[gpfsug-discuss] Spectrum Scale licensing - important correction

[Carl Zetie - carlz@us.ibm.com]

> From my understanding existing customers from DDN, Lenovo, etc. that have v4 with socket based licenses 
>are not entitled v5 licenses socket licenses. Is that a correct understanding?

It is not, and I apologize in advance for the length of this explanation. I want to be precise and as transparent as possible while respecting the confidentiality of our OEM partners and the contracts we have with them, and there is a lot of misinformation out there.

The short version is that the same rules apply to DDN, Lenovo, and other OEM systems that apply to IBM ESS. You can update your system in place and keep your existing metric, as long as your vendor can supply you with V5 for that hardware. The update from V4 to V5 is not relevant.


The long version:

We apply the same standard to our OEM's systems as to our own ESS: they can upgrade their existing customers on their existing OEM systems to V5 and stay on Sockets, *provided* that the OEM has entered into an OEM license for Scale V5 and can supply it, and *provided* that the hardware is still supported by the software stack. But new customers and new OEM systems are all licensed by Capacity. This also applies to IBM's own ESS: you can keep upgrading your old (if hardware is supported) gen 1 ESS on Sockets, but if you replace it with a new ESS, that will come with capacity licenses. (Lenovo may want to chime in about their own GSS customers here, who have Socket licenses, and DSS-G customers, who have Capacity licenses). Existing systems that originally shipped with Socket licenses are "grandfathered in". 

And of course, if you move from a Lenovo system to an IBM system, or from an IBM system to a Lenovo system, or any other change of suppliers, that new system will come with capacity licenses, simply because it's a new system. If you're replacing an old system running with V4 with a new one running V5 it might look like you are forced to switch to update, but that's not the case: if you replace an old "grandfathered in" system that you had already updated to V5 on Sockets, your new system would *still* come with Capacity licenses - again, because it's a new system.

Now where much of the confusion occurs is this: What if your supplier does not provide an update to V5 at all, *neither as Capacity nor Socket licenses*? Then you have no choice: to get to V5, you have to move to a new supplier, and consequently you have to move to Capacity licensing. But once again, it's not that moving from V4 to V5 requires a change of metric; it's moving to a new system from a new supplier. 

I hope that helps to make things clearer.



Carl Zetie
Program Director
Offering Management 
Spectrum Scale
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(919) 473 3318 ][ Research Triangle Park
carlz at us.ibm.com