IBM AIX vs. Windows Server

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
IBM AIX
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
IBM AIX (for Advanced Interactive eXecutive) is a Unix operating system, developed, offered and supported by IBM.N/A
Windows Server
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
N/AN/A
Pricing
IBM AIXWindows Server
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IBM AIXWindows Server
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
IBM AIXWindows Server
Considered Both Products
IBM AIX
Chose IBM AIX
We used both types of servers: IBM AIX and Linux (RHEL). I think IBM AIX has an advantage when using large servers with virtualization.
Chose IBM AIX
IBM AIX operating system is advanced with most features and also it's more reliable unlike Redhat Linux, Sun solaris, HP-UX and also we will have well support from the vendor if we run into any issues. IBM AIX is more user-friendly when compared to linux and easy to use so i …
Chose IBM AIX
I have been using IBM AIX for a longer time. The kind of confidence I have in IBM AIX as well as its support and super features has always given me many reasons to stick with it to run my business.
Chose IBM AIX
I do not need to reboot AIX boxes every week, like I do MS Servers. It is not unusual to see 1-2 year uptime on my AIX LPARS.
Chose IBM AIX
Like AIX, Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a very stable operating and designed for companies who don't want to be on the bleeding edge of Linux technology.
Chose IBM AIX
The only real comparable competitors to IBM AIX come from the Linux world. Linux is beginning to approach the reliability and stability of IBM AIX and is often a better choice. Linux also has a shorter update cycle with more significant leaps in functionality and feature sets. …
Chose IBM AIX
Standard Linux distributions which are used more as commodity servers do not offer the ease of scale and growth that we see with our Aix implementations. IBM owning the HW and SW portions of the stack allows for tighter integrations and better performance windows.
Chose IBM AIX
AIX is a more mature operating system than Linux and its stability reflects positively on this. Safe application handling and uptime are great positive features as well. Windows is not even a choice on the availability front, and patching and there are huge concerns about …
Chose IBM AIX
When compared against Red Hat Linux or Microsoft Windows, IBM AIX is much more expensive. The flexibility of the Microsoft and Red Hat offerings give them an extreme advantage over IBM AIX. The TCO for IBM AIX is considerably higher than the other two. The ability to find …
Chose IBM AIX
Compared to other Unix-like operating systems, IBM AIX is the one with a solid roadmap into the future and is likely to stay around for a long time (it is over 30 years old and still being updated with new features and components all the time).

Compared to many Linux variants, …
Chose IBM AIX
AIX is more stable is more administrative friendly, being the commands do not change every few years like in Solaris.
Windows Server
Chose Windows Server
More user friendly and Graphical user interface is extreme compared to linux
Chose Windows Server
It is really all about application support. The only option we really have is Windows Server, and where we can choose we continue to use it for consistency as well as compatibility with the systems where we are forced to use Windows Server).
Chose Windows Server
We've utilized docker and debian for very specific applications and they have been useful - overall Windows Server provides a better package. I would choose VMware ESXi over Windows Server for virtualization as it's far more reliable in our experience. I can't imagine using a …
Chose Windows Server
There are plenty of other server solutions out there which may be better suited for certain tasks, but Windows Server is the way to get a Windows environment going. For simple setups, there are many alternatives, but often there are key features lacking, or a restriction on …
Chose Windows Server
Windows Server is more cost-effective and skills are easier to find to support the products. The deployment and management of the product can be automated with Microsoft SCCM. In my opinion, Linux seems to be more secured but takes more time and effort to learn than Windows …
Chose Windows Server
These are just very different products. They can all have the same functionality but the specific product knowledge with Linux is much higher. This slows down troubleshooting and can leave you with limited options for high end support. There are absolutely good use cases for …
Chose Windows Server
We have been using Microsoft products for the last 15+ years and following are key point for choosing this solution:
  • Trust & reliability of products.
  • Customer support.
Chose Windows Server
I didn't use any other system which gives the same functionality and I am not aware of any. The full integration between all components and especially the ability to integrate mail via Exchange or even via a hybrid setup with the Ofice365 cloud, including the ability to …
Chose Windows Server
For our more experienced users and for simple web apps we will go the RHEL route but with Windows Server such an industry standard the the ease of use of the GUI it just makes more sense for most applications that use it. It also generally has a lot more interoperability …
Chose Windows Server
Linux is great, but support is harder to come by. You also need to pay linux admins more as it is a much smaller group of people that can support it. Windows is the industry standard with the most support available. Going with another platform just didn't seem to make sense …
Chose Windows Server
I have some basic experience using various builds of Linux and have always found myself coming back to Windows. Perhaps after years of working with Microsoft products they all have a similar feel and configuration options. Microsoft products are my typical first choice where …
Chose Windows Server
We have various servers or appliances that run on various flavors of Linux that do their jobs well, but we configure and manage them very lightly at the OS level. Most of the admin on these devices is sone inside the applications themselves. We don't shy away from new …
Chose Windows Server
All the other products I have used in the past OS2 servers, Novell Netware, Banyan Vines etc don't show up in the search list, which i guess goes to show that the best wins.
