Glossary

SWMA

Software Maintenance Agreement, the ongoing annual fee that keeps a perpetual IBM i license entitled to fixes, updates, and new releases.

A perpetual IBM i license without an active SWMA cannot be upgraded to new IBM i releases and loses IBM support entitlement. SWMA cost is a recurring line item that belongs in any annualized ownership cost model alongside hardware maintenance.

Related Terms

Perpetual Licensing

IBM's traditional one-time-purchase IBM i licensing model, paid once per core rather than annually.

Annualized Ownership Cost

The modeled per-year cost of owning a system over a defined hold period: amortized hardware, maintenance, and software licensing combined.

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