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Overview

IP4G is a platform for hosting IBM Power Workloads on Google Cloud (GCP)

IBM® Power for Google Cloud is an infrastructure as a service solution from IBM that you can use to deploy, manage, and consume PowerVM based virtual machines (LPARs) that are connected to the Google Cloud Platform. Virtual machine (VM) management is provided by a Google aligned experience that offers APIs, command line, and web-based console options.

The IBM Power for Google Cloud service is designed to deliver a public cloud-based experience with the same infrastructure capabilities that you run on premises. You can quickly deploy Power Systems VMs to meet your specific business needs. You can create a hybrid cloud environment that combines IBM Power benefits and services on the Google Cloud Platform for a hybrid cloud solution.

You can use the IBM Power Systems for Google Cloud service to host virtual machines that are running the AIX, IBM i, or Linux operating systems.

This service uses a capacity-based subscription model with monthly pricing. The subscription is based on a cloud instance plan, which is a collection of compute, memory, storage, and network resources.

1 - IP4G Service Features

Service Features of IBM Power for Google Cloud

Service features

The following are some of the key features for the IBM Power for Google Cloud service.

Google integrated billing

Cloud plans are subscribed to from the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Marketplace and included in your monthly Google bill. The pricing for the Google cloud plan is based on a monthly subscription. The Google cloud plan does not have a term commitment, and you can cancel at any time. Billing is pro-rated for partial monthly usage.

Internal Google network access to GCP resources and services

Cloud instances are networked into a target GCP project by using Google Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) Peering technology. This VPC Peering enables Virtual Machines (VMs) on IBM Power System servers to obtain direct private access to GCP resources such as compute, cloud storage, and other services over the internal global Google network. You can use this connectivity for solutions spanning IBM Power Systems infrastructure and GCP resources. For more information, see Google VPC Peering.

Network design with a secure by default access model

VMs created on IBM Power Systems infrastructure are assigned IP addresses on the cloud instance private network within the associated GCP project. By default, IP addresses are internal to the project and only accessible from resources within the project. You have full control over network access to IBM Power Systems VMs.

You can control how the VMs are made accessible beyond their GCP project by using solutions such as front-end GCP-based application servers, VPNs, NAT gateways, jump servers for SSH access, or Google Direct Interconnect solutions to the data center.

OpenAPI compliant APIs, command line, and web console options that you can use to manage the lifecycle of VMs (LPARs) from creation to deletion. Operations are also available to manage VM images, data volumes, and networks.

The command line tool is called pcloud. To view the documentation for the pcloud command, run the pcloud docs command. Documentation links for the API and web console are provided as part of the management web console.

AIX license and support entitlement

The IBM Power for Google Cloud service includes a license to run the AIX operating system with support entitlement for supported AIX versions. This service offers a few stock AIX images that you can deploy. You can also bring your own custom AIX images based on OVA exports from IBM Cloud PowerVC Manager. You can also use AIX mksysb images along with a NIM server or AIX alt disk installation to create customized LPARs within cloud instances.

Enterprise IBM Power Systems infrastructure compatible with on-premises deployments and workloads

The IBM Power for Google Cloud service is composed of IBM PowerVM based Power Systems, including the latest POWER9 technology. The infrastructure includes the following attributes:

  • IBM Power 9 or Power 10 System Types (Varies by region)
  • 16-gigabit Fibre Channel connected storage
  • 25-gigabit networking for all servers
  • 100-gigabit network across server racks
  • HDD (3 iops/GB) and SDD (10 iops/GB) storage options for data volumes
  • Shared and dedicated processor options when you create guest VMs
  • Dynamic LPAR support for live add and remote of compute and memory to guest VMs
  • PowerVM NPIV-based storage virtualization for guest VMs (LPARs)
  • Dual VIOS
  • Redundant SAN and network fabrics
  • Redundant PDUs
  • Connectivity to GCP over dual interconnect zones, each with multiple aggregated links
  • PowerVC remote restart technology for improved guest VM availability with host failures
  • PowerVM LPM technology to sustain guest VM availability during disruptive infrastructure maintenance events