Infuse AI Into Your IBM Power Workloads | IBM Power Virtual Server

AI IS MOVING FAST. 

Every month, there is a new way to analyze data, streamline operations, or serve customers more intelligently. For many organizations, the real challenge is not “Can we use AI?” It is “How do we use AI with the mission-critical systems that already run our business without creating new risk?”

If your core workloads run on IBM Power, you already rely on that platform for performance, security, and uptime. You cannot simply lift-and-shift everything to a public cloud and hope for the best. You need a hybrid approach that lets you:

• Keep sensitive data where it belongs
• Meet industry and country-level compliance requirements
• Take advantage of AI and cloud services without rewriting every application

That is where IBM Power Virtual Server and IBM Power10 come in. Together, they give you options to run mission-critical workloads and AI in the cloud, in your data center, or both.

Koltiv helps organizations design and implement these environments so they can move faster with AI while protecting what matters most.

Hybrid cloud that fits your rules, not the other way around

IBM’s hybrid cloud strategy for Power is built around choice. IBM Power Virtual Server (PowerVS) delivers IBM Power infrastructure as a service with semi-configurable compute, storage, and networking managed through IBM Cloud. It has been in market since 2019 and is available across 21 data centers worldwide.

Recently, IBM extended PowerVS with a client site option. Instead of running solely in an IBM data center, you can deploy a local zone inside your own facility that is connected to IBM Cloud. You get the same as-a-service experience, but your data and workloads can remain on-premises when required. 

For organizations that face strict regulatory, latency, or sovereignty requirements, this matters. You can:

• Place workloads in IBM data centers, your own data center, or both
• Keep regulated or ultra-sensitive data physically on-site
• Standardize on one platform for IBM Power workloads, regardless of where they run

According to an IBM Institute for Business Value study, 61 percent of cloud leaders say security or compliance needs have driven them to move some workloads from public cloud back to private cloud or on-premises environments. A flexible hybrid model lets you respond to those realities without giving up the benefits of cloud.

What IBM Power Virtual Server Private Cloud actually gives you

IBM Power Virtual Server Private Cloud is engineered to combine IBM’s Power infrastructure with a cloud-like operating model. In practical terms, that means:

• Intentional workload placement
  You can keep specific applications and data on your own site to satisfy data residency, sovereignty, or low-latency requirements, while placing other workloads in IBM data centers.
• In-region data control
  Country regulations increasingly require certain data to stay within national borders. PowerVS can be deployed in locations that help you keep data in the required geography while still consuming infrastructure as a service.
• Unified hybrid management
  PowerVS running at IBM sites and at client sites is managed through a common IBM Cloud interface. Your team can manage virtual machines and infrastructure across locations through one pane of glass instead of juggling separate tools. 
• Predictable charging with built-in flexibility
  Compute, memory, storage, and operating system licenses are metered by the hour. You can commit to a baseline monthly spend and then scale usage up or down with metered pricing so you pay in line with actual consumption rather than over-provisioning.
• Fully managed infrastructure operations
  IBM owns, delivers, sets up, and manages the PowerVS infrastructure in the data center you choose. That includes monitoring, security controls at the infrastructure layer, firmware updates, and day-to-day management. Your team can focus on workloads and business outcomes instead of racking, stacking, and patching hardware.
• Security aligned to IBM Cloud tooling
  IBM Power Virtual Server is designed to integrate with IBM Cloud security tooling. This helps centralize security management for Power infrastructure while still allowing you to keep sensitive workloads on-premises when required.

Taken together, this model gives you a consistent platform for mission-critical workloads wherever they need to live.

Turning IBM Power data into AI advantage

Many Koltiv clients have a similar story. Their most valuable operational data already lives on IBM Power systems. That data powers ERP, core business applications, and industry-specific workloads. The opportunity now is to use AI to extract more insight from that data in a secure and compliant way.

IBM Power10 servers are built with on-chip AI acceleration so you can run production AI at the “point of data,” which reduces latency and speeds time to insight. 

In practice, that enables use cases like:

• Intelligent document search and summarization using your own private data
• AI assistants for internal teams that can surface procedures, policies, or technical documentation without exposing content to public AI tools
• Real-time anomaly detection and pattern recognition on operational data streams

IBM highlights a technology services provider that built a private generative AI knowledge application, trained entirely on confidential customer documentation. They chose IBM Power10 and IBM Storage to keep both training and inference on infrastructure that could remain on-premises within the country, meeting strict data sovereignty requirements.

By clustering multiple Power10 servers and pairing them with appropriate storage, they were able to deliver a high-performance, private generative AI solution that keeps sensitive data under tight control while still delivering modern AI capabilities. 

This is the pattern more enterprises are pursuing: keep mission-critical data close, bring AI to the data, and choose the right mix of cloud and on-premises deployment to satisfy both innovation and compliance.

What this means for Koltiv clients

If you rely on IBM Power for core workloads, you are likely asking questions such as:

• How do we introduce AI without moving sensitive data into public tools we do not control
• How do we satisfy data residency or sovereignty rules while still taking advantage of cloud economics
• How can we reduce infrastructure management overhead so our team can focus on higher-value work

IBM Power Virtual Server and IBM Power10 give you real options:

• Run IBM Power workloads on IBM-managed infrastructure in IBM data centers, your data center, or both
• Use a single platform to manage hybrid environments while keeping critical data where it needs to be
• Deploy AI services close to your data with hardware acceleration that is designed for production workloads, not just experiments

Koltiv’s role is to help you design a practical path from where you are today to where you want to be with hybrid cloud and AI.

How Koltiv can help you move from idea to implementation

We start with your business requirements, not a product pitch. A typical Koltiv engagement around IBM PowerVS and AI looks like this:

1. Current-state assessment
   Inventory your IBM Power landscape, including which workloads are candidates for AI, which data sets are sensitive, and what regulatory or sovereignty constraints apply. Review your existing on-premises, private cloud, and public cloud footprint.
2. Hybrid and AI architecture design
   Map out where workloads should live: IBM site, client site, or both. Identify where AI capabilities (such as generative AI assistants or analytics models) should run relative to your data. Align the design with security, compliance, and latency requirements.
3. Cost and consumption modeling
   Compare your current infrastructure costs to a PowerVS model that uses committed spend plus metered consumption. Build a realistic financial picture that accounts for growth, seasonal peaks, and AI adoption.
4. Pilot implementation
   Start small with one or two workloads or a focused AI use case. Validate performance, security, and operational processes before expanding. Use real results to refine your architecture and governance model.
5. Scale and operationalize
   Extend the approach to additional workloads and AI use cases. Formalize processes for deployment, monitoring, and lifecycle management across your hybrid environment.

Throughout each step, our goal is to make your team the hero of this transformation while providing the guidance, engineering expertise, and IBM partnership you need to move with confidence.

Ready to explore AI on IBM Power with hybrid cloud flexibility

If you are looking at AI opportunities and wondering how to align them with your IBM Power environment, now is the time to evaluate your options. IBM’s investments in Power Virtual Server and Power10 give you a path to:

• Keep mission-critical workloads resilient and compliant
• Place data where it needs to live
• Infuse AI into your operations without losing control of how your data is handled

Koltiv can help you clarify what is possible, design the right architecture, and move forward with a low-risk pilot.

If you would like to talk through what hybrid cloud and AI on IBM Power could look like in your environment, reach out to our team to schedule a conversation.