IBM drops mainframe license manager tool

Computerworld - Succumbing to pressure from users, IBM has quietly abandoned plans to deliver a mainframe software license manager tool that would have enforced better user compliance with the company's license terms while also enabling lower-cost pricing options. Analysts said the company's decision to abandon the IBM License Manager tool is good news for users.
The decision means zSeries mainframe users, who would have been required to use ILM upon its availability, no longer have to worry about the extended implementation time and heavy administrative burden it would have imposed, analysts said.
The move also eliminates the concern that the tool could be used to shut down software at user sites for failure to comply with license terms, the analysts added.
IBM's about-face is "an altogether excellent thing for users," said Dan Kaberon, a Parallel Sysplex manager at Hewitt Associates LLC, a human resources outsourcer in Lincolnshire, Ill.
"IBM realized that it cannot impose a process into the environment that involves too much administrative time and operational uncertainty," said Kaberon, who was co-chair of a license manager user committee opposed to ILM.
IBM announced its decision to abandon work on its much-delayed ILM tool in a terse note posted on its software pricing Web site during the last week of November. The decision was prompted by user feedback relating to the perceived "intrusiveness" and "management overhead" of the license manager technology, said Marcy Nechemias, a pricing manager at IBM.
"A lot of the concerns were perceptions rather than reality," she said. "But the perception was so strong, this was probably the only thing we could do."
IBM's Intentions
ILM was announced in October 2000 along with IBM's zSeries mainframes. The tool, which IBM was building into its z/OS operating system, was expected to make it easier for IBM and third-party vendors to ensure that users were using their software in compliance with the terms and conditions of their licenses (see story).
ILM was also supposed to facilitate the delivery of IBM's flexible and lower-cost variable Workload License Charge (WLC) model because it provided a mechanism to measure software usage for billing purposes. IBM made ILM a requirement for users who wanted to sign up for z/OS and its variable pricing option. But ILM, which was originally slated to ship in early 2001, kept getting pushed back.
"Had IBM's License Manager been available on plan, users could have been coerced into using it as a prerequisite to Workload Level Charges," said Phil Payne, president of Isham Research in Great Stukeley, England. But IBM's