IBM Announces Directions, Improvements to S/390 Software Pricing
N/A (May 07, 1998) – IBM today announced its intentions to shift the S/390 software pricing relationship for IBM software subsystems or middleware from capacity – 07 May 1998: based pricing to usage-based pricing. This will apply to subsystems such as DB2, CICS, IMS and MQSeries. Over time, this shift is intended to align prices closely with the value provided by these software subsystems for customers operating a diverse range of new applications.
In addition, IBM announced improved software price performance for customers growing their large aggregated Parallel Sysplex environments by lowering the incremental cost of computing. These new Parallel Sysplex License Charges for OS/390 Version 2 for customers implementing Parallel Sysplex clustered environments, beyond 1,000 aggregated MIPS, are effective immediately. Customers adding workloads to their Parallel Sysplex environments, beyond 1,000 MIPS, should see up to a 25 percent price improvement in OS/390 Version 2 for that incremental workload. With these announcements, IBM intends to enhance further its current software price performance that provides improvements of up to 20 percent per year for customers growing their platforms as they migrate to both OS/390 and aggregated Parallel Sysplex clustered environments.
S/390 Customers Move Toward Usage-based Pricing
Specifically, IBM today is announcing its intent to provide a range of pricing improvements designed to make it more economical for customers to add new applications to their S/390 platform or Parallel Sysplex clustered environments. In 1994, IBM introduced Measured-Usage Licensing Charge (MULC) pricing for its middleware or subsystems, including DB2, CICS, IMS and MQSeries. This alternative allows the customer to pay for the subsystems based on how much of the system’s resources are used, rather than system capacity. As customers add new workloads to the S/390 platform, they are beginning to show increased interest in usage-based approaches. Effective July 1, IBM is reducing MULC prices by 10 percent for current subsystem versions to improve the attractiveness of this usage-based option.
As IBM continues to shift from capacity-based pricing to usage-based pricing, IBM intends to enhance and simplify its usage-based pricing, including extending this approach to additional IBM subsystems and providing the opportunity for Independent Software Vendors to participate. IBM is expected to announce details of these enhancements in September, with expected availability of these changes to begin in January 1999. Initially, IBM intends to focus on a select set of S/390 application solutions, such as Lotus Domino, SAP R/3, BaanERP, PeopleSoft, Business Intelligence and Net.Commerce. IBM also intends to focus on consolidation of these application solutions from other platforms on the S/390.
Source: IBM