New ILMT Policy Could Increase Financial Exposure in IBM Audits

IBM may be making it more difficult for IBM customers to qualify for sub-capacity licensing in virtualized environments. As many companies who have been audited by IBM have learned, it is sometimes difficult to demonstrate that the company has met all the criteria necessary to avoid licensing the full capacity of the virtualized environment.

With very few exceptions, IBM's license agreement allows users to license only that capacity on which the IBM software is running only if those users meet the following criteria:

1. Install and configure ILMT;
2. ILMT deployed within 90 days of server deployment; and
3. Generate, verify, and retain ILMT reports either monthly or quarterly, depending on the license requirements.