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In order to fully evaluate OpEx for the solutions, we analyzed software licensing and support fees, labor and management costs, and power and cooling expenses for the hardware.
The IBM AIX operating system costs more than alternative products, including the RHEL operating system used with the Dell EMC PowerEdge systems. Ongoing support costs are also considerably higher for the IBM systems that we examined, compared to the Dell Technologies systems. In addition, Oracle Database licensing costs are higher for the IBM systems because they are subject to an Oracle core factor of 1.0, compared to a factor of 0.5 for the Dell Technologies systems. As noted earlier, actual customer pricing for Oracle would be determined through negotiations with Oracle. This analysis assumes that a customer would receive similar discount percentages from Oracle for IBM- or Dell-based platforms based on a business relationship, not on hardware choice.
Table 1 compares the list price of support and operating system licensing for the two-socket and four-socket systems tested in this study. Licensing and support for the Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd is 26 percent less than for the IBM Power System S924. Similarly, licensing and support for the Dell EMC PowerEdge R940 is 26 percent less than for the IBM Power System E950.
Table 1. Three-year support and licensing costs for the two- and four-socket systems (see Appendix B for additional cost details)
IBM AIX can be more complex to manage than the more prevalent RHEL operating system. As a result, AIX requires IT administrators with a specialized skillset, which can create an additional cost burden.6 In contrast, x86-based systems running RHEL (including the Dell EMC PowerEdge servers tested in this study) can be administered by the broader IT organization, rather than requiring a specialist.7
In addition, AIX can increase TCO through limited utilization because a server running AIX can only be used for the workloads dedicated to that particular hardware. These systems also detract from organizational flexibility because workloads can’t be easily moved or consolidated in response to changing business needs. Architectural differences between AIX and other operating systems (such as Linux) often require additional programming overhead for applications in order to port them between the disparate operating systems.
The tested Dell Technologies systems incurred much lower power and cooling costs than the IBM systems examined in this study: $811 less over three years for the Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd, compared to the IBM Power System S924, and $1,246 less over three years for the Dell EMC PowerEdge R940, compared to the IBM Power System E950. (See Appendix B for details.)
6 IBM® AIX® systems administrator average base pay was $64,892 per year as of September 29, 2020. Source: Glassdoor. “AIX Systems Administrator Salaries.” www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/aix-systems-administrator-salary-SRCH_KO0,25.htm.
7 Average IT administrator base pay was $56,396 per year as of December 3, 2020. Source: Glassdoor. “IT Administrator Salaries.” www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/ it-administrator-salary-SRCH_KO0,16.htm.