AMD EPYC PRESENTS OPPORTUNITY TO SAVE ON SOFTWARE LICENSING COSTS

BUSINESS SELECTION OF PROCESSOR SHOULD FACTOR IN SOFTWARE COSTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Software licensing models for many server applications have long…

BUSINESS SELECTION OF PROCESSOR SHOULD FACTOR IN SOFTWARE COSTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Software licensing models for many server applications have long been tied to the hardware infrastructure resources on which they are run, particularly server processor resources. As server processor architectures have evolved, software licensing models have evolved with them.

The software licensing model evolution has varied widely by software vendor, both in their types of changes and in each vendor’s timing of changes after the introduction of a significant change in processor architecture. This diversity in license models, and the timing lag of their evolution, presents businesses with an opportunity to save on licensing costs when a new processor architecture substantially changes the price/performance relationship between hardware and software. In these circumstances, buyers should assess the combined costs of hardware and software when making hardware infrastructure purchases.