Linux on Z is not generally appropriate on premises for small businesses that would have fewer than about 10 distributed Linux servers, although some expensive per-processor licensed software can quickly reduce that rule of thumb. Most software vendors, including IBM, treat the highly virtualized IFLs just like non-virtualized processors on other platforms for licensing purposes. In other words, a single IFL running scores of Linux instances still typically counts as one "ordinary" CPU, at the same CPU price, for software licensing.