When sites are looking at reducing IBM software license costs, dynamic capping products are often seen as the natural solution. However, IntelliMagic now has an offering that provides unprecedented results in the area of MLC reduction.
Dynamic capping products offer value by dynamically adjusting caps based on WLM importance and activity levels on other LPARs. This is highly useful, but should not be purchased before the baseline MLC, and therefore the licensing price for the capping product, is lowered by using the much broader IntelliMagic offering.
It is to your advantage to acquire and deploy IntelliMagic Vision with the MLC reduction services offering prior to considering the acquisition of a dynamic capping product.
IntelliMagic Vs Dynamic Capping
This table shows how IntelliMagic’s MLC Reduction focus areas compare to the focus of dynamic capping products to achieve MLC savings.
| Area | IntelliMagic Vision Offering | Dynamic Capping Product |
| Processor cache efficiency | Extensive visibility into Relative Nest Intensity (RNI) by LPAR and logical processor | No contributions to this area |
| Complete insight into RNI components to determine reduction potential | ||
| Report on MIPS by Polarity to determine how to avoid cross-LPAR contention | ||
| LPAR software configuration | Extensive visibility into workloads executing on each system | No contributions to this area |
| Drilldowns by service class and address space | ||
| Determine eligible workload for changes | ||
| IntelliMagic expert assistance | ||
| LPAR workload optimization | Complete reports on usage of MLC products by address space | No contributions to this area |
| Identify work that could be executing on a lower-cost LPAR | ||
| Monthly peak 4HRA optimization | Complete reports for 4 Hour Rolling Average (4HRA) | Dynamically adjust caps based on workload by WLM importance levels |
| Dynamic drilldowns into peak CPU consumption by system, workload, service class, and address space | Dynamically adjust caps based on activity on other LPARs | |
| Root cause approach; determine what runs when and why | Typically, no ability to identify workloads by address space, so no root cause approach and cannot identify whether workload could be executed outside the monthly peak | |
| Identify work that could be executed outside the monthly peak | ||
| Determine capping values for free IBM-provided capping | ||
| CPU consumption by WLM importance level | ||
| Batch workload optimization | Extensive visibility into the batch workloads, particularly for monthly peak 4HRA intervals | Dynamically adjust caps based on workload by WLM importance levels |
| Identifies jobs that could execute outside the monthly peak | Typically, no visibility within the service class to help determine whether a job could execute outside the peak, or whether its rate of CPU consumption could be slowed to reduce the contribution to the monthly peak | |
| Identifies jobs whose CPU consumption rate could be slowed to reduce the contribution to the monthly peak |
Achieve Substantial MLC Reductions
For any site that wants to reduce MLC costs, IBM Z IntelliMagic Vision for z/OS Systems in combination with MLC reduction consulting services is the most effective way to start achieving substantial MLC reductions.
If after this achievement there is still a desire to additionally acquire a product to perform day-to-day dynamic capping, the IntelliMagic MLC reduction achievement likely lowered the cost of that dynamic capping product, because most of these are licensed on the basis of savings achieved from the previous MLC baseline.
Country Multiplex Pricing (CMP)
Similarly, sites considering moving to a Country Multiplex Pricing (CMP) licensing model from IBM can strongly benefit from first engaging IntelliMagic for a no-cost MLC Reduction Assessment. Reducing current MLC expenses could significantly lower the CMP baseline, resulting in savings that span the entire lifetime of that contract.
Apart from the MLC reduction potential, IBM Z IntelliMagic Vision for z/OS Systems provides extensive functionality and superior value for z/OS performance and availability management. You can read more about IBM Z IntelliMagic Vision for z/OS Systems here.
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