IBM user-based licenses
Summarize
Summary of IBM user-based licenses
The Software Asset Management (SAM) publisher pack for IBM enables ServiceNow customers to track, manage, and optimize IBM user-based licenses, including authorized user licenses and various user value unit (UVU)-based licenses such as authorized UVU (AUVU), employee UVU (EUVU), and external UVU (XUVU). This capability allows you to reconcile IBM software products through client access records, specifying total or specific users with access to IBM software versions. SAM then compares this usage against software entitlements to determine licensing compliance.
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Client Access Records
Client access records specify the number or identity of users granted access to IBM software products. These records are essential for compliance tracking, enabling you to ensure user-based licenses match actual usage. You can create and manage these records through the Software Asset Workspace or the SAM classic application.
Authorized User Licensing
This license type allows you to license each unique user who requires access to an IBM software product. The software can be installed on unlimited configuration items (CIs), and each licensed user can access the software on any CI without restrictions.
User Value Unit (UVU)-Based Licensing Types
UVU-based licenses apply tiered factors to the number of users to calculate required rights, ensuring optimized licensing costs and compliance. The main UVU license types are:
- Authorized User Value Unit (AUVU) Licensing: Licenses total unique users accessing IBM software. Users are divided into three tiers (1–20, 21–50, 51+), each with a factor (1.00, 0.83, 0.80 respectively). Rights required are calculated by multiplying the users in each tier by the corresponding factor and summing the results. If rights are insufficient to cover all users, the product is non-compliant.
- Employee User Value Unit (EUVU) Licensing: Licenses total internal users (employees and contractors). It uses a more granular tier system with ten tiers ranging from 1,000 to over 1,000,000 users, each with specific factors decreasing from 1.0 to 0.32. Rights calculation follows the same tiered step function method as AUVU.
- External User Value Unit (XUVU) Licensing: Licenses users external to the organization such as partners and suppliers. It features ten tiers covering user counts from 1,000 up to 100 billion, with factors decreasing from 1.0 to 0.05. Rights required are similarly calculated using the tiered step function. Insufficient rights result in non-compliance.
Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers
- You can precisely track IBM user-based licenses by defining client access records, specifying users or user counts per IBM product version.
- By applying the tiered factor tables for AUVU, EUVU, and XUVU licenses, you can accurately calculate the number of license rights required, helping optimize license purchases and maintain compliance.
- The system flags non-compliance automatically if the licensed rights do not cover all users, enabling proactive license management and audit readiness.
You can use the Software Asset Management publisher pack for IBM to track and manage your IBM user-based licenses, including authorized user licenses and user value unit (UVU)-based licenses.
Supported UVU-based licenses include authorized UVU, employee UVU, and external UVU. The publisher pack adds license metrics that are specific to IBM so that you can calculate licensing for these license types.
IBM user-based licensing enables you to license the users who require access to your IBM software products. You can track and optimize the compliance of your IBM user-based licenses by reconciling the associated IBM software products through client access records. With a client access record, you can specify the total number of users who are granted access to a particular version of an IBM software product. For more granular control, you can also identify the specific users who are granted access to that product. The Software Asset Management application can then compare this information against the software rights and allocations that are defined in the corresponding software entitlements to determine if the associated user-based licenses are compliant.
For more information on client access records in the Software Asset Workspace, see Create a software client access record in workspace. For more information on client access records in the Software Asset Management classic application, see Add a software client access record in Software Asset Management classic.
Authorized user licensing
Authorized user licensing enables you to license each unique user who requires access to an IBM software product.
With this licensing type, you can install a given IBM software product on an unlimited number of configuration items (CIs), such as servers and computers. Each user can then access an unlimited number of installations for that software product on any of the CIs that the software product is installed on.
Authorized user value unit (AUVU) licensing
Authorized user value unit (AUVU) licensing enables you to license the total number of unique users who require access to an IBM software product.
