Converge IBM Power for Google Cloud (IP4G)

Overview

• Offered by Converge; previously owned by IBM
• IaaS for IBM PowerVM based virtual machines (LPARs)
• Integrated offering
  • Consume 3rd party service (i.e. IBM Power) as though Google Cloud native
  • 4 areas:
    • Billing—integrated through Google Cloud marketplace
    • User experience—like interacting with Google infrastructure
    • Networking—low latency, HA, secure connection to Converge infrastructure (never over internet, private IP space)
    • Support—tier 1 support from Google, with escalation to Converge (critical workloads)
• Converge runs infrastructure—customer responsible for OS upwards
• Monthly subscription
  • T-shirt sizing—can change plans
  • Billing prorated for partial months
• Access to Google Cloud services from within LPARs
• Power9-based servers
  • Same infra as used in usual on-prem deployments—by design
  • Power10 available on request
• AIX, IBM i, or Linux operating systems
• Regions (as of June 2023):
  • us-east4 (N. Virginia)
  • us-central1 (Iowa)
  • europe-west3 (Frankfurt)
  • northamerica-northeast1 (Montréal)
  • northamerica-northeast2 (Toronto)
  • europe-west4 (Netherlands)—roadmap

Management

• OpenAPI interface—running on GKE in Converge-owned VPC
• Web console—developed by Converge, similar look/feel to Compute Engine UI
• CLI tool—pcloud developed by Converge, similiar look/feel to gcloud

Networking

• Customer VPC peered to Converge owned VPC
• Converge VPC handles Dedicated Interconnect to Converge data centre containing Power hardware
• RFC1918 address space—no connectivity to Converge hardware from internet without going via customer VPC

References

• Converge
• Official Documentation
• Introducing IBM Power Systems for Google Cloud (Cloud Next ‘19)