IBM AIX
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
Free Trial unavailableFree version unavailable
- Energy and utilities
- Banking and insurance
- Information technology and software
What is IBM AIX
Enterprise-grade UNIX on Power
Mature administration and tooling
High availability and virtualization alignment
Hardware platform dependency
Smaller ecosystem than Linux
Licensing and operational cost considerations
Plan & Pricing
Pricing model: Mixed — on-premises perpetual/subscription licensing (processor-based metrics) and cloud pay-as-you-go via IBM Power Virtual Server.
Free tier/trial: Not publicly documented for AIX as a perpetual free tier; trial availability unclear (see notes).
On-premises (official guidance): IBM AIX is sold through IBM Passport Advantage and related ordering channels using processor-based metrics (e.g., PVU / core-based metrics) and has multiple editions (Express / Standard / Enterprise / monthly-term offerings). IBM publishes product IDs/offerings (e.g., 5765-* SKUs) but does not publish list prices on the public site — customers are directed to order via Passport Advantage or contact IBM Sales for pricing and entitlements. Feature/edition names and part numbers are listed on IBM entitlement/download pages.
Cloud (IBM Power Virtual Server): AIX is available as a stock image on IBM Power Virtual Server and the operating system license and IBM software maintenance are included in the Power Virtual Server pricing for AIX/IBM i. IBM’s documentation provides an illustrative example (not a guaranteed price): a sample base instance with 1 core, 8 GB memory, 150 GB disk and “AIX 7200-03-02 OS” shows a base price of $250.57 per month ($0.343 per hour) — IBM labels such example amounts as illustrative and instructs customers to use the Power Virtual Server estimate tool for actual charges.
Example costs (from official IBM documentation — illustrative):
- Example Power Virtual Server base instance with AIX (illustrative): $250.57 per month ($0.343 per hour). (IBM notes these are illustrative amounts.)
Discount options / licensing considerations:
- On-premises licensing uses Processor Value Units (PVU) and supports sub-capacity (virtualization) licensing rules and ILMT requirements; volume/enterprise agreements and Passport Advantage contracts determine final pricing and discounts. For cloud, pricing may vary by generation (e.g., Power10 premium) and instance type. Customers are directed to contact IBM Sales or use IBM pricing/estimator tools for firm quotes.
Notes / important caveats:
- IBM does not publish a simple public list price for AIX on its product page; pricing is handled via Passport Advantage, IBM sales, and cloud pricing tools.
- IBM documentation shows multiple product SKUs / editions for AIX (e.g., 5765-* entries) but without public unit prices on the IBM site.
- Trial availability for AIX is not clearly documented on IBM’s public product pages; Passport Advantage indicates some trial images may be available but does not explicitly list a time-limited AIX trial publicly.
(See IBM product pages and Passport Advantage / Power Virtual Server pricing documentation for official details.)
Seller details
