IBM Licensing Newsletter August 2023

Thoughts on IBM licensing????

I'm seeing more and more clients moving IBM workloads from on-premise to the public cloud ( most frequently Azure, AWS and Google).?In every case there has been a significant increase in IBM license costs.?

Some of the causes for the IBM license "inflation" ?? are:

• Cloud servers significantly slower than the on-premise servers the loads are migrating from
• VMs in public cloud significantly slower than equivalent?VMs on premises?
• latency issue when accessing the applications on public cloud
• redesign of architecture to?accommodate running in public cloud
• Additional backup and HA requirements for running in public cloud.

In all cases the teams responsible for the migration have done a cloud assessment, run multiple POCs and modelled out the different cloud consumption costs.?What they have underestimated , in some cases in the millions, is the license costs of moving to public cloud.

If your organisation is planning to move IBM workloads to the public cloud?they need to ensure they clearly understand the IBM license costs.?The good news is that the IBM license costs can be significantly reduced if it is consider in the design at the start,

I'd love to hear your thought and questions related to IBM licensing.?Leave a comment below or email me at [email protected]

??News and IBM Announcements

Updates from IBM, HCL and Red Hat that might be of interest.

• HCL have announced a 15%?price increase ??on both support and list price.?This seems to have slipped by without much comment.?I wrote a post for the ITAM Review on this increase,?go check it out.
• HCL have also announced an update to their Complete Collaboration (CCB) Guest licensing.?Removing the need for user to be authenticated in a number of common scenarios.
• The HCL PVU Licensing guide.?If you haven't looked at this document in a while you should take a look.?In particular the core table and socket limits.?More sockets will increase the PVU value assigned.?Jumping from 70 to 100 or 120.
• Red Hat updated Support for IBM Cloud Paks - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
• IBM Support Guides have gotten a refresh.?If you have a product version deployed near the end of life you should read these:
• Extended Support, Sustained Support & Advanced Support

What I've been reading, listening or watching ?? ????

• Great post and even more interesting comments from a post by Eric Chiu on ChatGPT4's answer on IBM license audit and compliance risks.?
• ?IBM Mainframe Newsletter from MainframerZ Meetup,?nice work Andy (McCandless).?Subscribe!
• Some useful reminders on ILMT in this post Decoding ILMT: Optimizing IBM’s License Metric Too from Michael Swanson
• Cosol Global had a good post The savvy system owners guide to moving to IBM MAS on migrating to Maximo Application Suite (MAS) with an explanation on AppPoints.
• Not sure what to make of this announcement,?Fresche Solutions Launches Subscription-Based Licensing for IBM i Flagship Products but the idea is interesting.
• Great post from Lodestar solutions explaining the lifecycle of IBM Standard Subscription and Support.

I encourage you to use the hashtag #ibmlicensing when you find a post?this audience might be interested in so it can be found more easily.

Events / Webinars / Resources ???????

• The?SHARE?New Orleans 2023 which includes sessions from the world of mainframe.?The team at Watson Walker have prepared a useful guide to SHARE
• The MainframerZ meetup community have drawn up a fantastic list of Mainframe training resources and education opportunities.
• Webinar from Origina on Understanding the impact of recent IBM contract and commercial changes with IP expert Guy Tritton
• If you missed Camelia Balan (Integration.Works) webinar I you can link to it here: License Optimisation- Integration Modernisation with IBM Cloud Paks
• Insight have a webinar The impact of IBM’s recent contractual changes on your organisation.?If you haven;t already hear enough about these changes??

IBM Licensing Tips ??

Planning a migration of IBM products to a new data centre of public cloud??There is a high risk you will breach IBM Temporary Additional Use Policy of 90-days.?Negotiate for a longer temporary use period, 120 or even 360 days, to avoid compliance issues later.

You want more?

• ?? ?? ??The IBM Licensing Group on LinkedIn where you can connect with others interested in IBM licensing.?
• ?? My blog at https://www.licensehawk.com/blog for past articles and subscribe to my IBM license tips.
• ?? Watch IBM Licensing Expert?on YouTube.
• #???Search LinkedIn and Twitter using the hash tag #ibmlicensing
• ???Archive of past newsletters

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