This document discusses how organizations can reduce CPU utilization and control costs on IBM Z systems when moving to Tailored Fit Pricing (TFP). TFP is a consumption-based licensing model that charges customers based on the exact MSUs consumed each month. The document recommends using Syncsort solutions like MFX and ZPSaver to optimize sort operations and offload work to zIIP engines. This can significantly reduce CPU utilization, control software costs, and potentially delay needed CPU upgrades in a TFP environment where all processing is charged. It also provides tips for analyzing workload trends and consumption drivers to prepare for the new pricing model.

1. Evaluate the Benefits
of TFP for Your
IBM Z System
Bill Hammond | Director, Product Marketing
Denise Tabor | Product Management Director

2. Topics
• Understanding TFP
• Workload management changes in a
TFP environment
• Reducing CPU utilization for sort
operations to control costs and delay
CPU upgrades
• Reducing the workload by off-loading
sort operations to zIIP engines
• Q & A
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3. Understanding the
Tailored Fit Pricing Model

4. IBM Z Pricing Models over Time
4 * Tailored Fit Pricing A sensible pricing model
*

5. What is TFP?
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• IBM introduced this pricing method for their System Z
hardware in 2021
• A consumption-based licensing model that helps streamline
mainframe billing by assigning an exact dollar amount to
every MSU consumed on the mainframe.
• Accommodates mainframe integration with distributed and
cloud systems with unpredictable resource demands. When
implemented properly, this pricing model helps increase IT
agility at a lower comparative price point.
• IBM plans to move 50 percent of its customers to Tailored
Fit Pricing within the next five years starting with its largest
customers.
• Standardizing hardware capacity planning, growth, and
investment, gives organizations the confidence to predict
the cost of new projects, workloads, and architecture,
enabling them to react to changing market conditions
quickly and cost-efficiently.

6. “.. to manage costs we have to spend a lot
of effort controlling the R4HA and product
placement which is complex and itself
costly.”
“…workloads are increasingly
unpredictable, and the peaks are driven
by factors outside of our control. There is
less correlation between peak and volume
of business.”
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7. R4HA
Pain Points
Complexity of
contracts
Architecting for
cost
Clients who are
committed to IBM Z
as a strategic growth
platform require a
more flexible model,
with lower costs for all
growth
• Too many contracts, rules
• Lack of flexibility
• Excessive capping
• Poor architectural decisions
Impact of
spikes
Complex
management
• Spiky workloads set monthly
peaks
• These are often
unpredictable
• Senior technical staff managing
for cost
• Too much tagging and tracking
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8. Workload management
in a TFP environment

9. Hardware Consumption Model
9 * Tailored Fit Pricing A sensible pricing model
*

10. * Tailored Fit Pricing A sensible pricing model
Not all Workloads are Created Equal
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*

11. Every MSU Counts!
Traditional Rolling 4-Hour Average
• Perform tasks in off-peak periods
• No impact on rolling 4-hour average
• Minimal focus on MSU savings for tasks
performed off-peak
• Workload Management:
• Find the peak for each subsystem (CICS, DB2, etc)
• Drill down
• Identify component and tune
• Move work off peak
• Repeat
Tailored Fit Pricing
• No “free” processing
• All system activity will be counted, thus scrutinized
• Subsystem expertise needed to understand where
savings can be found
• Workload Management:
• Find the biggest consumer of CPU
• Reduce your consumption
• Repeat often, review trends
Either way, reducing your CPU usage keeps your costs down!

12. Considerations for YOUR environment?
• Are you growing your environments?
• Are you predicting a merger in your future, which will expand your
footprint?
• Are you planning to upgrade your mainframe capacity?
• Are you focusing your workload management on your online
applications, batch, or both?
• Are you moving away from the mainframe?

