Cloudy future for licensing

Most of us are acquainted with the term cloud computing, but how many of us know what it means for the channel?

Yirrell: Licensing players may have to rethink their strategy as a result of cloud computing

It seems you cannot go anywhere these days without it cropping up at least once ­ but more people are walking around with their heads in the cloud.

Indeed the old model of companies shelling out huge amounts for fixed-term licences is definitely going to be a thing of the past, if cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) takes off the way industry experts are predicting.

At our Channel Conference earlier this month, SCH founder Sir Peter Rigby revealed he had been looking at SaaS for four years and earmarked it for huge growth.

However, he also pointed out that this is going to force a lot of traditional licensing players to change their strategy.

End user firms of all sizes will see it as a great way of saving money and also helping them avoid falling into the trap of being under-licensed and facing huge fines from the major software vendors.

People are saying it is the death knoll for software licensing as we know it.

Of course, this could all be wrong ­ but the calibre of people making these predictions does make it hard to ignore.

Is it now a case of adapt-or-die for the major licensing players?

Sara Yirrell is editor of CRN ­ contact her at [email protected]