Digital Lifescapes

While software-as-a-service solutions change the way that business technology is being used within the enterprise, legacy IT vendors are scrambling to evolve and rationalize their product portfolios -- relative to the emergence of nimble new players that apply very different business models. According to the latest worldwide market study by Technology Business Research (TBR), software providers that also have hardware portfolios are implementing flexible delivery models, and now they're marketing the implied value of their unified and optimized product portfolios. "We are seeing vendors embrace their inherent strengths, as large multi-line vendors integrate products to control more of the stack, while smaller pure plays leverage a deeper niche focus," said Meaghan McGrath, analyst at TBR . Remaining Market Development Challenges These actions indicate that some go-to-market issues still remain, as traditional software vendors look to maximize the monetization of t...

Most CIOs would prefer to be freed from the ongoing burden and rising cost of managing software license compliance. It's one of the primary reasons why open source software subscriptions -- that don't require traditional licenses -- are so appealing. It's also a key driver of pay-as-you-go cloud service adoption. Forward-looking software vendor executives also acknowledge the apparent shortcomings of the legacy licensing model. Some are choosing to change. Others are stubborn and continue to seek ways to extend the life of an obsolete approach to revenue attainment. Demand for Short-Sighted Software Monetization The three software license management (SLM) functions include defining software versions and licensing rules (development), automating license issuance and invoicing (deployment) and ensuring software is used in accordance with terms of a purchased license (enforcement). The latest global market study by Frost and Sullivan discovered that market participants...