retail businesses with:
- An expanded share in the UNIX market
- Unmatched, highly scalable performance
- Increased server utilization
- Lower energy costs
- Virtualization capabilities that help consolidate workloads
- A secure IT environment integrated into an existing security infrastructure
- Premier UNIX operating system
- Compatibility from one release to the next so easy to upgrade
- Seamless migration from competitive UNIX platforms to a consolidated UNIX workload
Linux
Linux, which runs on an open-source foundation, is helping businesses worldwide realize the benefits of open-source software, including superior return on investment, greater operational flexibility and enhanced agility to grow mission-critical systems. IBM Power Systems support the industry-leading Red Hat, SUSE and Ubunta Linux distributions. Linux is:
- Affordable
- Interoperable
- Manageable
- Reliable
- Scalable
- Secure
IBM Databases
DB2 for i
IBM’s DB2 for i helps retail businesses simplify and automate many of the tasks associated with deploying databases. As such, retailers can free up skilled database administrator resources to focus on next-generation enterprise applications — such as business intelligence, content management and information integration — and further lower their total cost of ownership. Notably, DB2 for i for IBM Power Systems was built into IBM i. Because of the tight integration between DB2 for i and IBM i, as well as the unique architecture of IBM i, many of the traditional database-specific administration requirements found on other database management systems either aren’t necessary or can be administered through IBM I facilities.
Oracle Database
Oracle is the database of choice for IBM Power Systems and is widely viewed by retailers as the premier database for large-scale computing environments. It is a popular database for running online transaction processing, data warehousing and mixed database workloads. Many of the most well-recognized retail software vendors showcase their products using the Oracle database and the IBM Power server.
SQL Server
SQL Server, which runs on IBM Power Systems, provides retailers with a complete set of data management and analysis features. It also scales to support the largest websites, enterprise online transaction processing systems and data warehousing systems.
Hardware Implementation and Integration
More than ever before, retailers need to integrate social and collaborative systems, share IT resources and deliver a seamless shopping experience across multiple shopping channels. RPE is uniquely qualified to help retail businesses successfully gather, analyze, interpret and react to growing volumes of customer data in this new era of retailing. We’ve been serving retailers since 1999, and our experienced consultants are vigorously tested and evaluated on software, hardware and services to become certified in critical areas and help retailers maximize investments.
We also offer complimentary Power Systems Health Checks to evaluate if a retail business is getting the most from IBM Power System operating system. As an IBM Business Partner, we will assess your IBM servers and identify security, configuration and performance issues that may be compromising your system. We’ll then provide a comprehensive report with recommendations for improvement. Learn more about our free IBM Power Systems Health Check.