Chose Windows Server
I have used/administered several servers using systems like Ubuntu, Debian, and CentOS. While these systems are great in their own rights, you are typically using a command-line interface or shell in order to administrate the system. This requires a lot of commands to be …
Chose Windows Server
For our purposes it came down to picking between Windows and Linux and at the end of the day we picked both. We use Windows for 80% of our server needs to run our Web, File, Print, DHCP, Internal DNS, Active Directory, SQL, Web and other windows based servers. We use linux …
Chose Windows Server
Windows Server has become one of the industry standards for providing file and directory services for the majority of users because of the ease with which it interacts with the common desktop OS, as opposed to needing to provide esoteric support for users to be able to work …
Chose Windows Server
About any linux distro can be setup to handle services that a Windows Server can do, except I have not personally found anything nearly as convenient of a replacement for Active Directory, Group Policy, or an RD Gateway. There are alternatives to those services, they just …
Chose Windows Server
Windows Server is by far the easiest server option to get started with because they offer the same kind of interface with windows that most users are already familiar with. Plus, it's the most graphically friendly option, so it is easy to navigate. Lastly, it is the most …
Chose Windows Server
We were comparing Windows Server with Hyper-V to VMware ESXI, and decided on Windows Server as we are primarily a Windows server/workstation shop, and the familiarity allowed us to spin up new Hyper-V servers quickly without much additional training required. We also have a …
Chose Windows Server
We have used various flavors of Linux as it is the only other real competitor in the small to large business world. In most cases it is harder to find technical expertise in the Linux server world verse Windows Server. For this reason Windows has remained our go to operating …
Chose Windows Server
Windows runs some applications better and is easier for junior admins and non-technical users to administer and get started with. It obviously does not run everything better, so other operating systems are preferable in some situations. Compared to OSs like RHEL, they both have …
Chose Windows Server
Windows Server is the only one that has an upfront cost for licensing before hardware is considered. Windows Server is generally better suited for multi-faceted approaches; however, for just backups, TrueNAS and Synology are cheaper and just as good. For standalone services …
Chose Windows Server
Windows Server is the most Enterprise/Business server around, easy to deploy and configure and to co-exist with other servers. Most if not every other server technology is usually very good for a very specific purpose but fail in the coexistence and integration when compared …
Best Alternatives
IBM AIXWindows Server
Small Businesses
Ubuntu
Ubuntu
Score 8.7 out of 10
Ubuntu
Ubuntu
Score 8.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Score 9.3 out of 10
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Score 9.3 out of 10
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
IBM AIXWindows Server
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
5.5
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.5
(0 ratings)
6.4
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
IBM AIXWindows Server
Likelihood to Recommend
IBM AIX is a very powerful and extremely stable operating environment. It is well suited for applications that are business critical and cannot tolerate outages. It is best used to address large enterprise level application needs where stability and scalability are of paramount importance. IBM AIX is less useful for small enterprises.
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If you have one user or 1000's of users (especially using Windows), Windows Server is a no-brainer! The only reason I would suggest going with a Linux server is if you have old hardware (Windows Server is more process intensive than Linux). But, Linux is open-source, so anyone can publish updates/security updates, but on the flip side, malicious people also have full access to Linux's codebase allowing for much easier writing of exploitations/viruses/malware/ransomware.
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Pros
  • IBM AIX is a very stable server product, and I can't recall a time when the server has crashed due to a hardware fault.
  • If you have legacy software that can't run on the new-fangled Linux flavors, AIX might be the way to go.
  • AIX has a host of built-in management tools that makes system configuration easy for a novice.
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  • User and device management out of the box. Active directory is a proven system for doing this and works just as well as it always has.
  • ADFS providing integration into many third-party applications using SAML authentication. We use this heavily to make user experience as simple and straightforward as we can.
  • Local DHCP. It's another one of these systems that is very easy to setup and use out of the box and requires very little maintenance, if any. The system is almost unchanged throughout the years and so anyone with server experience can manage it.
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Cons
  • While there are options to install some standard Linux tools like Bash, they are not always easy to procure
  • Allowing easier flexibility in how some tools and CLI options work would make it easier for admins to float between operating systems.
