Tag Archives: virtualization

May 10
2012 

There’s No Debate: ISVs Need to Consider Pricing, Virtualization Options

by Prakash Panjwani

If you live in US or follow the news about US, you know that we are in middle of a political election season. You can’t go a week without watching the back and forth between Presidential candidates over topics that range from relevant to mundane, game-changing to ridiculous. One of the more serious topics (and probably at the top of the voters’ mind) is job creation, or the lack thereof. The US economy is growing but job growth is not keeping pace. At the heart of the issue is productivity: when the chips were down during the peak of recession, most companies learned to be very efficient. That is, they learned how to get more out of the resources they have. One of those efficiencies is increasing use of IT to improve productivity of employees. You could say job growth has given way to use of more software systems and tools.

Mar 14
2012 

Virtualization and a (New) Conflict of Interests

by Darim Rahmatallah

The ongoing debate around virtualization shows no signs of getting old. Virtualization has always created a ‘conflict of interests’ between those who worry about the technology (the software vendors) and those who enjoy the benefits it offers (the end customers of the aforementioned vendors).

There was a temporary sigh of relief in the world of automated license enforcement when new methods and techniques became available to bind software licenses in a more secure and reliable manner to a virtual machine . Almost overnight, all the concerns and fears of license duplication and misuse (albeit accidental or intentional) went away. The ultimate goal of eliminating the requirements for ISV’s to make a ‘VM/no VM’ decision at the time of deploying or activating their software was finally achieved. End customers could deploy applications where they liked, the vendors no longer had to care, and the world was a happy place.

Or so it seemed….

Feb 23
2012 

Virtualization: Why Licensing Matters

by Chris Holland

I recently found a blog post on software licensing and virtual environments that reinforce our position on software licensing and virtualization.  It reflects on the challenges in software licensing in virtual environments, and how IT and innovation are being hampered by monolithic licensing practice in this space.

Here’s my reply to the original post:

“We sure are glad to know this problem is getting more understanding in the IT community!  For exactly the reasons you describe in your article we have adjusted our solutions and strategy to match, and we are the first and only technology solution in this space.”

Jan 24
2011 

The New York Time on Software Piracy in China

by Justin Benson

In the past we have discussed how many of our customers are interested in fighting piracy in developing nations. Hard data is always a challenge. The New York Times posted a great article yesterday that looked at through a rather unique and powerful view. Hardware is much harder to “pirate” than software. In general, the two are also often sold together. While virtual machines may over time change the ratios in general it’s a safe bet to assume predictable ratios between a countries hardware and software purchases. An increase in one should result in an increase in the other.

Click here to read the article on their site as it delves deeper into this area.

May 26
2010 

Virtualization – Who’s in Charge?

by Darim Rahmatallah

There are many virtualization related debates underway right now (even as you read this!), but one that I recently came across seemed to stand out above the others. It was all about who should be dictating the direction software companies should take to tackle software licensing and virtualization.  Treating that topic independently, there are essentially 3 players involved:

Mar 24
2010 

IT Expects Virtualization to Save Money for Licensing

by Chris Holland

Recently, we ran a survey in Europe and in North America and asked IT directors and other technology decision makers some questions about virtualization. One was “Virtual Machines – do you have it or plan to get/use it soon?” The reply was overwhelmingly (80%) yes.

Another question (to the 80%) was “What is your #1 driver for Virtual Machines?” Nearly 50% of the responses were in the category of “reducing licensing expense”. This perception is evident because the types of license agreements companies are dealing with simply do not reflect the modern age.   Licenses describe installations per site/server/location, and when in a high speed networked and virtualized environment, these are increasingly meaningless concepts.