The Essential Qualities That Make Power11 an AI Platform Built for Business
AI is everywhere, but truly innovative AI platforms are rare. At the Power11 launch event on June 8, IBM didn’t just unveil improved performance; it introduced the foundation for enterprise AI. Power11 was built through co-creation with customers, designed to scale from edge to cloud and engineered with both on-chip and off-chip AI acceleration to meet the demands of real-world deployment.
During the announcement livestream from Munich, Hillery Hunter, CTO and GM of IBM Infrastructure, talked about the need for an AI platform that is “grounded in open source and model transparency and data science capabilities that enable creation and consistent deployment, management, oversight and governance of AI as a platform across that hybrid space.”
Power11, along with many IBM innovations, delivers on Hillery’s recommendations and the essential qualities of an AI platform:
Seamless AI Integration
AI must be embedded where work happens, across business workflows and applications. Power11 delivers an AI platform, combined with Red Hat OpenShift AI and a broad ecosystem of open-source software and toolkits, that enables organizations to integrate AI into real-world use cases with consistency and scale. One example is the IBM watsonx Code Assistant for i, which helps modernize legacy applications by streamlining code transformation and improving developer productivity.
AI Acceleration
AI at scale demands performance without compromise. Power11 leverages the MMA AI accelerator on-chip and the IBM Spyre Accelerator that extends AI capacity off-chip, ensuring robust support for inference and mission-critical business applications. Spyre is also designed to support next-generation generative and agentic AI workloads, enabling Power11 to scale beyond traditional inference and into more dynamic, context-aware AI deployments.
Data Fuels AI
Bringing data to the scale of AI. IBM understands that data fuels AI development and fine-tuning. IBM DataStage, available on Power11, supports the extraction, transformation, and loading of data. IBM plans to make watsonx.data, a leading open data lakehouse for enterprise AI, available on Power11 later this year. watsonx.data helps organizations organize both structured and unstructured data sources, the latter comprising up to 90% of AI-relevant information.
Hybrid Cloud
An AI platform should deliver a consistent experience from the edge, to on-prem, to the cloud. IBM’s Power11 systems, including high-end, mid-range and scale-out options, will be generally available starting July 25, including via IBM’s Power Virtual Server on IBM Cloud. What makes Power11 unique is that it delivers this hybrid flexibility using the same base technology, software and available solutions, whether deployed at the edge, on-prem, or in the cloud. This simplifies hybrid cloud operations while supporting a wide range of enterprise AI use cases.
Always Available
AI platforms must be resilient and self-managing. Availability is critical. Tested at 99.9999% uptime, Power11 is designed to ensure continuous operation for mission-critical workloads. Coupled with automation tools such as IBM Concert and Power11’s built-in automation capabilities, the platform streamlines system maintenance, application updates and firmware patching—all while keeping operations online. This allows enterprises to maintain AI platform availability without planned downtime, even as workloads evolve and scale.
Secured and Resilient
AI platforms must protect data, ensure trust and recover quickly from threats. Power11 includes advanced cyber resilience features like built-in ransomware detection, triggering alerts and mitigation within one minute. Combined with IBM Cyber Vault for rapid data recovery, hardened system integrity and proactive threat monitoring, these capabilities help organizations maintain trusted operations, ensure compliance and confidently scale AI workloads in regulated environments.
With the Power11 announcement, IBM is delivering an enterprise-class AI platform. As IBM’s Tom McPherson, GM of IBM Power, shared, “We are taking advantage of the full IBM stack to deliver hybrid cloud, AI and automation capabilities while building on our decades-long reputation as a trustworthy hybrid infrastructure for essential workloads.”