Following a bit of reading (turns out not enough), including an article on Cloud performance on the thebitsource ,  we concluded that our small scale development app which relies on a single MySQL server would be more than catered for by a RackSpace cloud server. We needed a small (but consistent) IO requirement and modest memory/CPU. 

The first month of service was a complete success and we began to consider migration of live systems to cloud servers; then we where suddenly hit by a dramatic IO performance drop lasting 6 hours making the instance unusable during the online day. 

IBM are gradually releasing the features from the next generation of POWER7 VIOS. In short VIO servers will be able to participate in a cluster outside of a single frame (across multiple boxes). This will mean that you can present virtual disks to LPAR's from one VIO server and make them available to another server via another VIO server at the same time without using NPIV. This reduces the dependency on feature rich storage (and cooperative storage teams!) will prove useful for the scale-out clustering technologies and for partition mobility.

They are planning to build in some useful auto-provisioning, Snapshot, cloning and thin provisioning features at the VIO cluster level all controller by director. Making it much more flexible to work in a virtualised environment with multiple systems.

If you are up to date with your VMware versions and you are using the latest in backup software (Netbackup 7, TSM6 veeam, vRanger etc) you will enjoying the pleasure of vmdk image backups without client software in each VM.

There are some good reasons for wanting to do VMware image backups:

Found a nice blog that explains the difference between VCB and vStorage API's. Useful if you are looking into ways of backing your VM environment. Netbackup 7 supports both methods.

http://www.vnotion.com/?p=181

The new rPerf document from IBM released on the 17th of Aug contains some big rperf numbers for the IBM System P POWER7 795, and due to the dramatic leap in processor core count (64 on a 595, to 256 on a 795) they have paid some thought to the way they display the rPerf figures.

According to the below report AIX on POWER is still statistically the best OS for maximum uptime. I think that the comparison of the UNIX based operating systems are fair as these servers are likely to be doing similar jobs. The Windows results however are heavily skewed by the number of security patches that have had to be applied to the frontline servers. Is this a measure of the OS or a reflection on the position of the servers in the application stack/network layer?

http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/98475/windows-server-the-new-king-of-downtime.html

I would be really interested in a report that compared similar applications (e.g. ERP or database systems) running on AIX, HP-UX, Solaris and windows. 
Relative performance comparisons and benchmarking different systems is something that can be done in a finite amount of time with a lab full of kit. But uptime comparisons rely on surveys and user reports over an extended period of time, and never seem to be from well grouped application categories. If anyone has seen better stats that make more detailed comparison of OS uptime please let me know.

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Here's a great 2 page cheat sheet for AIX, paste it on your office wall and you'll always have the command you need staring you in the face.

http://centiq.co.uk/attachments/150_aix-quicksheet.pdf

Speak to one of our technical experts now to see how Centiq can help your business by requesting a "call back" using the button to the right, or calling us on 0115 951 9666