IBM z/OS paves way for usage-based pricing
IBM's rollout of its z/OS mainframe software last week provides a crucial foundation for building the kind of usage-based license models businesses have been demanding for a long time, users and analysts said.
The company introduced z/OS last fall along with its z900 line of mainframe hardware. Z/OS is IBM's first 64-bit mainframe operating system and includes new capabilities designed to make it easier and less expensive to run mainframes.
The most significant of these, from a user perspective, is z/OS's support of license manager technology for monitoring and measuring mainframe software usage. IBM is expected to ship the license manager in the fall. The company will then be able to charge users for software based on actual use, in much the same way utility companies charge their customers.
Users have long said that this kind of a model is far more equitable than current capacity-based licenses that are based on system size, where the larger a system is, the more users pay for the software, regardless of actual use.
jfruh
Apple syncing patent can't come soon enough
pasmith
New Twitter features borrow from 3rd party clients
Esther Schindler
Open Source Changes the Software Acquisition Process
mikelgan
How to set up continuous podcast play on the new iTunes
David Strom
Five important Windows 7 mobility features
sjvn
Guard your Wi-Fi for your own sake
Sandra Henry-Stocker
Grepping on Whole Words
Sidekick: The Good News & the Bad News
Either way you look at it Microsoft Data Center management did not follow standards or best practices in this failure. In which case it makes me wonder more about the outsourcing of corporate data much less personal data.
- mburton325
Join the conversation here
Quick, practical advice for IT pros. Made fresh daily.
Want to cash in on your IT savvy? Send your tip to tips@itworld.com. If we post it, we'll send you a $25 Amazon e-gift card.
AISO founders envisioned a Web hosting company that was environmentally friendly. While the company employed energy-efficient innovations like solar panels, its infrastructure produced unacceptable power and cooling requirements. Find out how AISO leveraged AMD technology to overcome their challenge in this case study white paper.
In this whitepaper, Scalar explores the opportunity to change the landscape with respect to mission critical databases built around Oracle. Leveraging technologies such as Linux, high-end commodity processing power and Oracle RAC technology to architect, design, build and maintain database infrastructure that delivers maximum availability, reliability and performance at a fraction of traditional cost.
On a typical day, weather.com, the Web site for The Weather Channel in Atlanta, serves up between 15 million and 20 million page views. But in September 2004, when back-to-back hurricanes ransacked Florida, the peak traffic on one day more than tripled: over 70 million page views by more than 7 million unique visitors. Read the full success story now.










