Re: IBM is so confusing!

Sorry Joe, but that's not entirely true. RDPi isn't covered by the
general SWMA on IBM i. It has it's own separate additional SWMA. We
finally got this all straightened out so we can plan for it when we
finally bite the bullet on the 6.1 or 7.1 upgrade from V5R4. ADTS seats
(as well as all the host-based tools--read compilers, et al) while
licensed individually are covered--in blanket--by the general SWMA on IBM
i. That is they are treated just like they used to be and you pay by the
processor tier. RDP seats aren't included--you pay maintenance for these
by the seat. So it's not a one-time cost either. If you want to continue
to license RDP and get upgrades, you pay software maintenance on it
annually.

But you've probably done more than me on this. If there's another way to
have the maintenance on RDP covered by the general SWMA, I would love to
hear about it because it would help take some of the cost-sting out of the
upgrade. Our BP was very clear that we pay for it over and over and over
and over.

wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 02/10/2011 06:54:18 PM:

----- Message from Joe Pluta <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> on Thu, 10
Feb 2011 16:01:33 -0600 -----

To:

Rational Developer for IBM i / Websphere Development Studio Client
for System i & iSeries <wdsci-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

Subject:

Re: [WDSCI-L] IBM is so confusing!

On 2/10/2011 3:23 PM, Kurt Anderson wrote:

So I've been hearing about paying for RDi 7.5 and up ever since it

came out, be it here or at conferences or whatnot. It always felt
like the message was, "You're already paying it, now it's simply
split out." I guess that message was me misinterpreting someone
(some-many) trying to sugar coat the message.

I appreciate the responses. Now I have a better understanding.

Not sure I get your point about sugar-coating. I'm one of the ones who
has posted the most about this pricing, and I've been saying essentially

the same thing since V6.1 licensing was announced:

As of V6.1 ALL the tools are split out to seat-based pricing. For a new

customer, you can either get ADTS or RDP, same price per seat. For
existing customers, you can stay with ADTS for whatever number of seats
you are entitled too (varies by tier) or you can get RDP instead. RDP
charges an initial changeover fee, which way back when was at about a
40% discount, IIRC. We lobbied hard for a free changeover, but IBM
refused to listen. And now even that's gone; if you've waited until
now, you must pay the full price.

Once you've paid that changeover fee, you're back to traditional costs
of SWMA. RDP or ADTS, the SWMA is the same.

So, the big kick in the pants is the changeover fee for existing
customers. IBM took a page out of the cable TV companies with that one;

I still think it's taking advantage of the base. Those of us who had
even the slightest chance of saying something IBM might listen to, all
of us really did beg and plead. But to no avail. The only good news
about it is that it's a one-time cost.

Joe