13. Reducing CPU utilization to control
costs and delay CPU upgrades
(control the baseline)

14. Reducing Utilization
• Sort operations (SORT, MERGE, COPY) are very resource
intensive:
• CPU cycles needed to sort records using sorting
algorithms
• I/O intensive – read input, read/write SORTWK, write
output data sets
• Syncsort MFX has 50% of the IBM z/OS market
• IBM’s DFSORT, delivered with the z/OS operating system has
the rest ($$)
Syncsort MFX focuses on reducing CPU time and
I/O efficiency for sort operations
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15. Syncsort MFX
Almost 50 years of continual
development and enhancements
Performance
The high-performance
sort/copy/join solution
that delivers better
performance and
saves money
Proven Solution
Improves sort performance while
optimizing overall system efficiency
zIIP Offload
Sort workloads can be directed to
the zIIP, thereby lowering the CPU
time and costs
Encryption
Enhanced security and compliance
with regulations such as GDPR
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16. Syncsort MFX
• Offers a high-performance sort, copy, and join utility designed
to exploit the advanced facilities of the z/OS operating system
and IBM Z, including zIIP engines.
• Can significantly reduce CPU utilization for sort operations and
optimize I/O activity to reduce contention to control software
costs and delay CPU upgrades
• Frees up general purpose MIPS for handling increased data
volumes and new workloads
• Drive cost reduction strategies by delaying CPU upgrades and
reducing software charges.
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17. Syncsort MFX key features
• Dynamic Storage Management (DSM) monitors and
dynamically controls sort performance and resource
use
• Dynamic sort work allocation technique acquires sort
work as required during the sort step instead of
allocating all anticipated space at sort initiation
• Data Editing features perform a range of data
manipulation functions without additional
programming
• Encrypts sort work data sets to provide enhanced
security and compliance with regulations such as
GDPR
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18. Reducing the workload by
off-loading sort
operations to zIIP engines

19. IBM zIIP Engines
IBM® z Integrated Information Processor (zIIP):
• A purpose-built processor designed to operate asynchronously
with the general processors in the mainframe to help improve
utilization of computing capacity and control costs.
• zIIPs allow customers to purchase additional
processing power without affecting the total
million service units (MSU) rating
• IBM does not impose IBM software charges
on zIIP capacity, but charges apply when additional general
purpose engines capacity is used
Bottom line:
• Once zIIPs are purchased they are used without any additional
cost
• Moving eligible workloads to zIIP reduces general purpose
engine utilization and can save SW license costs
• The big challenge is that most workloads are not
enabled to run on zIIP
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20. Syncsort ZPSaver key features
• Offload 90% of your Copy, SMS Compression,
and Sort CPU cycles to zIIP
• Reduce billable CPU and contain overall
software costs
• Significantly reduced TCB CPU times
• Reduced elapsed times
• Utilize Parallel Processing for I/O with PAV
• Support for INCLUDE/OMIT, INREC, OUTREC,
and OUTFIL
• No charges required to JCL or control statements
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21. A Powerful
Combination
Syncsort MFX focuses on
reducing CPU time and I/O
activity for sort operations
Syncsort ZPSaver offloads sort
operations to control MLC costs
and delay/prevent upgrades
• Significantly reduces general
processor operation
• Makes use of under-utilized
zIIP engines
• Helps control MLC costs and
delay/prevent CPU upgrades
• Allows sort work encryption to
be completed on zIIP,
reducing CPU utilization
dramatically and reducing
costs
• Sort operations are resource
intensive
• Syncsort MFX uses less CPU
time than DFSORT
• Syncsort MFX optimizes I/O
better than DFSORT
• Syncsort MFX encrypts sort
work for required security and
compliance
• Faster execution means more
work can execute in the same
amount of time
Syncsort MFX PipeSort reduces
elapsed time for sort operations
• Simultaneously executes up to
eight differently sequenced
sorts from a single pass of the
input data
• Uses advanced parallel
sorting technology
• Cuts total elapsed time by
more than 50% compared to
running separate sorts
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22. Getting Ready for TFP
• Optimize now – reduce the peaks
• You will carry any inefficiencies forward forever
• Analyze consumption drivers & trends vs Peak
• Review workloads for growth / decline
• Different profiles?
• Are you maximizing workload in valleys?
• Will new metric change behavior?
• Some apps can now be tuned/moved to reduce cost

23. Questions?