Yet More Announcements On IBM i Software Subscriptions
March 18, 2024 Timothy Prickett Morgan
In the past two years, Big Blue has done of lot of things to repackage the IBM i software stack, and even its entry Power Systems machinery, to be consistent with the modern world of utility pricing for IT systems. Many are not thrilled by this, of course, and not just because they are resistant to change. While IBM is bundling in many features and add-ons to the stack for free as it shifts to subscriptions, the core IBM i subscriptions are without question more expensive than buying a perpetual license and paying Software Maintenance over a five, six, or even seven year term that is common among the IBM i base.
And has been for decades, really.
We have been through these numbers back and forth, up and down, and have been following the tweaks and changes that IBM has been making as it sorts out its subscription strategy. Those stories are outlined below, and we have some updates to make this week.
But before we get into that, we want to give you an important link that will always contain the latest-greatest information on IBM i licensing so you don’t have to hunt around for it. The page is called IBM i License Topics, and you can find it at https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ibm-i-license-topics. Among the most important topics here are documents that detail IBM i Processor and User Entitlement Transfer processes, including the pricing for such transfers and around since 2015 in some form or another. And in more recent years, the IBM i Transformation FAQ, which was last updated on February 20 as IBM has been making a bunch of changes and which talks about this move to subscriptions and some of the ramifications of it, has been an important document to keep an eye on. If you have a question about licensing any part of the IBM i stack, that IBM i Licensing Topics page is where to start.
To recap an important bit, which we reported about in Lots Of Unanswered Questions On IBM i Subscriptions on February 19 and again in Some Clarity – Well Actually Less – On IBM i Subscriptions on March 4, Big Blue was supposed to stop selling perpetual licenses – what it started calling “non-expiring licenses” last year for reasons that are not clear because this is not how people talk about software licenses in the enterprise – to IBM i on P05 and P10 class machines on March 26 of this year. And then between February 15 and February 20, IBM changed its mind and said it was pushing that deadline out to May 7, 2024.
On March 12, IBM said in announcement letter AD24-0489 that effective May 7 it would withdraw the ability to transfer IBM i perpetual licenses from older Power Systems gear to Power10 systems for machines in the P05 and P10 software tier, specifically including the following machines:
- Power S1014 (9105-41B) 4-core processor (P05 software tier)
- Power S1014 (9105-41B) 8-core processor (P10 software tier)
- Power S1022 (9105-22A) (P10 software tier)
- Power S1022s (9105-22B) (P10 software tier)
On that same day last week, IBM also put out a revised IBM i processor and user transfer offering for specific Power10-based machines, which you can read about in announcement letter AD24-0492. This revised IBM i processor and user transfer offering to convert perpetual licenses to subscriptions will be effective on May 7.
Under the new regime, if you buy a new Power10 machine listed above – which you have to do because there are not system upgrades from prior Power8 and Power9 machines as far as I know – you can either buy new subscriptions or convert the perpetual license to a subscription license “at a lower priced Subscription option,” as the new announcement says. We have no idea what that discount is, and we will try to get some insight into it. It may change based on how much noise you make. The subscription pricing crossover with perpetual licensing plus SWMA is around four years, so a 25 percent discount is like getting five years of coverage. That sounds about right to stop people complaining.
Well, some people at least. Some want pricing crossover between perpetual and subscription to be six years or seven years, which seems steep considering the number of things that IBM has bundled into the IBM i stack for free in its preparations for the move to subscriptions.
We are going to put together a comparison between Windows Server and Linux systems and their subscription pricing to see what is happening in the midrange at large and see how IBM i stacks up.
In the meantime, IBM also did one more tweak with the subscription pricing stuff. In announcement letter AD24-0266, which says in the title – IBM i Subscription Term offering changes P05 tier to blocks of 10 users and adds registration features – that it is moving the P05 tier from selling users in blocks of five to selling users in blocks of ten. But, weirdly, if you look in the new feature codes that are listed, there are features for five users but not for ten users. Look:
I dunno. Go figure.
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IBM trying to artificially manufacture revenue without adding value. That’s exactly what this is – the Arvind Krishna way. Someone has to pay for his 23% salary increase.
Thanks for the – as usual – excellent coverage from TimothyPM…
But IBM have the silver bullet for it don’t fear, it will fix it and you’ll be saved! 
Regarding IBM, I see demise of empires when I start hearing prodromes of orwellian neo language like “non-expiring licenses”, this cloying flourishing of litotes, as to suggest that licenses in the natural world DO expire, that’s the course of things, and what you have now, a perpetual, is a freak of nature, an unnatural condition, a monstrosity. Effectively, a zombie-license that don’t wanna die
C’mon, IBM, you want to pump revenue, at least some originality.
And maybe put the same effort in the R&D IBMi dept? with the increase, can I ask now for an updated system editor that actually can syntax check the language, with a cherry on top?
OK, that made me laugh. I cut the heads off zombies with my katana, and keep the 12-gauge shotgun handy in case I need to use the buckshot at close range to just obliterate the problem….