Insider Weekly
Shedding light on the WAS Express
confusion
By Sarah Kimmel
Monday, March 31, 2003
The free version of WebSphere Application
Server (WAS) Express has generated a lot of excitement —
and confusion — in the iSeries community, often keeping
customers from taking full advantage of the no-cost offer.
“We’ve talked with vendors,
and some understand how this deal works and some don’t.
There are a few areas of confusion. I wish I could tell you it’s
simple, but it’s not,” says John Quarantello, iSeries
e-business marketing manager, IBM, Roanoke, TX.
To clear up uncertainty and to help
customers get the most out of the Express announcement, the Insider
breaks down the details of this offer.
The basics: Shops
have three options when ordering WebSphere Express: a no-charge
upgrade, the payment of the purchase price ($2,000 per processor
or $25 per Intranet user), or the purchase of the Enterprise Edition
with the new iSeries models (IW 1/20/03).
Subcapacity pricing allows the customer
to pay only for the processor power used by WAS Express. To qualify
for subcapacity pricing, shops must have an LPAR box and must
agree to send monthly usage logs to IBM.
What you get: Shops
that ordered WebSphere Application Server Standard Edition v3.0
or v3.5 by January 24, 2003, and that are currently on Software
Subscription for OS/400, are entitled to one free copy of WebSphere
Application Server Express per system (IW 1/20/03).
“January 24 is the last date
that Standard Edition needed to be ordered. People were confused
and thought that was last date to order the upgrade,” says
Quarantello.
A shop with 100 copies of Standard
Edition on 100 different systems is entitled to 100 free copies
of Express. However, a shop with four copies of Standard Edition
on one box, each running in a different partition, is eligible
for only one free copy of Express.
What you don’t get:
The no-cost upgrade applies only to the software itself. Customers
are responsible for purchasing maintenance separately from Passport
Advantage.
Hint: The free version
of Express does not have to run on the same system that the Standard
Edition ran on. Shops can transfer the license to any other machine
they would like. “You are entitled to the upgrade, but no
one is saying you have to run it on a slower box,” says
Quarantello.
This is especially good news for shops
with GreenStreak boxes, which didn’t come with Standard
Edition or Express. These shops can now use the Standard Edition
license to get the free upgrade and can then put the Express license
on the new GreenStreak box.
While there are currently two versions
of WebSphere Express, one for OS/400 and another for Intel, IBM
is planning to consolidate and offer only one version that will
run on both platforms.
“By midyear, we will have one
part number for both versions of WAS Express. We are likely to
add additional platform support as well,” says Quarantello.
Navigating through the ordering maze
Express, as a stand-alone product,
must be ordered through Passport Advantage. This is a proactive
move on the part of IBM.
“All configurator orders for
the Software Group will be going away soon and those products
will then be sold through Passport Advantage. This is why we decided
to sell Express only through Passport Advantage,” says Quarantello.
However, if WebSphere Express is obtained
through a no-cost entitlement or as part of the Enterprise Edition
of the new 8xx hardware, it is available through the iSeries Configurator.
Breaking it down:
Therefore, a shop that wants three licenses for Express, and is
eligible for the free upgrade, must take three steps:
- Get one free upgrade through the Configurator.
- Purchase two additional licenses through Passport Advantage.
- Order Software Maintenance through Support.
There is currently no end date for
the free-upgrade offer for shops with Standard Edition. Standard
Edition has been withdrawn from marketing and will lose support
on November 30, 2003.
Shops that already purchased Express,
but now realize they are eligible for the free upgrade, should
not expect to be reimbursed. However, they are encouraged to get
another copy for free.
For more information, see IBM Announcement
Letter #203-008, dated January 24, 2003, or www-3.ibm.com/software/webservers/appserv/express.
Are you getting
the total iSeries picture?
Categories: Management/Financial
Strategy | WebSphere
Application Server
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