Support and maintenance for IBM Power and AIX
Direct L2/L3 support from certified engineers who know your environment, 8×5 or 24×7, for AIX, Linux and IBM i, with or without SWMA. Including Power8 and Power9 systems that IBM no longer maintains.
What changes compared with IBM support
You always deal with the same team, who know your installation, and we also review what you pay in licences.
Licence audit included
We review your IBM, Red Hat, SUSE and HCL licences and tell you where you are overpaying, whether or not you stay with IBM. View licence audit.
SWMA alternative
We support IBM and HCL software as an alternative to SWMA, with audits, firmware, patches and a direct contact who knows your installation.
An engineer with a name and a phone number
Your team talks to a named engineer with a direct number, available 24×7 for critical incidents, and if something goes down outside your contract there is our emergency support.
One provider for everything on Power
Servers, storage, databases, virtualisation, containers and cybersecurity, from AIX and FlashSystem to QRadar and Kubernetes, so you don’t have to coordinate several providers when something fails.
Last updated:
What we maintain on IBM Power
These are the technologies we support on Power; each one has its own page with the details.
Operating systems
Storage
Databases
Containers and cloud
We start by reviewing your installation
Before proposing a contract we look at what you have, what you pay and what risks there are, and then give you a fixed proposal.
Initial review
We review servers, storage, licences and contracts, and give you a report with what you can save and the risks you face today.
Tailored proposal
An annual contract that covers only what you use (servers, storage, backup, virtualisation or containers), with special terms if you commit for 3 or 5 years.
Getting started
We assign you an engineer, set up remote access and start with firmware, the HMC and pending patches, with technical training included for your team.
Ongoing support
We monitor, tune performance and plan each year’s updates, with 24×7 cover for serious incidents and support in English, Spanish and French.
SIXE compared with standard IBM support
| | SIXE | Standard IBM support |
|---|---|---|
| A named engineer you can call | ✓ | Ticket system |
| SWMA alternative | ✓ | — |
| Licence review | ✓ Included | No |
| One contact for servers, storage, databases and security | ✓ | Hardware and operating system only |
| Technical training | ✓ IBM, Red Hat, SUSE, Canonical | Separate |
| Power generations | Power5 to Power11 | Supported ones only |
| Languages | ES · EN · FR | Depends on country |
Questions we get asked before signing
Besides IBM's own support, IBM Power support is provided by IBM Business Partners and independent maintenance providers. At SIXE we are an IBM Business Partner and provide L2/L3 support for AIX, IBM i and Linux on Power, 8×5 or 24×7, with or without SWMA, including systems that IBM no longer maintains, such as Power8 or Power9.
Yes. We support IBM and HCL software as an alternative to SWMA, with licence audits, firmware and direct technical support, and we help you decide which contracts are worth keeping with IBM.
IBM ended standard maintenance for six Power9 scale-out models on 31 January 2026. We provide extended support for those systems (firmware, patches, optimisation and L2/L3) and advise you on when moving to Power11 makes sense for your applications.
Yes. We have migrated Oracle environments from Solaris and HP-UX to AIX on Power, including critical applications, and we always start with a compatibility analysis to keep downtime to a minimum.
Yes. IBM i (formerly AS/400 and iSeries) is very much alive, and it has its own page: IBM i (AS400) support and maintenance, with what we cover and what to do if you are still on 7.4.
It depends on what you have. We start with an audit of your installation, the licences you are overpaying for and the risks involved, and then give you a fixed proposal.
Need support for your IBM Power?
Tell us which models and releases you run and we’ll explain how we would cover them.
