New ILMT Policy Could Increase Financial Exposure in IBM Audits

IBM may be making it more difficult for IBM customers to qualify for sub-capacity licensing in virtualized environments. As many companies who have been audited by IBM have learned, it is sometimes difficult to demonstrate that the company has met all the criteria necessary to avoid licensing the full capacity of the virtualized environment. With…

201709.08

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IBM Introduces Sub-Capacity Licensing Benefits for z/VM Version 6

by Julie Machal-Fulks in IBM Audits

On July 17, 2017, IBM announced that it would allow customers running z/VM Version 6, Release 3 or higher to license the product on a sub-capacity basis. Under the sub-capacity licensing arrangement, IBM customers can purchase licenses for a fraction of the full machine capacity, which can often reduce costs and increase flexibility. However, companies…

201708.29

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Eight lessons learned representing clients in IBM Audits

by Julie Machal-Fulks in IBM Audits

IBM regularly informs customers selected for an IBM license review or software audit that it reviews the license position of all of its customers worldwide. That means if your company has not participated in a software license review with IBM, the odds are very high that such a review will be forthcoming at some time…

201707.14

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Settlement Structuring for IBM Audits

by Christopher Barnett in IBM Audits

Software-compliance audits initiated by IBM can be extremely burdensome and time-consuming and can force companies to face challenges that are somewhat unique among major-publisher audits. For one example, a significant component of IBM’s business model is the acquisition of other software vendors and the integration of those vendors into IBM’s product portfolio, which can complicate…

201706.11

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Can a Software Publisher Force You to Audit Your Customers?

by Christopher Barnett in IBM Audits

Many software-solution vendors utilize third-party infrastructure or application programs as frameworks for embedded solutions that they sell to their customers and install on their customers’ computers. Licenses for those third-party products typically can be acquired by a vendor and passed to its customers pursuant to the terms of an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) or Original…

201705.03

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Be Wary of Certain ISV and Embedded Software Agreements

by Christopher Barnett in IBM Audits

It is common for software solution providers to use third-party products to support the functionalities those providers have developed for their solutions. For example, a network-monitoring solution may incorporate IBM Cognos functionality, or an accounting solution may incorporate a Microsoft SQL Server database. Increasingly, in today’s market, those solutions are hosted over the Internet, and…

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