① Publishers · Software AG · MSU optimization
Software AG (formerly Software GmbH under Silver Lake) licenses Adabas and Natural against a contracted capacity tier, not your real workload. On estates that have run for decades, that tier is almost always set higher than anything you currently consume. The cheapest capacity is the capacity you stop paying to license, and most Adabas estates carry more of it than anyone has measured.
You are billed on the tier, not the work.
Software AG (formerly Software GmbH) mainframe products are typically licensed against machine or LPAR capacity, expressed in MSU or MIPS tiers that depend on contract vintage. The bill does not track what Adabas and Natural actually do; it tracks the capacity number written into the agreement. On an estate that has been in place since the 1980s or 1990s, that number was set against a machine and a workload that no longer exist, and it has usually only ever moved in one direction.
Two structural features set the price. First, capacity tiers mean a hardware refresh can raise your Software AG bill even when Adabas demand is flat, the same MIPS creep seen across the industry. Second, the contracted capacity in old paper frequently bears no resemblance to current consumption, and the gap between contractual and consumed capacity typically favors the vendor until a buyer forces the reconciliation. Optimization is the discipline of closing that gap on your side of the table.
SCRT and SMF data mapped to the LPARs where Software AG products run, so we know the real capacity demand of Adabas, Natural and the surrounding stack rather than the contracted tier. This measured number is the foundation; every later step is argued against it.
We line the measured consumption up against what each agreement licenses, product by product. The gap is the money. On long lived estates the contracted tier commonly sits well above real use because it was sized for an older machine and never revisited.
Capacity measured on the wrong boundary, the whole machine instead of the LPAR, is one of the most common ways a Software AG bill is inflated. We place Adabas and Natural on the correct boundary and stop a future hardware refresh from dragging the licensed tier up with it.
A documented modernization position, offload, rehosting, or staged migration, evaluated seriously enough to be priced even if never executed. On a sticky installed base the leverage is rarely a bluff; it is the option you can actually show. This is what moves a tier the vendor would otherwise never reduce.
The measured consumption becomes the negotiating position: a right sized capacity tier, true down rights so the number can fall again, and entity transfer language that survives the next reorganization. A technical saving that never reaches the contract typically leaks back within two renewal cycles.
What changes with us at the table.
Your team keeps running Adabas and Natural; we bring the measurement and the commercial follow through. Software AG has no incentive to tell you that your contracted tier is larger than your workload, and the account team is not paid to reconcile it for you. We are. Across 500+ engagements and $180M+ of negotiated mainframe spend, the pattern holds on this publisher in particular: the installed base is sticky, both sides know it, and the buyers who arrive with measured numbers and a priced alternative are the ones who reset the tier.
What you get
Yes, but the lever differs from IBM MLC. Software AG products are licensed against a contracted capacity tier in MSU or MIPS, not the monthly four hour peak. Optimization means proving what Adabas and Natural actually consume, then resetting the tier you pay for down to the real number rather than the one in decades old paper.
Commonly, yes. When the license is tied to machine or LPAR capacity, a processor refresh can move you into a higher tier even though Adabas demand has not changed. We model the boundary before any upgrade so the licensed capacity does not move with the hardware.
It depends on how far contracted capacity has drifted from real consumption. Across 500+ engagements the combination of reconciliation and negotiation typically produces 20 to 35% renewal reductions, and on long lived Adabas estates the tier reset is frequently the largest single line.
Not voluntarily, and rarely without independent measurement on the table. A tier reduction has to be argued from documented consumption and a credible alternative. Estates that arrive with measured numbers and a priced modernization option move the tier far more often than estates that simply ask.
Your current Software AG agreements and amendments, the contracted capacity per product, the LPAR map showing where Adabas and Natural run, and recent SCRT or SMF data describing real consumption. With that we can typically show the gap between what you license and what you use within the first weeks.
Audit notice or renewal under 18 months out? We mobilize within 48 hours.
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