In 2018 IBM introduced a new license consumption model named FlexPoint, which may be interesting to use within your environment. Making use of the FlexPoint model provides certain flexibility.
TIP #16 - November 2019: Your organisation may be able to benefit from the IBM Flexpoint license metric. Read this tip to find out.
An organisation is able to buy entitlements to various capabilities in FlexPoints, which do not expire and can be applied to any product within the portfolio bundle as the needs of the business evolve over time.
Eligible IBM software products are generally packaged in bundles. For the FlexPoint bundle, products from the IBM Cloud and Analytics brands are currently available and converted to a number of FlexPoints. Because needs may change over time, FlexPoints enable a flexible consumption model for all the products within the specific bundle. This allows you to deploy FlexPoints on specific products today, and other products tomorrow, corresponding to your requirements. When a certain product is no longer needed, stop using it and apply available FlexPoints to another product within the same portfolio bundle.
Each product from a bundle is licensed based on a different (“classic”) license metric, but all metrics are converted into FlexPoints. The conversion is based on product specific conversion numbers, provided by IBM. A FlexPoint is a common unit of value for the bundled programs. Sufficient FlexPoint entitlements must be obtained to cover the total number of entitlements required for Licensee's Authorized Use of the bundled programs.
PVU and RVU software that is assigned to a FlexPoint bundle, must still comply to Sub-capacity rules.