IBM releases virtual appliances (AMI’s) on Amazon’s EC2
IBM has begun offering IBM DB2, IBM Informix, IBM WebSphere sMash, IBM Lotus Web Content Management, and IBM WebSphere Portal Server AMI‘s on Amazon.com’s EC2.
IBM is providing several “Development” AMIs at no additional fee beyond Amazon EC2 charges for developers building commercial IBM-based applications.
AWS will also roll out pay-as-you-go pricing for the “Production” Amazon EC2 running IBM service, enabling you to purchase these services by the hour.
The groundbreaking development is that IBM has rationalized their licensing so the customers can use their existing licenses for virtual appliances
For customers that already have existing IBM licenses, you are now eligible to bring them to Amazon EC2 starting today. IBM has created a Processor Value Unit (PVU) conversion table that makes it easy to determine how your existing licenses apply to the various EC2 instance types.
Update : An interesting analysis of this announcement at CIO.com
IBM being the king maker of course. They made Microsoft king, and now they have likened Amazon. As I write this I noticed you announce Oracle moving to Amazon as well.
Diwant Vaidya
February 18, 2009 at 9:16 am