What was the C4040-122 exam?
C4040-122 was “Power Systems with POWER7 Common Sales Skills -v2,” the shared core exam in IBM’s Power Systems sales certification track. Per IBM’s own test index, it ran 75 minutes with 52 questions and a 63 percent passing score. It was the common requirement across three credentials: IBM Certified Sales Specialist for Power Systems with POWER7 and AIX & Linux -v2, the equivalent for IBM i -v2, and IBM Certified Sales Expert - Power Systems with POWER7 -v2. The exam is retired.
A Deliberate Three-Exam Structure
IBM built this track as a shared core plus operating-system-specific branches, and understanding that structure explains what your credential actually covered.
C4040-122, the common exam. 75 minutes, 52 questions, 63 percent to pass. Covered the Power Systems hardware platform and the sales skills that applied regardless of which operating system a customer ran.
C4040-123, the AIX and Linux branch. 60 minutes, 42 questions, 61 percent to pass. Covered Power Systems with POWER7 and AIX & Linux specifically.
C4040-124, the IBM i branch. 60 minutes, 44 questions, 70 percent to pass. Covered Power Systems with POWER7 and IBM i specifically.
The branches existed because Power Systems ran fundamentally different operating systems for fundamentally different customers. AIX and Linux customers were typically running enterprise Unix workloads or consolidating Linux. IBM i customers, many of them running applications with lineage back through OS/400 and the AS/400, were an entirely distinct market with distinct buying patterns and a famously loyal installed base.
Note the passing scores: the IBM i branch required 70 percent against 61 percent for AIX and Linux. IBM set a materially higher bar for the IBM i specialisation.
If you hold the Sales Specialist credential in either branch, you sat this common exam plus your branch exam. If you hold the Sales Expert credential, this exam counted toward that too.
What the Common Exam Covered
Being the shared core, C4040-122 dealt with what was true of Power Systems regardless of operating system: the POWER7 processor architecture and what made it distinctive, the server line and how models mapped to workload sizes, PowerVM virtualisation, and the commercial positioning of the platform against x86 alternatives.
The competitive framing was the substance of the sales conversation at the time. POWER7 competed against commodity x86 servers on the argument that fewer, larger, heavily virtualised systems could be cheaper to run at scale than many smaller ones, particularly for workloads that virtualise well and demand high per-core performance. Making that argument credibly required understanding consolidation ratios, licensing implications, and total cost of ownership rather than just quoting hardware prices.
That is a more substantive commercial skill than product recall, and it is the part worth claiming.
What Happened to Power Systems
This is where a common misconception needs correcting, because it affects how you describe your background.
Power Systems stayed with IBM. It was IBM’s x86 server business, the System x line, that went to Lenovo in a deal announced in January 2014 and completed later that year. Power Systems was not part of that sale and remains an IBM product line today, having continued through POWER8, POWER9, and POWER10.
That matters for two reasons. First, if you sold Power Systems, the platform you sold still exists and is still IBM’s, which is not true of several other credentials from this era. Second, people frequently conflate the two lines and assume all IBM server certifications point at a business that left IBM. They do not.
What did change: POWER7 is several generations old, PowerVM and the management stack evolved, and the commercial conversation shifted substantially toward cloud and hybrid deployment models. The platform’s positioning today emphasises different workloads than it did in 2013, including AI inference and enterprise Linux consolidation.
What This Credential Is Worth Today
As a current certification, it is expired. It is version-locked to POWER7, several processor generations back.
As evidence of enterprise infrastructure sales experience, it is specific and real. Power Systems was not a commodity sale. Deals involved substantial capital, long evaluation cycles, and technically sophisticated buyers. Someone certified to sell it was operating in genuine enterprise sales, not transactional hardware sales.
What transferred: the commercial capability. Building a total cost of ownership case, arguing consolidation economics, navigating a long enterprise sales cycle with multiple technical stakeholders, and positioning a premium platform against cheaper alternatives are all durable skills. The consolidation argument in particular resurfaced almost unchanged in cloud migration conversations.
What did not: POWER7 specifics, the model lineup, and the 2013 competitive landscape.
How to present it. Name the credential rather than the exam code, with its year: “IBM Certified Sales Specialist - Power Systems with POWER7 and AIX & Linux, 2013” or whichever branch you completed. “C4040-122” alone means nothing to most readers, and since it was a shared core exam rather than a standalone credential, the certification name is the more accurate thing to list.
Then let the results do the work. In sales, deals closed and quota performance evidence capability far better than a retired certification.
Where the Path Leads
If you still sell IBM infrastructure, IBM runs current certification and partner enablement programs around its present portfolio. Verify current requirements directly with IBM, since its certification catalogue is dynamically generated and older exam pages are no longer published.
If you moved to cloud infrastructure sales, the transition is more natural than it might appear. The consolidation and total cost of ownership arguments you learned for POWER7 against x86 are structurally the same arguments made for cloud against on-premises, and later for reserved capacity against on-demand. The technology changed; the commercial reasoning did not.
If you moved out of infrastructure entirely, this credential is background. Do not recertify for its own sake on a processor generation that is no longer sold.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I still take C4040-122? No. The exam is retired and version-locked to POWER7.
What certifications did it count toward? Three: IBM Certified Sales Specialist - Power Systems with POWER7 and AIX & Linux -v2, IBM Certified Sales Specialist - Power Systems with POWER7 and IBM i -v2, and IBM Certified Sales Expert - Power Systems with POWER7 -v2.
What was the exam format? Per IBM’s test index: 75 minutes, 52 questions, 63 percent passing score.
How did it relate to C4040-123 and C4040-124? C4040-122 was the common core covering the platform regardless of operating system. C4040-123 covered the AIX and Linux branch, and C4040-124 covered the IBM i branch. Sales Specialist candidates sat the common exam plus their branch exam.
Did Power Systems go to Lenovo? No. IBM sold its x86 System x server business to Lenovo in a deal announced January 2014. Power Systems stayed with IBM and continues today through POWER8, POWER9, and POWER10.
When did the exam retire? IBM does not publish a retired-exam list with dates. The exam appears as live in IBM’s test index snapshot from August 2014, so no retirement date is asserted here.
References
IBM. Professional Certification Program: Test Information by Number. Archived August 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140801000000/http://www-03.ibm.com/certify/tests/test_index.shtml (Primary source for the exam name, 75-minute duration, 52 questions, 63 percent passing score, and the three certifications it counted toward; also the source for the C4040-123 and C4040-124 branch exam details)
IBM. Test C4040-122: Power Systems with POWER7 Common Sales Skills -v2. IBM Professional Certification Program, archived 2014. (Primary source for the exam’s overview and objectives)
IBM. IBM Power Systems. https://www.ibm.com/power (Current product line, confirming Power Systems remains an IBM product)
IBM. IBM Training and Certification. https://www.ibm.com/training/certification (Current IBM certification catalogue)