Try-before-you-buy edition of CICS Transaction Server for z/OS V4.2

I don't think I've seen something similar for CICS TS as offered in this new IBM announcement : 'IBM CICS Transaction Server for z/OS Developer Trial V4.2 delivers a 'try-before-you-buy' edition of CICS Transaction Server for z/OS (ZP12-0014)'.

As a matter of fact, it's nothing more or less than a try-before-you-buy license for CICS TS V4.2. Why would you want to do that ?

"It has a zero-cost license charge and does not initiate any Single Version Charging (SVC) period.

CICS TS Developer Trial is designed for customers who want to assess the value that could be gained from a CICS TS upgrade, before making an upgrade decision. This enables the evaluation of the latest CICS TS capabilities, in a non-production environment, without the prerequisite time and resources commitments required for a full production migration project".

This looks like a nice offer to me. And, to me, it seems to take away the pressure about getting into production before the end of your SVC period.

Of course "there are a number of imposed restrictions, in performance and capacity, licensing terms, and a fixed expiry date, that make CICS TS Developer Trial suitable only for use in non-production environments".
About the fixed expiry date, it provides "at least 90 days operation from the date of fulfillment. New releases can be installed to extend this period. There is no limit to the number of times CICS TS Developer trial can be reordered, installed and used". So this should be pretty flexible, no ?

Planned availability : January 27, 2012.