By now, businesses using IBM’s virtual processor core (VPC) licenses should have implemented IBM’s license metric tool (ILMT).  In 2022, IBM added VPCs to the types of licenses that require ILMT to support sub-capacity usage.  Prior to that time, IBM allowed manual counting on a limited basis for those customers that wanted to use sub-capacity licensing.  For the most part, that option is no longer available to customers. IBM required customers to ensure that ILMT was installed, configured, and accurately reporting no later than January 1, 2023.  Customers that deploy new ..read more

By now, businesses using IBM’s virtual processor core (VPC) licenses should have implemented IBM’s license metric tool (ILMT).  In 2022, IBM added VPCs to the types of licenses that require ILMT to support sub-capacity usage.  Prior to that time, IBM allowed manual counting on a limited basis for those customers that wanted to use sub-capacity licensing.  For the most part, that option is no longer available to customers. IBM required customers to ensure that ILMT was installed, configured, and accurately reporting no later than January 1, 2023.  Customers that deploy new ..read more

One of the most critical steps any business faces in any software audit is conducting an internal analysis of deployments to entitlements, preferably before any audit data is shared with the auditors. That internal review serves several purposes, including (1) identifying deployments for which a company’s license documentation may be lacking, thereby giving the company an earlier opportunity to locate invoices or other purchasing records, (2) identifying deployments at risk of being counted inaccurately by auditors, and (3) giving finance teams an opportunity to set aside appropriate reserves ..read more

Most software audits pertaining to products licensed under perpetual licenses (such as licenses acquired under a Microsoft Select Agreement, MPSA or (usually) Enterprise Agreement) incorporate a snapshot-in-time approach, where licenses owned generally are compared to deployments identified through data collected about current-state product deployments. In contrast, audits pertaining to products licensed under a Microsoft Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA) incorporate a strong historical-use element. Since SPLA pricing is based on a monthly reporting model, SPLA audits look at historic ..read more

Many software-solution vendors utilize third-party infrastructure or application programs as frameworks for embedded solutions that they sell to their customers and install on their customers’ computers. Licenses for those third-party products typically can be acquired by a vendor and passed to its customers pursuant to the terms of an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) or Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) license agreement. Under those agreements, the third-party publisher often receives a set fee based on the number of licenses for its software that are distributed to the vendor’s custom ..read more

For more than a decade, IBM has allowed its end users to license IBM software products on a sub-capacity basis.  For IBM licensing purposes, sub-capacity licensing required customers to accept the sub-capacity licensing terms (originally in a separate sub-capacity license agreement signed by both parties), and ultimately as part of other licensing agreements.  The more onerous sub-capacity licensing requirement was apparently the requirement that customers install and configure an IBM-approved reporting tool, in most instances, the tool was IBM’s License Metric Tool (“ILMT”).  ..read more

Each of the major software publishers has one or two tricks up its sleeve – tricks that often are missed by licensees – affecting how its server products may be used in virtualized environments. For example, Microsoft SQL Server requires a minimum of four core licenses per vCPU, even if the actual number of vCPUs allocated to a VM is less than four. Oracle offers even more pitfalls for the unwary, in that it strictly – some would say unreasonably – limits and defines the specific virtualization technologies that may be used to license its products based on virtual resources (as opposed to hos ..read more

IBM software licensing can present an array of interpretive and compliance challenges for even the most sophisticated licensees. Here are three of the most important things to keep in mind when planning to license IBM products under the company’s standard-form agreements (which, for the vast majority of IBM customers, are essentially the company’s only agreements, since IBM generally is loathe to deviate from them). 1. Document Soup. The first thing to know about IBM license agreements is that there is no single license of any single software program. Instead, IBM places applicable license te ..read more

Software-compliance audits initiated by IBM can be extremely burdensome and time-consuming and can force companies to face challenges that are somewhat unique among major-publisher audits. For one example, a significant component of IBM’s business model is the acquisition of other software vendors and the integration of those vendors into IBM’s product portfolio, which can complicate the task of identifying the appropriate license metrics and entitlements owned. For another example, companies seeking to license IBM products based on processor resources in virtualized environments must use IBM ..read more

Microsoft recently ended support for all servers running Windows 2008, Windows 2008 R2, and Windows 7 operating systems.  After support ended, IBM announced that after Q3 2020, it would no longer support its IBM License Metric Tool (“ILMT”) on any computer running those operating systems.  IBM also announced that computers running those operating systems would no longer be included on the “list of technologies eligible for subcapacity [sic] licensing.”  (See schedule here.) This makes sense because in order to qualify for sub-capacity licensing, servers must have ILMT installed ..read more