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Flexible Capacity on Demand for IBM® Power® is a usage-based pricing model for on-premises IBM Power servers.

Maintain business continuity with flexible consumption options on your IBM Power. With Elastic Capacity, you can create temporary capacity by activating and deactivating processor cores and memory units to help meet the demands of your business peaks.

When you order activations, IBM immediately makes the activation code available for download to your system.

Activations can then be shared across any systems you manage. Purchase any number of activations up front and the system will automatically track their use and alert you when they have been consumed. It’s the easy way to extend your Power10® and Power9® hardware capacity.

IBM Power: Driving agility and choice with flexible consumption options
Benefits Add capacity nearly instantly

Dynamically activate inactive processor cores or memory units without any machine down time, simply by purchasing activation codes through IBM Seller or Business Partner, or directly on Entitled System Support (ESS).

Save time

Change the number of resources and days in a running request without stopping or starting your current request, or waiting until the current request expires.

Reduce costs

Pay only for the days that the processor cores or memory units remain activated. Billing is consolidated with multiple orders under the same PO and grouped on one invoice for a simple payment plan.

Develop and deliver more quickly

Configuration complexities are hidden behind the scenes. Order in minutes and provision in seconds. Speed time to market.

Features
Dynamic processor and memory activation

Purchase activations through the “view pricing and buy” link to Entitled System Support (ESS) or by contacting your IBM Seller or Business Partner. Once your order has been processed, you will receive an enablement code that allows processor and memory-capacity enablement in increments of 1 processor day or 1 GB memory day. The system monitors the amount and duration of the activations. Increase your capability for fluctuating peak processing requirements, such as seasonal activity or promotions.


Flexible workload management

Order in bulk under one order and allocate the processors and memory to multiple serials in the same data center. Order in minutes and provision within moments.


Simple payment plan

Paperwork hassles are eliminated, and licensing is inclusive. Bring in a user-friendly way to order: one feature for processor and one for memory. Get billed one quarter later. Get billed monthly or based on billing terms with your IBM Business Partner but no need to report monthly usage.


Request daily processor or memory capacity

After a request for temporary capacity is made, the server records 1 processor day for each requested processor or 1 memory day for each requested 1 GB memory unit at the beginning of each 24-hour period the request is running.


Enablement code-based operation

No shipping worries here. The enablement code is sent electronically and easily installed into the HMC.


Purchase activations through IBM Seller or Business Partner

You can contact your IBM Seller or Business Partner to purchase activations. IBM Seller or Business Partner will order activation features under Power Virtual Capacity machine "4586-COD" in the configurator and the order will be made available on the Entitled Systems Support (ESS) website/mobile app within 24 to 48 hours for you to provision and use. You can also authorize your Business Partner to generate enablement codes or just do it yourself on ESS immediately after your order is available.

Technical details Technical specifications

IBM Elastic Capacity is available on the following Power9 and Power10 servers:

  • 9040-MR9
  • 9043-MRX
  • 9080-M9S
  • 9080-HEX
Hardware requirements

This product does not run in, on, or with a Microsoft Windows environment or mainframe software and does not operate as a cross-platform solution. Method of production: BTO.

  • Power platforms
  • IBM i platforms
  • AIX platforms
  • Linux platforms
Take the next step

Temporarily activate and deactivate processor cores and memory units on IBM Power to meet business demands.

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