Annualized Ownership Cost
A modeled five-year annualized total cost of ownership across Power8 through Power11: acquisition, hardware maintenance, and IBM i software combined into one per-year figure.
Annualized ownership cost spreads a system's full multi-year cost ... amortized hardware, ongoing hardware maintenance, and software licensing ... into a single per-year figure, so generations with very different up-front prices become directly comparable.
Scenario, not quote
The model below uses IBM's published hardware maintenance baseline of roughly 15% of purchase price per year, a representative mid-size P10-tier IBM i workload, and a 5-year hold. It illustrates relative cost shape across generations; it is not a quote for any specific configuration. See the dataset's assumptions for full detail.
Energy and cooling, the line this model excludes
This model covers amortized hardware, maintenance, and software. It does not carry energy or cooling, and on a modern Power system that line is large enough to move a comparison. IBM publishes measured idle and maximum draw for every Power 11 machine type, so the figure can be calculated rather than guessed. At 24x7 operation and an illustrative 12 cents per kWh, an S1112 measured between 216 W and 449 W costs roughly $230 to $470 a year in electricity, a two-socket S1124 measured between 821 W and 2,502 W costs roughly $860 to $2,630, and a four-socket E1150 measured between 1,888 W and 4,643 W costs roughly $1,990 to $4,880. Cooling sits on top of all three, sized from the BTU per hour rating rather than the watt draw.
Two consequences for a model like this one. First, an older generation that looks cheap on amortized hardware can lose part of that advantage on the meter, because rated draw rose across every class from Power 9 to Power 11 while performance per watt improved. Second, the entry class moved the other way: the S1112 is rated at 550 W against 1,600 W for the Power 9 S914 it usually replaces, which is a real annual saving rather than a rounding difference. See IBM measured idle and maximum power by machine type for the draw figures behind these numbers, and rated maximum power by equivalent model across three generations for how the classes compare.
Modeled for a representative mid-size single-partition IBM i workload landing in the P10 tier, amortizing hardware acquisition over a 5-year hold, adding IBM's published hardware maintenance baseline of approximately 15% of hardware purchase price per year (per IBM's Power Cost Estimator methodology, with IBM having raised maintenance pricing in 2024-2025), plus P10-tier IBM i subscription software. This is a scenario model to illustrate relative ownership cost shape across generations, not a quote for any specific configuration.
Modeling Assumptions
- 5-year hold period, hardware cost amortized straight-line
- Annual hardware maintenance at ~15% of acquisition price (IBM Power Cost Estimator baseline)
- IBM i P10-tier subscription software cost held constant across generations at the published per-core rate
- Acquisition price uses the entry-to-mid range midpoint from the Hardware Pricing dataset for each generation
- Excludes services/labor, storage expansion, and networking, which are workload-specific
Modeled 5-year annualized ownership cost by generation (representative mid-size P10 workload)
| Generation | Amortized Hardware ($/yr) | Maintenance ($/yr, ~15%) | IBM i P10 Software ($/yr) | Modeled Total ($/yr) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Power8 | ~$500 | ~$375 | ~$8,925/core (tier rate, more cores needed) | Highest effective total once extra core licensing is factored in, despite the lowest hardware line |
| Power9 | ~$1,700 | ~$1,275 | ~$8,925/core (tier rate, moderate core count) | Lowest modeled total in this scenario ... the current sweet spot for a defined, shorter runway |
| Power10 | ~$4,300 | ~$3,225 | ~$8,925/core (tier rate, fewer cores needed) | Close second; the gap to Power9 narrows further once RUL and support risk are weighed in, not just this year's cash cost |
| Power11 | ~$7,600 | ~$5,700 | ~$8,925/core (tier rate, fewest cores needed) | Highest modeled cash total ... newest hardware carries the highest amortized and maintenance load even with the best per-core software efficiency |
IBM i software cost is held at the same published per-core rate across rows to isolate the hardware and maintenance delta; in practice a newer generation needing fewer cores to clear the same tier lowers this line further than shown here. See IBM i Tier Economics for that effect in isolation.