Flexera vs. IBM ILMT
Flexera vs. IBM ILMT: A great choice for IBM License Compliance
The IBM License Metric Tool (ILMT) is a free tool IBM provides to help organizations manage and track IBM software usage. It’s required to track licenses in virtualized and sub capacity environments.
Many organizations use multiple software vendors, so maintaining a separate tool like ILMT solely for IBM compliance can be inefficient and even annoying. Flexera One ITAM is the only certified alternative for ILMT and covers thousands of other applications. Additionally, Flexera’s entitlement and usage data can enable you to do significantly better audit defense and optimization of your IBM license costs.
Differences between Flexera One ITAM and ILMT for IBM License Compliance
| Capability | ILMT | Flexera One ITAM |
|---|---|---|
| IBM Authorized Tooling for License Compliance | Yes | Yes |
| Importing of contracts and entitlement data | No | Yes. Flexera One ITAM provides the ability to add entitlement data to automate license compliance reporting. You can import invoices, POs and quotes via Flexera’s AI-based ingestion tool, saving time and reducing data entry errors. |
| IBM Cloud Pak usage metrics |
Requires IBM License Service (ILS) to track VCP and app point consumption. | Yes. Flexera One ITAM provides full automation of IBM Cloud Pak license tracking, including production vs. non-production environments. It integrates with IBM Passport Advantage and ILS for entitlement and container tracking (e.g., OpenShift). |
| License Optimization | No | Yes. Flexera provides product use rights templates and usage data to identify licenses required based on use rights and usage data. |
| Data normalization and enrichment | No | Yes. Flexera includes normalized, enriched and accurate data that powers real-time decision-making. Flexera’s AI-based and human-verified Technopedia catalog normalizes 98% of your inventory data in less than 10 minutes. |
| Vendor coverage | IBM products | Flexera One ITAM provides license compliance management for thousands of software vendors across your enterprise, including IBM, Oracle, Microsoft and VMware. |
Frequently asked questions on IBM license compliance
Flexera One ITAM offers a broader and more automated solution than ILMT. While both are IBM-authorized for license compliance, Flexera One ITAM supports multi-vendor environments, automates IBM Cloud Pak tracking (including production vs. non-production), enables contract and entitlement imports, optimizes license usage and provides enriched data for real-time decisions.
Flexera improves IBM license optimization by offering a certified alternative to IBM’s ILMT that goes far beyond basic compliance tracking. Flexera One ITAM enables full automation of IBM Cloud Pak tracking, differentiates between production and non-production environments and supports importing entitlement data (e.g., invoices, POs, quotes) via AI-based ingestion, enabling automated license reconciliation and cost optimization.
If your organization isn’t tracking licenses in virtualized and sub capacity environments, then you could be paying too much in licensing costs. Here’s an example using IBM Websphere on a VM that’s running on a 32-core physical server. If you’re only using 4 of the licensed cores, you’d need to license 480 PVUs (@$100/PVU = $48k). If you’re not tracking sub-capacity, then you’d be licensing 32 cores or 3,840 PVUs (@$100/PVU = $384k).
Flexera supports thousands of vendors for audit defense and license optimization— including SaaS applications such as ServiceNow and Salesforce—and helps optimize compliance across on-premises and cloud environments with our Cloud License Management offering.
Hear what our customers say
“Flexera empowers us as the IBM experts, playing a key role in achieving substantial yearly savings on underutilized software renewals. We also promptly report any exposure, effectively mitigating audit risk.”(Source: User Evidence Survey, June 2025)
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