International Product License Agreement (IPLA) software pricing

Some software products that run on the IBM Z platform have an up-front license fee and an optional annual maintenance charge. These products are licensed under the International Program License Agreement (IPLA). IPLA products include some data management tools, CICS® tools, IMS™ tools, application development tools, WebSphere® products, and Tivoli® products.

Many IPLA products that run on z/OS® can be licensed at a sub-capacity level. Sub-capacity charging for these products is available to customers who are already using sub-capacity pricing on that CPC for their MLC products using one of the existing sub-capacity pricing metrics.

This planning information helps you decide whether or not to use sub-capacity MLC pricing. Once you have decided to use sub-capacity MLC pricing, it is usually advantageous to also use sub-capacity IPLA pricing for those products that offer it.

System z® IPLA software products that are sub-capacity eligible are licensed according to either execution-based terms, reference-based terms, or z/OS-based terms.

Execution-based licensing terms apply to z/Architecture® IPLA products whose value is based on the processing power of the LPAR in which they run. These products are priced based on the utilization capacity of the LPARs in which they run. Execution-based IPLA products that are eligible for sub-capacity charging will appear on the sub-capacity report if those products execute on a CPC where you run SCRT. For a detailed example, see Example of an execution-based sub-capacity eligible IPLA product. Further, Getting Started Sub-capacity Pricing for z/OS IPLA Software describes a special case of execution-based licensing.

Reference-based licensing terms apply to z/Architecture IPLA products whose value is based on the value of another product, called the parent product. For example, a reference-based Db2® tool would be priced based on the license capacity of Db2. In this case, Db2 is the parent product of the Db2 tool. For a detailed example, see Example of a reference-based sub-capacity eligible IPLA product.

z/OS-based licensing terms apply to IPLA products that run under z/OS and provide value to the particular machine where the product is used. These products are priced based on the license capacity of z/OS on the CPC where the product is used. For a detailed example, see Example of a z/OS-based sub-capacity eligible IPLA product.

For a list of sub-capacity eligible IPLA products and how they are licensed, go to IPLA Sub-Cap Overview.