[crispyambulance]

It almost certainly is not "no cost"-- typically that kind of stuff is rolled into a line item under "service agreement". And if the line item cost does say "zero" that's because of negotiation and sales engineer magic (possibly after a few $20 martini's). The cost is folded in SOMEWHERE. IBM ain't no non-profit!

[bhouston]

Of course. :) I figured it was "no cost" because the servers that are in operation are insanely overpriced to begin with.

[bridanp]

IBM does suggest purchasing one production mainframe and one at CBU (Capacity Back Up) pricing if the company runs their own warm/hot/cold Business Continuity location. As great as these mainframes are at staying online, we have to account for storms and other threats to the data center, and need that redundancy somewhere. The CBU box will usually be much cheaper to run than the production box, but they are not free.