This year has started off with many of our customers investing in the modernization and/or expansion of their EDI and B2B Integration systems. When we talk about upgrading and migration plans there are many factors to consider.
One of the questions customers ask me is “How do I know what I need?”
Licensing and software product sizing requirements vary by vendor and it seems like there’s always a new acronym; CPU, PVU, RVU, etc….
When it comes to IBM products, IBM licenses products based on what they call a “PVU” or Processor Value Unit. In this blog post, we'll explore how IBM sizes software and what PVUs are, and how they can impact your organization's IT budget.
What is a PVU?
IBM software is priced based on the number of Processor Value Units (PVUs) that are required to run the software. A PVU is a unit of measurement used to determine the processing power of a specific processor. The number of PVUs required depends on the type of processor that the software is running on.
The PVU rating for a processor is determined by its performance, and IBM has a published PVU table that provides ratings for all of the processors the company supports. These ratings consider the number of cores, clock speed, and other features that affect processing power.
When you purchase an IBM software license, the number of PVUs required to run the software is calculated based on the total number of processor cores on which the software will be running. The more cores a processor has, the more PVUs it requires to run the software.
For example, if you have a server with four cores, and the PVU rating for that server is 100, then you would need a license with a total of 400 PVUs to run the software on that server.
Customers looking to accomplish the most effective processing with their B2B systems have recently moved from a single instance of IBM’s Sterling B2B Integrator to an active/active clustered environment for high availability. This is a common move, especially for a critical application like B2B Integrator. There are many factors to consider when planning a move to a clustered environment and licensing is one of them.
Conclusion
Remedi offers customers a complimentary EDI/B2B assessment to address the “How do I know what I need?” question for a variety of EDI and B2B Integration products. We’re happy to assist you with proper licensing, as well as a customized deployment and migration plan.
