Mainframe Software Costs: Understanding the Drivers & Managing the Risk
By Frank Tidemand, Lead Mainframe Performance & Capacity Advisor at SMT Data
Mainframe software is one of the largest and least predictable lines in the IT budget. It is priced on capacity measures the business never sees and adjusted on the vendor’s terms, and most organizations only find out at the year-end true-up whether they overspent. By then, the bill is set and next year’s baseline may already be higher.
This whitepaper explains how mainframe software pricing and true-ups really work, why costs creep up without anyone deciding to spend more, and how to build a budget that holds up when the CFO asks questions. It also shows what good practice looks like, from monthly consumption checks to connecting usage with the business units that drive it.
Written for IT and IT-finance leaders responsible for the mainframe software budget.
Download the whitepaper to learn more.
FAQ
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How does ITBI help us understand our mainframe software costs?
ITBI translates raw technical data, like MSU readings and job runs, into costs tied to the business areas and applications that caused them. Instead of one unexplained shared total, each business unit can see its own share of the system and of the bill.
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Can ITBI give us our own consumption record, independent of the vendor's reporting?
Yes. ITBI analyzes your own mainframe data, so you have a record you can check against the vendor’s numbers. That makes it possible to question, verify and negotiate before and during the true-up.
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Does ITBI work for both peak-based and consumption-based pricing?
Yes. ITBI shows cost by business area, the distance from baseline, and the trend, whether your contract runs on peak usage (such as the rolling four-hour average) or consumption usage (MSU-hours, such as Tailored Fit Pricing).
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How does ITBI help us spot cost drift before the true-up?
ITBI’s workload and capacity analysis shows the trend continuously and flags anything unusual: workloads that grew without a business decision behind them, peaks bigger than the underlying activity explains, and capacity still tied to retired services. This lets you react in month three rather than pay for it at year-end
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How quickly can we expect results using ITBI?
Most organizations get useful insight within weeks of analyzing their mainframe data with ITBI. Organizations using ITBI typically find that 10–20% of capacity-related cost can be reduced once they gain consumption insight.