Category Archives: «IBM Audits»

For more than a decade, IBM has allowed its end users to license IBM software products on a sub-capacity basis.  For IBM licensi......

Each of the major software publishers has one or two tricks up its sleeve – tricks that often ......

IBM software licensing can present an array of interpretive and compliance challenges for even the most sophisticated ......

Software-compliance audits initiated by IBM can be extremely burdensome......

Microsoft ......

Most software license agreements used by major publishers like Microsoft and IBM are in many ways vague with ......

Businesses that have endured software audits from industry groups like the BSA and the SIIA or from softw......

This year, IBM announced that it was going to present certain customers with the opportunity to participate in its ne......

It is standard practice for software vendors to include clauses in their license agreements giving the vendors the right......

It is common for software solution providers to use third-party products to suppo......

IBM software is expensive. In some cases, very expensive. While this may rep......

Software license compliance is a task that typically requires constant vigi......

One of the most critical steps of any business faces in any software aud......

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 suc......

IBM may be making it more difficult for IBM customers to qualify for sub-capac......

Recent weeks have seen a number of news reports and 

In 2015, IBM acquired no fewer than 11 software and services companies.  Many software customers are surprised that after IBM purchases a company, IBM often significantly changes the license terms of the products.  For some customers that have purchased unlimited or site l......

The software-audit language contained in IBM’s standard license agreements never has been anything that anyone would mistake for customer-focused or even very fair ......

Fans of Star Trek likely are familiar with the dreaded Borg – an alien race of cyborgs that survives and swells its ranks primarily by conquering other races and then absorbing them into the collective through brainwashing and physically altering them with Borg-y bionic bo......

In April 2012, IBM announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire Varicent Software, Inc., an Ontario-based publisher of analytics software for compensation and sales performance management. According to the announcement, Varicent’s customers include Starwood Hotels......

One of the major changes in the latest version of IBM’s Passport Advantage Agreement is the requirement that customers maintain subscription and support (S&S) on either all of the licenses that are installed and in service or none of the licenses. Customers can no long......

When first contacted by IBM for a "compliance review" (read: software audit), many business owners simply assume that the scope of the requested audit is within IBM’s rights under applicable licensing agreements. Alternatively, if they do request that IBM identify the basi......

Many businesses are realizing the processing and failover benefits of incorporating clustered servers in their IT environments. Having groups of servers whose processing resources are shared and centrally allocated means that server malfunctions can be remedied without compr......

A processor value unit (PVU) is a unit of measurement that IBM uses to determine licensing costs based on the kinds of processors deployed on servers where IBM software is installed. A server’s PVU count is defined by the brand, model and number of physical processors runn......

Business owners and managers whose companies have been targeted by IBM for a compliance audit often express surprise at the complex method IBM uses to determine the licensing requirements for many of its server software products, such as WebSphere and Tivoli. Many software v......

IBM has begun a comprehensive program of compliance audits of its software clients. Scott & Scott’s clients have begun receiving letters from IBM Software Compliance demanding cooperation with a “routine assessment” of the client’s deployment of IBM software. Acc......

Having shone its spotlight on Oracle’s notoriously complex licensing policies and often adversarial audit practices, the Campaign for Clear Licensing (CCL), a UK-based org......

IBM software licensing can be a very complex knot to untie. While IBM does develop new products in house, many of its most popular offerings (Cognos, Tivoli and ILOG, to name a few) are the result of its active history of acquiring smaller publishers and then continuing to o......