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  • Windows Server is extremely complex, and while newer versions have eased the initial setup process, setting up a server is still a very time consuming and difficult task.
  • The complexity of Windows Server also makes troubleshooting any problems that arise extremely difficult, both in tracking down the actual issue and then resolving the issue. Often times a problem can manifest itself in more than one way, making searching for the specific problem also difficult.
  • Windows Server is also very expensive, with complex and confusing licensing terms. In fact, Microsoft provides a 32-page PDF guide on Windows Server licensing, which is in and of itself dense and confusing to follow. To make matters more complicated, there multiple different version of Windows Server itself - Nano, Essentials, Standard and Datacenter edition, and each edition has different licensing terms. Licensing terms include items such as the physical processor's cores of the server, how many users will be accessing the server (called a CAL - client access license), and a plethora of other items.
  • Microsoft's support for Windows Server can be extremely frustrating at times. While Microsoft hosts a very active user forum, Microsoft employees who frequent those forums often provide only stock answers to questions (without actually reading the details) or no answers at all. For more in-depth - phone support can be quite expensive.
  • Upgrading a Windows Server from one major version to another (i.e. 2012 to 2016) is a frustratingly complex and dangerous procedure, as many things can go wrong during the upgrading, essentially breaking the entire setup. In fact, Microsoft doesn't even suggest doing an in-place upgrade, but to perform a backup of the existing server, doing a clean install of the new version, and migrating the information from the older version to the new version. In general, it is not even recommended to upgrade from one version to another as the risk significantly outweigh the benefits.
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
I've carefully reviewed the servers and services currently running on Windows Server 2012, and given the opportunity would renew them as is going forward. There are two systems I currently have in place, one is a very large Linux implementation for a large ecommerce site, and one is a very large backup solution front ended by FTP servers running Linux. Neither are well suited for Windows, but the overall network infrastructure is and will be Windows Server for the foreseeable future.
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Usability
AIX is robust, helps the systems administrator, is built to prevent easily made mistakes. If you are used to other variants of Unix (in particularly Linux) there is no steep learning curve to get started with AIX. You need to learn the intricacies of the operating system, but that is true for any new operating system. AIX has built-in tools for almost anything you want and has the AIX Toolbox (on the web) for tools that are not included with AIX by default, but can be installed. Installation of AIX is modular, you can select with components and features you want to have installed. Installation of additional components (and usually also removal of installed components) is easy and straight-forward.
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Everything can (and should) be done through the easy to use/navigate GUI. There is no need for archaic command prompt use to administer the server. But, it is there if you have very specific needs for batch files, etc. that are not covered in the all extensive GUI.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
some times server hungs and user sessions were busy to connect
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Performance
No answers on this topic
need to improve the performance more
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Support Rating
There is lots of documentation out there for AIX. On the times I've had to address a hardware issue, IBM's support has been great.
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It has been my experience that unless there is a flaw or bug with Microsoft Windows Server, you will have to pay extra for support beyond the support web site. That said, unofficial support on the thousands of technical websites makes self-help support readily available to any technician with an internet connection. Microsoft's support website is also fairly robust, but I find using a popular search engine often returns knowledgebase articles more quickly that Microsoft's search.
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In-Person Training
No answers on this topic
it was my senior who trained Windows Server features and i was satisfied
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Online Training
No answers on this topic
it was recorded session and useful
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Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
Make sure that you have detailed processes in place for every server instance you plan to install/upgrade, if possible get the base OS loaded and Windows Updates applied ahead of time, and if using a VM take a snapshot prior to installing each role, as well as along the way.
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Alternatives Considered
Compared to other Unix-like operating systems, IBM AIX is the one with a solid roadmap into the future and is likely to stay around for a long time (it is over 30 years old and still being updated with new features and components all the time). Compared to many Linux variants, the AIX operating system is more robust, easier to manage and well-supported by its vendor.
Read full review
Windows Server is more cost-effective and skills are easier to find to support the products. The deployment and management of the product can be automated with Microsoft SCCM. In my opinion, Linux seems to be more secured but takes more time and effort to learn than Windows Server. However, there are more Windows Server skills available in the job market.
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Scalability
No answers on this topic
yes i completely agree multi deployment
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Return on Investment
  • IBM AIX is more expensive but its worth to have it for the features its embedded with
  • It's not suited for small customers because of the hardware cost as the ROI will be less for smaller customers.
  • IBM AIX is well suited for companies who has more customers so that ROI doesn't impact.
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  • Ability to keep all files in one place and give access to users makes file management easy to control.
  • VPN Access to off-site users is a plus.
  • Secure access to on-site SQL data from our accounting and estimating data is a plus.
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