With this licensing type, you can install a given IBM software product on an unlimited number of configuration items (CIs), such as servers and computers. Each user can then access an unlimited number of installations for that software product on any of the CIs that the software product is installed on.
| Number of Users | Tier | Factor |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 20 | 1 | 1.00 |
| 21 to 50 | 2 | 0.83 |
| 51 or more | 3 | 0.80 |
You can determine the number of rights that are required for an AUVU license by using a step function based on these AUVU tiers. First, divide the total number of users into tiers based on the AUVU tiers and factors table. Then, multiply the number of users within each tier by the corresponding factor values. Finally, add the resulting numbers together to determine the total number of rights that are required for the AUVU license.
| Tier | Number of Users within the Tier | Factor | Number of Rights Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (1 to 20 users) |
20 | 1.00 | 20 x 1.00 = 20 |
| 2 (21 to 50 users) |
30 | 0.83 | 30 x 0.83 = 24.9 |
| 3 (51 or more users) |
100 | 0.80 | 100 x 0.8 = 80 |
| — | 150 total | — | 20 + 24.9 + 80 = 124.9 total (rounded up to 125 total) |
Employee user value unit (EUVU) licensing
Employee user value unit (EUVU) licensing enables you to license the total number of users within your organization who require access to an IBM software product. These users can include both employees and contractors.
| Number of Users | Tier | Factor |
|---|---|---|
| 1000 to 2,500 | 1 | 1.000 |
| 2,501 to 5,000 | 2 | 0.800 |
| 5,001 to 10,000 | 3 | 0.700 |
| 10,001 to 30,000 | 4 | 0.650 |
| 30,001 to 50,000 | 5 | 0.550 |
| 50,001 to 100,000 | 6 | 0.500 |
| 100,001 to 300,000 | 7 | 0.465 |
| 300,001 to 500,000 | 8 | 0.400 |
| 500,001 to 1,000,000 | 9 | 0.360 |
| 1,000,001 to 100,000,000 | 10 | 0.320 |
You can determine the number of rights that are required for an EUVU license by using a step function based on these EUVU tiers. First, divide the total number of users into tiers based on the EUVU tiers and factors table. Then, multiply the number of users within each tier by the corresponding factor values. Finally, add the resulting numbers together to determine the total number of rights that are required for the EUVU license.
| Tier | Number of Users within the Tier | Factor | Number of Rights Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (1,000 to 2,500 users) |
2,500 | 1.000 | 2,500 x 1.000 = 2,500 |
| 2 (2,501 to 5,000 users) |
2,500 | 0.800 | 2,500 x 0.800 = 2,000 |
| 3 (5,001 to 10,000 users) |
5,000 | 0.700 | 5,000 x 0.700 = 3,500 |
| 4 (10,001 to 30,000 users) |
1,000 | 0.650 | 1,000 x 0.650 = 650 |
| — | 11,000 total | — | 2,500 + 2,000 + 3,500 + 650 = 8,650 total |
External user value unit (XUVU) licensing
External user value unit (XUVU) licensing enables you to license the total number of users outside your organization who require access to an IBM software product. These users can include third-party partners, suppliers, and contractors.
| Number of Users | Tier | Factor |
|---|---|---|
| 1000 to 10,000 | 1 | 1.00000 |
| 10,001 to 50,000 | 2 | 0.87500 |
| 50,001 to 100,000 | 3 | 0.60000 |
| 100,001 to 500,000 | 4 | 0.43750 |
| 500,001 to 1,000,000 | 5 | 0.30000 |
| 1,000,001 to 25,000,000 | 6 | 0.24375 |
| 25,000,001 to 50,000,000 | 7 | 0.15000 |
| 50,000,001 to 250,000,000 | 8 | 0.13750 |
| 250,000,001 to 500,000,000 | 9 | 0.05000 |
| 500,000,001 to 100,000,000,000 | 10 | 0.05000 |
You can determine the number of rights that are required for an XUVU license by using a step function based on these XUVU tiers. First, divide the total number of users into tiers based on the XUVU tiers and factors table. Then, multiply the number of users within each tier by the corresponding factor values. Finally, add the resulting numbers together to determine the total number of rights that are required for the XUVU license.
| Tier | Number of Users within the Tier | Factor | Number of Rights Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (1,000 to 10,000 users) |
10,000 | 1.00000 | 10,000 x 1.00000 = 10,000 |
| 2 (10,001 to 50,000 users) |
5,000 | 0.87500 | 5,000 x 0.87500 = 4,375 |
| — | 15,000 total | — | 10,000 + 4,357 = 14,375 total |