2025 began a month ago. It is now February 2025, and we are back to our daily responsibilities: tickets, customer calls, and our regular routines.

We’ve already forgotten our New Year’s resolutions. Let me remind you of a few tasks you need to accomplish this year.

Buy a Power10 server

This is the most important task for this year. If you didn’t buy a Power10 server earlier, do it right now! This year is the year of Power11. Why should you buy a Power10 server when there will soon be Power11?

The answer is straightforward. Power11 will likely arrive at the end of the year. We expect it to be a brand-new server with record-breaking performance, but you can anticipate higher prices. Now is the perfect time to negotiate good discounts for Power10 servers. Don’t wait until Q4, when costs for Power11 will increase; instead, buy a Power10 server right now.

If you already have Power10 servers and need more performance, it’s wiser to wait until Q4. While uncertain, looking back at the last rollouts, we expect to see an enterprise-grade server like IBM Power E1080 in November, featuring many cores and ample RAM.

Prepare to test the new IBM i version

I’m not an IBM i expert, but all signs indicate that a new version should be available later this year. I don’t want to speculate on which POWER generations will be supported by the new version but refer to my first point: Purchase a new Power10 server unless you already possess one.

Schedule time to upgrade your PowerVM.

The latest version of Virtual I/O Server introduces many exciting features, such as multi-queuing in SEA, enhanced configuration options for NPIV, and NFS-based ISO image repositories. This is truly the version you need to upgrade to!

My only caution measure is to wait until the first fix pack for VIOS arrives! I hope it arrives this month or next month. Until then, you can test VIOS upgrade procedures. If you don’t know how to upgrade VIOS, read Jaqui Lynch’s beautiful articles or subscribe to my newsletter, where I show how to automate it with Ansible.

If you still have old hardware, such as POWER7, be ready for problems! Newer VIOS versions starting from 4.1 don’t support POWER7. Refer to my first point and purchase a new Power10 server. It’s time!

Upgrade your AIX to 7.3

If you still haven’t done it, it is now! We got TL3 last December, and you can wait until the first fix pack for it, but it is definitely the most important task of the year.

AIX 7.1 is currently in the extended support phase and will no longer be supported after April 2026.

AIX 7.2 is still supported, but you can’t expect new features or support for the latest hardware, such as the future Power11.

I’m sorry to say this, but you have no choice. You MUST upgrade AIX to version 7.3.

If you still have POWER7, you can’t run AIX 7.3. That’s why you should consider buying a Power10 server! ????

HMC Update

You already know that we expect Power11 this year—I wrote this several lines above—which means we will need a new HMC version. If you still don’t have HMC V10, it is almost too late!

I don’t have any HMC roadmaps to review, but since we always receive a new HMC version with each Power generation, I would anticipate HMC V11 this year. It’s up to you if you choose to update your HMCs to V10R3 or the forthcoming V11R1, but make sure to allocate some time for it.

Proposed Schedule for Your Resolutions

I’m not sure what happens or when, but I’d like to propose the following plan to you: