Mainframe software licensing law

Currently, the use of contract law to evaluate software license. Since license agreements do not override applicable law or contract law, provisions in conflict with applicable law are not enforceable. Ibm has shut out other mainframe vendors by ending support for older mainframe systems and not licensing its mainframe software to rivals, t3 said. Software pricing licensing for ibm z mainframes ibm.

Mainframe costs are traditionally controlled by capacity or license management. We are proud to have partnered with compuware over the past fiveandahalf years during which time the company has become a leading innovator in. Im not going to dive too much into ibm mainframe licensing here for like most software licensing, it is deep and charybdisesque but here is a very highlevel overview of where ibm mainframe licensing has been up to now. Federal regulators are now taking a look at the criticism. Im not going to dive too much into ibm mainframe licensing here for like most software licensing, it is deep and charybdis. A software license or software license in commonwealth usage is a legal instrument governing the usage or redistribution of protected software. The internal revenue service should improve mainframe. The objective of mainframe software license management is to manage, control, and protect an organizations software assets, including management of the risks that arise from the use of those software assets. Software license management slm explained bmc blogs.

Ibm accused of mainframe software market monopoly law360. Stephen swoyer, enterprise systems journal, oct 2007. There are many pricing options such as ipla, vwlc and znalc. Proprietary software vendors can prohibit the users from sharing the software with others.

Mips means million instructions per second and is a unit commonly used to give the rate at which a processor executes instructions. A critical part of software asset management is mainframe software license management. Its easy to be confused with mainframe software licensing, particularly from ibm. In short, slm is a plan to help you monitor and maintain all your organizations various software licenses. Making mainframe software asset management a success. The legal validity of these licenses has been hotly disputed but today seems to. Ibm mainframe software licensing structure overview metis. The term hardware describes the physical aspects of. For many companies, ibm mainframes are crucial for daytoday operations, but. Master license and support agreement mainframe addendum.

This transformational pricing introduces two new pricing solutions for ibm z software running on the zos platform. Processor value unit pricing, under the passport advantage software licensing program, is a perengine charge primarily used for linux on z middleware products. He is extremely well versed in software law particularly in the realm of intellectual property, licensing agreements, and maintenance and support. Software licensing, business practices at heart of ibm mainframe criticism. Mainframe software licensing of ibm is transparent and easily understood. Value unit vu pricing is the most common pricing metric for ipla software on the mainframe. Eric freibrun founder and managing attorney freibrun. In the era of hybrid cloud and digital everything, predicting demand and costs can be a challenge. A type of license used with mainframe software, which limits the size of the computer or cpu the software can be used on.

How to cut mainframe software licensing costs, part ii. Subcapacity on mainframes has been tracked using the rolling 4hour average r4ha value, looking at peaks in product usage across lpars. The software licensing dilemma cwsl scholarly commons. Contact us to get your own independent mainframe expert. Mainframe exhibits section of the system z software contracts web site. Copyright 2009 longpela expertise abn 55 072 652 147. Mainframe isv software licensing reimagined for modern computing workloads. Mainframe software pricing longex mainframe quarterly. Mlc is the only component with a realistic list price but with over 50 different licensing metrics, most users delegate calculating the price to ibm. Ibm mainframe acquisition raises antitrust concerns. Broadcom introduces frictionless valuebased licensing for. Contract law theory doesnt state that the formation of a contract should involve the signing of a document. Ibm uses a similar benchmark called msu or measured service units. Software is a general term for the various kinds of program s used to operate computer s and related devices.

Software licensing, business practices at heart of ibm. Software license management, or slm, is part of overall software asset management sam capability and involves the process of reducing, documenting, and controlling total it costs. Neon to take mainframe complaints to europe the register. In the case of proprietary software with source code available, the vendor may also prohibit customers from distributing their modifications to the source code.