It’s been a while since IBM announced a number of machines will be going out of maintenance.
The IBM Power 6 and IBM Power 7 have been around for a while now and even if the Power 7 doesn’t seem that old, it actually is.
As IBM launched the Power 9 this year, it makes sense to stamp an end-of-support date on older machines in order to redirect customers towards this new model.
IBM usually has 3 ways of encouraging customers to move to the new hardware:
- They withdraw the old systems from marketing. This means customers won’t be able to get new spare parts and hardware components for these systems anymore.
- They increase the maintenance cost on older systems. This way, in some cases, it could become more expensive to extend the maintenance than to invest in a new system.
- They can stop providing maintenance on the older systems. In this case, no support will be provided anymore.
For the Power 6 and Power 7 models, IBM has chosen the 3rd option and announced it will stop providing maintenance on these systems. In order to avoid security and reliability risks, it is advised to start building a case to upgrade to the Power 9 or a hosting solution. This will put you at ease for the coming years.
Curious to see if your system is on the list? You can find an overview of all systems IBM will withdraw from its maintenance agreements on this website. Or contact EASI with your questions & requests.
