Submitted by Corneel on Tue, 2007-06-26 15:07
Posted in
IBM offers substantial discount to z/OS customers that deploy “qualified†applications to the mainframe. However this licensing seems to exclude CICS workload – even if it is a new application.
The announcement is available at: http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/swprice/znalc.html
The definition of a “qualified†application is:
Quote:
IBM has established the following criteria to determine which applications are Qualified Applications:1. An "Application" is a computer program that is used to accomplish specific business tasks (such as, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM), business information warehouse, accounting, and inventory control programs), including the database server used for that task. In this definition, an Application is not a stand-alone database management system or systems management tool (i.e., related to the management or operation of the computer itself or of other computer programs). Examples of software that are not considered applications are operating system software, database products (except those qualifying as described in section (b) below), transaction managers, tools, utilities, and games.
2. An application may be considered a Qualified Application if:a. It is currently generally commercially available, supported by its manufacturer, and enabled to run under z/OS, and that same Application (with substantially the same functionality) is simultaneously generally commercially available, supported by its manufacturer on, and enabled to run under a UNIX operating system (for example, AIX, HP-UX, Linux, or Solaris), or Microsoft Windows (collectively "Distributed Platforms");
or
b. It is a database server running under z/OS and it is operating solely in support of a software program that is currently generally commercially available, supported by its manufacturer, and running in a client/server environment where the business logic (e.g., application server) is running on a Distributed Platform.
or
c. It is a Java language business application running under WebSphere Application Server (or equivalent). These do not include systems management tools.
3. z/OS is eligible for zNALC pricing when running in an LPAR where the Qualified Application is executing. The only other products that may execute in this LPAR are those products that support the Qualified Application. The LPAR must be used exclusively for the Qualified Application and for programs that support the Qualified Application and for no other purpose.
4. IBM will determine whether a particular program is a qualified application.
Lets consider a situation where an enterprise runs DB2 on the mainframe - and a distributed application wants to access the database via Web Services. If you deploy the Web Services on a separate server and access DB2 remotely - the application LPAR will qualify for NALC. But if you want to create Web Services on CICS that access the same DB2 subsystem – that whole LPAR will be disqualified because CICS is used.
Will this not discourage new development on CICS?
I think it will discourage new CICS development at some shops.
It already has at ours. We've also had someone ask if one of
our existing applications that uses CICS heavily could be
re-worked so that it would meet the requiements to be moved to
the NALC LPARs. Not a good sign at all.