What is charge-back model in CPU charges?

[Chaitnaya]

What is charge-back model in CPU charges? Or in general what is IBM way of charging its customers? I have read about it but the different people seem to have differnt orintation about it?

How does IBM charge for its CPU, mainframe or haradware/softwareusage? For example, if a company is using DB2 from IBM, what are the possible ways to get the charging done from IBM?

[Robert Sample]

Terminology is critical in IT, where similar terms may mean very different things. "Charge-back" is the internal accounting for mainframe costs within a company, and would NEVER apply outside the company.

What you are asking about is IBM's pricing models, IBM's pricing depends upon the customer, the contract, and the specifics for that site so to a large degree what you are asking is not answerable. IBM in general sells some software (the company pays IBM a purchase price and then annual maintenance fees for updates and support in case of problems) and leases other software (the company pays IBM a monthly / annual fee for use of the software along with maintenance and support). Pricing can be very complex due to the many factors that can be involved (for example, zIIP, zAAP, capped systems, purchase / lease of the hardware, multi-year contracts).

[Chaitnaya]

Thanks Robert. Actually, over here at my company they keep on talking about 'charge back' and that's what I thought is the way to talk about it.

Does IBM provides their pricing models on their site?

[Robert Sample]

Does IBM provides their pricing models on their site?

Prices for a particular site would never be put on their web site. http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/resources/swprice/ provides an overview of pricing -- MLC is their term for leased software and IPLA is their term for purchased software. If you look at the web site, you will see there is not a lot more detail there than you have already been provided. As at most companies, IBM considers pricing details (for a company like yours for example) to be information NOT to be shared with the general public.

[Chaitnaya]

Thanks Robert. This is helpful