IBM first publicly mentioned this new, lower pricing at the "Mainframe 50" birthday event in New York on April 8, and now the official announcement letter is posted:
http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/3/897/ENUS214-223/ENUS214-223.PDF What follows below is a summary of MWP -- what it is, and what you need to know about it -- followed my free advice. Please double check all of this information with "your friendly IBM representative" since I'm only passing this information along in a personal capacity. This MWP offering is the second sub-sub-capacity software licensing option from IBM. (The first is Integrated Workload Pricing, or IWP for short. IWP provides sub-LPAR pricing for CICS and/or IMS in relation to WebSphere Application Server for z/OS.) Sub-sub-capacity in this case means a separate LPAR is *not* a prerequisite. (You said you didn't like always having separate LPARs for sub-capacity licensing, and IBM listened. Again.) Here are the key prerequisites for MWP: 1. Mobile access that is (or soon will be) adding to your mainframe utilization. That's the exact intent of this offering, to help you expand your mobile access in a more affordable, more aggressive way. Let's call these "mobile transactions," as IBM does. (Discuss with your friendly IBM representative if your mobile users/customers are triggering what the system programmers would refer to as "batch," as is common with MQ interactions for example. That mobile activity might qualify.) 2. A zEnterprise zEC12 or zBC12. If you don't have a zEC12 or zBC12 yet, if you add one that'll then mean your z196 and z114 machines (if any) in your enterprise also qualify if otherwise eligible. 3. You need to be on AWLC or AEWLC. MWP is an optional feature/add-on to IBM's most current z/OS sub-capacity licensing only. Notably MWP does not apply to NALC, zNALC, and Solution Edition offerings, to pick three examples. MWP also does not apply to any of the older, legacy licensing options, notably PSLC. Yes, it's theoretically possible AWLC (or AEWLC) plus MWP could be more attractive than zNALC or a Solution Edition offering in certain situations. If you think that might be true, talk with your friendly IBM representative. Except for Solution Edition (which requires a minimum term commitment), you should be able to switch to the new licensing as soon as you wish. (And in the case of Solution Edition you should be able to switch at the end of your term if you wish.) 4. z/OS Version 1 or higher. Yes, you can run z/OS under z/VM -- that's perfectly fine. z/OS Version 2 is obviously better. 5. Agreement with IBM on monthly reporting of mobile transaction data (and how to collect it). This requires a little bit of technical discussion with IBM. The announcement letter provides the broad outlines of what IBM's expectations are, but the details require discussion and agreement on some clear definitions. 6. Instead of SCRT, you'll be using -- what else? -- the Mobile Workload Reporting Tool (MWRT) each month to prepare and to submit your reports to IBM. (The MWRT also covers your SCRT functions.) MWRT should become generally available on June 30. Thus the first possible MWRT submission would be in early July for August billing, assuming you're signed up for MWP with an agreed measurement plan by then. IBM software products that qualify for MWP include CICS Transaction Server Version 4 and above, DB2 Version 9 and above, IMS Version 11 and above, WebSphere MQ Version 6 and above, and WebSphere Application Server for z/OS Version 7 and above. So, what do you get if you provide this additional monthly reporting to IBM (but still only with one reporting tool, so not much more)? MWRT calculates the 4 hour rolling average general purpose processor (CP) time consumed for mobile activity for those software products. Then MWRT adjusts that reported MSU figure downward by 60% for that portion of your utilization for those products before calculating the hour-by-hour peak MSUs across your LPARs. But I'll make it simpler. Essentially, with IBM's MWP one mobile transaction now counts as 2/5ths of a non-mobile transaction for all those IBM products. Remember, you're still dealing with the much lower marginal/incremental costs when adding that next MSU. But now that next MSU for mobile is reduced 60%. So it's less expensive layered on top of less expensive, and that's always a good thing. Let's try it another way. With MWP, you can now add *more* than twice as many peak mobile transactions for the same price as previously for all those IBM software products. And you don't have to add LPARs to do it. Please note that MWRT does not adjust other products' reported peak 4HRA MSUs, notably z/OS's MSUs. That means, among other things, you still follow the same Sysplex aggregation rules as before -- no changes there with the "50% rule." Also, ask your IBM representative how MWRT would impact your IBM CICS, DB2, IMS, and MQ tools/utilities licensing (if at all) if you're licensing IBM tools/utilities on a sub-capacity basis. So, there you go. If you have mobile transactions, I'd recommend investigating MWP. And if you don't, I'd recommend you seriously consider adding mobile transactions to your mainframe(s). Take advantage of the no additional charge JSON support in IBM's transaction managers, for example. Try using WebSphere Liberty in CICS Transaction Server and/or standalone on z/OS to add mobile functions. Explore IBM Worklight on zEnterprise. Query your DB2 databases directly from mobile applications using the variety of client interfaces DB2 (with DB2 Connect licensing) supports. Extend MQ messaging directly to your mobile devices. And so on. All of that and more just got even more affordable with MWP. Go forth and mobilize. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Timothy Sipples IT Architect Executive, zEnterprise Industry Solutions, AP/GCG/MEA E-Mail: [email protected] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
