‘It’s that combination of server, partners, etc. that delivers on that full-stack promise to ultimately deliver the outcome our clients need,’ says Bargav Balakrishnan, IBM Power product management vice president.
IBM has launched its Power11 processor, arming its 1,000-plus business partners for the division with the ability for full-stack integration to deliver enhanced productivity, transformation through artificial intelligence and other outcomes for customers.
In response to a question by a CRN reporter during a virtual press conference, Bargav Balakrishnan, IBM Power product management vice president, said that the new processor brings new opportunities for solution providers for the Armonk, N.Y.-based tech giant.
He used the example of Power11 combining SAP ERP modernization software and consulting from either IBM’s own division—No. 6 on CRN’s 2025 Solution Provider 500—or the capabilities of solution providers. The new processor enables a 25 percent faster migration to Power Virtual Server on IBM Cloud for SAP Rise. Power has about 10,000 SAP clients on the platform.
“It’s that combination of server, partners, etc. that delivers on that full-stack promise to ultimately deliver the outcome our clients need,” he said. Customers want “to go from the promise of AI to the profits of AI.”
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IBM Power11 Launch
Tom McPherson, IBM Power general manager, added that business partners guide the division’s road map and helped shape the capabilities of Power11.
“We’re always showcasing our integrated value proposition and taking them with us on the journey, if you will, so that they can add value right away at a next-generation system delivery,” McPherson said.
IBM’s top channel goals for 2025 include increasing the overall percentage of company revenue that comes through the channel, according to CRN’s 2025 Channel Chiefs.
Bo Gebbie, president of Minneapolis-based IBM partner Evolving Systems—No. 162 on CRN’s 2025 Solution Provider 500—told CRN in a recent interview that he and his team have been at work figuring out with clients where to apply AI at scale. Customers have also wanted to see concrete figures around return on investment and are less interested in experiments.
Evolving Solutions has seen a lot of customer interest around its engineering workshops, design sessions and consulting for how to leverage AI for more automation.
“It’s a path to that cloud environment from a network side, a security side and automation side, integration side, all the applications around it,” he said.
IBM Power Growth In Scale-Out
Scale-out systems have contributed to “a lot of the growth” Power has seen over the past few years, McPherson said, as have edge use cases. He also said that clients are increasingly seeking hybrid cloud by design instead of by default for data sovereignty flexibility.
Hybrid cloud and AI “go together because you really need a good data strategy to gain insights from AI—and hybrid cloud is a good foundation to drive a good data strategy, he said.
Power11 aims to not only give users the division’s system stack, but the full IBM stack for AI, automation, hybrid cloud and other scenarios. High-end, midrange and entry servers are all available now, a first for IBM in an effort to simplify adoption. Power11 is also available in the IBM Power Virtual Server (VS) in IBM Cloud for instant availability, Balakrishnan said.
Customers should only need five days for on-boarding. IBM will help with provisioning, cloud environment setup and hybrid use case identification, he said. As for customer trends, he has seen them increasingly seek consumption models and as-a-service even on-premises for agility and flexibility.
The Power11 launch follows major IBM infrastructure launches in 2025 of the z17 mainframe on June 18 and the LinuxOne 5 server. Power’s goal is to be the most resilient server.
While Power does see new clients, the road map is focused on incumbent customers so that they can stay on top of technology trends and add new business value, McPherson said during the press conference.
The new processor aims to eliminate planned downtime for system maintenance and full update automation. Power11 enables running bigger AI models within workflows, Balakrishnan said. The vendor also integrated quantum-safe protection, the ability to detect ransomware attacks in seconds and other security features.
Power customers can also leverage IBM division Red Hat for app and data modernization, opening an opportunity for solution providers in Red Hat’s ecosystem, which is separate from IBM’s. The processor integrates with the IBM Concert IT operations center powered by AI suite Watsonx.
IBM’s Spyre accelerator, which becomes available later this year, will help Power11 scale to support complex mission-critical AI workloads. Watsonx.data will also become available for Power later this year for managing and transforming enterprise data for AI at scale.
Power is used by tens of thousands of customers worldwide, including banks and payment applications, retailers and manufacturers and Oracle database users, according to the vendor.
