More and more businesses deploy IBM WebSphere Application Server within a mixed hybrid environment of on-premises and on-cloud deployments. They want to extend their existing WebSphere systems of record, differentiate new on-cloud WebSphere Liberty applications, or in other cases, take advantage of new cloud and Bluemix® services within their existing WebSphere systems of record. This can enable them to quickly enhance those applications with new, cloud-based added value. The WebSphere Connect strategy quickly makes the promises of hybrid a reality for WebSphere Application Server clients.

The drive to hybrid WebSphere implementations created a need for a simplified, cloud-friendly and term-subscription type of licensing. To satisfy this requirement, the Virtual Processor Core (VPC) is a simplified license metric that is sold as a monthly license charge and is offered for WebSphere Application Server. VPC is a simple metric that applies to on-premise deployments and also on on-cloud deployments. It makes it easier to transition between hybrid deployment options.

The WebSphere Application Server editions that offer the new VPC monthly metric include:

• WebSphere Family Edition
• WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment
• WebSphere Application Server
• WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core

All current versions and releases of these WebSphere Application Server editions are eligible for the VPC metric.

The pricing metrics that are available for the perpetual licensing options of WebSphere Application Server, remain unchanged by this announcement.

With WebSphere and VPC monthly pricing, clients pay for what they need on a term and subscription basis. They can easily optimize application deployment between on-premises and the on-cloud deployments of their choice. A VPC is a processor core in an unpartitioned physical server, or a virtual core that is assigned to a virtual server. Clients must obtain entitlement for each VPC that is available to WebSphere. The counting rules are simple. Basically, if clients have a virtual core available to their WebSphere Application Server, they license a VPC for it regardless of whether they are on-premises or in the cloud. In cases where clients know how many physical cores that are being used, they license the lesser of the number of virtual cores or physical cores.

VPC counting examples

Example 1

In a cloud deployment, the client:

• Buys a Virtual Cloud Server as a Service on a internal private cloud or public cloud service provider, such as SoftLayer®, Azure, or Amazon.
• Purchases an 8-core Virtual CPU environment.
• Must license 8 VPCs for this environment.

Example 2

On-premises deployment that uses VMWare, the client:

• Deploys multiple VMWare hosts to run WebSphere. The server is a 2 Socket server with 4 cores per socket. The total number of physical cores is 8.
• Runs 16 VMWare hosts running WebSphere on the server. The total number of virtual cores across the VMWare hosts is 16.
• As the hardware can be physically identified as a 8-core server, the client only pays for 8 VPCs and not 16. It is the lesser of the two numbers.

Find out more here.