MIM Resource Sharing Licensing: Renewal Levers.

MIM Resource Sharing, the CA Multi-Image Manager, lets z/OS images share tape devices and datasets safely across systems and even across separate Parallel Sysplexes. Its three components are MIA for tape sharing, MII for dataset integrity, and MIC for cross system commands, and together they remove the manual device varying and hardware reserves that multi image estates would otherwise need. It is Broadcom (CA)'s alternative to the global resource serialization function that z/OS already provides natively.

MIM is licensed on a capacity metric, historically MIPS and increasingly MSU as Broadcom moves the portfolio to its mainframe consumption model. The charge follows the capacity of the systems it runs on, not the volume of devices or datasets being shared, so the cost is decoupled from the actual sharing work it performs. It is frequently bundled inside a wider Broadcom agreement and reconciled forward under True Forward rather than priced as a benchmarkable standalone line.

Directional summary. Metric and term depend on the specific Broadcom agreement.

Three drivers move the MIM number, and the sharing workload is not one of them. Capacity, because the metric tracks MIPS or MSU, so a machine refresh lifts the charge regardless of how much sharing actually happens. Renewal escalators, because Broadcom agreements commonly carry annual uplifts on the per unit rate. And bundling, because MIM is often folded into a portfolio figure where it cannot be tested against the native option z/OS already includes. When a capacity priced product duplicates a bundled function, the cost question writes itself.

The traps are the Broadcom estate's usual set. A MIPS to MSU conversion accepted without validation can lift the baseline. Capacity growth reconciled forward under True Forward without a cap turns a peak into a floor. And bundling buries the MIM line where it never faces the free native alternative. The defense is independent reconciliation against contracted capacity, plus a costed comparison against IBM GRS so the line is always priced against the option you already own.

MIM's defining lever is the native alternative. IBM global resource serialization ships with z/OS and provides cross system serialization with no separate license charge, so a costed GRS migration study, honest about the engineering effort in tape sharing and multi sysplex topologies, is genuine leverage even when the decision is to stay and reprice. Alongside it, the contract levers are escalator and uplift caps, a True Forward cap, and unbundling the MIM line so its price faces the free option directly. We build the GRS comparison and the reconciliation before the renewal sets the next term, which is the heart of our Broadcom (CA) renewal work.

Publisher hub: Broadcom (CA) mainframe licensing. Related products: CA 7 Workload Automation and CA Librarian. Put it to work: Broadcom (CA) renewal advisory.