David Crayford wrote: >Right, but zCX is not free. Actually it’s no additional charge for 90 days. However, “it’s not free” is not a meaningful argument. It’s *never* free to run applications in an enterprise context at least. What matters is whether there’s sufficient or better value-for-money compared to next best alternatives. “Money” here also includes labor inputs and the many other cost-related ingredients.
>You have to pay a hardware license fee... No, you don’t. On IBM z14 and IBM z15 machines you have the *option* to order Feature Code 0104, and then there’s no additional software charge for/with z/OS. Or you can choose the IBM Container Hosting Foundation for z/OS (5655-HZ1), a monthly charge software element. On IBM z16 machines there’s no Feature Code 0104, so you would choose the IBM Container Hosting Foundation for z/OS. For this 5655-HZ1 software element there’s a further choice of flat or tiered pricing. And you can change your mind. For example, you can start on tiered then switch to flat or vice versa. Obviously you should compare (and perhaps periodically re-compare) flat and tiered then pick the lower price. Another option is the IBM zCX Foundation for Red Hat OpenShift (5655-ZCX). This IBM Program Number has zero license charge but chargeable annual Subscription & Support. Loosely speaking you can think of this product as “Yearly License Charge” (YLC), akin to MLC but 12 months at a time. This product does not require either Feature Code 0104 or 5655-HZ1. As its name indicates this product provides Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform on z/OS, delivered and supported by IBM. In case anyone is wondering, IBM plans to continue offering, developing, and supporting both the z/OS Container Extensions and IBM zCX Foundation for Red Hat OpenShift. You can choose either or even both. One is not a replacement for the other. If you’d like a Red Hat analogy, the z/OS Container Extensions are analogous to Podman, and of course the IBM zCX Foundation for Red Hat OpenShift *is* Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. If you’re a software vendor/solution provider, and if you deliver Docker/OCI container images as part of your solution, either the z/OS Container Extensions or the IBM zCX Foundation for Red Hat OpenShift should support your software. The container images need to be either s390x single architecture or multi-architecture with s390x compatibility. If your container image runs on Linux on IBM Z/LinuxONE (on Podman as a notable example) or on IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Virtual Servers then it will be fine on z/OS in either of the container runtimes as long as there are no unsatisfied external dependencies. If you notice anything unusual that contradicts what I just wrote, please let IBM know so IBM can (most probably) fix it. If you already deliver container images that support your product that currently run outside z/OS, or if that’s what you plan to do, it’d be a great idea to add s390x compatibility to your container images so your customers have greater deployment flexibility. That’s usually quite easy to do. Please note that Feature Codes 0103 and 0104 are NOT carry forward feature codes. Obviously they don’t carry forward to IBM z16 (since they don’t exist on that model), but they also did not/do not carry forward from IBM z14 to z15. >...plus assign zIIP, disk and storage resources. You’re not strictly required to have or use zIIPs, but IBM recommends at least one for zCX. As a periodic reminder, my views are my own. Always rely first on official IBM publications and statements if you want to know what’s official. — — — — — Timothy Sipples Senior Architect Digital Assets, Industry Solutions, and Cyber Security IBM zSystems and LinuxONE sipp...@sg.ibm.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
