Re: Software Licensing for HA systems

Brad,

I see where you are coming from.  I guess if the vendor is concerned about 
their customers illegally using their software, then maybe the fee is 
justified.  I'm just not sure that a six figure fee for a key to the HA 
copy is really justified.  And yes, the fee for one of our vendors will be 
well over $100,000 for the HA copy if that is what we have to do.

Based on everything we are finding out, including the responses I have 
received from this list, I think we are going to be looking for assurances 
from the vendors that we will be able to get a temporary key when needed 
either for testing of our HA fail-over or for real emergencies.

We had just thought that by having a key in place before an emergency 
occurred, that would be one less thing to worry about during what is 
already a stressful situation when you have to do an emergency switch to 
the HA box.

If the vendors can give us some assurance that we will be able to obtain 
the temporary key in a reasonable time frame, then that is the direction 
we will be going.

Thank you,
Ronald L. Zimmerman
I.T. Applications Manager
Swiss Valley Farms, Co.      http://www.swissvalley.com
"The Good for You Company"
Email: Ron-Zimmerman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



"Brad Stone" <brad@xxxxxxxxxxxx> 
Sent by: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
02/14/2006 11:00 AM
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Re: Software Licensing for HA systems






Ron, 

As an ISV, here's how I deal with this.

I give the user two options.

1.  In the case of needing to use the HA machine, they can
easily request a temp key from my site which will
temporarily allow use of the software (full use).

2.  If they wish, for "insurance", they can purchase a
permanent key for the HA machine at a discount.

So far users have been split 50/50 between the two options,
so it's not clear what they want as far as my software
goes.

Of course, I charge pennies for my software compared to
others as well as no other fees for maintenance, upgrades,
support, etc currently.

So that should also be looked at.

But, playing devil's advocate, let's say a year or two down
the road you've used your HA machine never, or once (except
for testing).  You have a new requirement that your company
needs an iSeries.  So you use the HA machine because it's
convenient.

Now, what's stopping you from using that "free" copy for
free for now what is production?  That's where to me as an
ISV it gets hairy, and also why I encourage users to use
the trial key for HA testing and actual HA machine use.  It
takes seconds to get the key, it's good for 30 days and can
be extended if needed.  But, if a situation like the above
arises, it becomes clear.  :)

On Mon, 13 Feb 2006 10:55:43 -0600
 Ron-Zimmerman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> I would like to know the experience of others with their
> software 
> licensing and how they have responded when they
> implemented an HA solution 
> such as MIMIX, iTera's ECHO2, etc.
> 
> As we have started preparing for implementing the ECHO2
> solution, we 
> contacted all of our software vendors about how we would
> deal having a 
> second copy of their software on the HA system.  What we
> have found is 
> that the software vendors' policies range from allowing
> the second copy 
> for no additional charge all the way to requiring what we
> consider to be 
> an unreasonable additional fee.
> 
> Our position with the vendors is that the second copy is
> only used as a 
> disaster recovery backup and we will never be using more
> than one copy of 
> the software at any one time, so we believe that anything
> more than a very 
> nominal additional charge is unreasonable.  We have two
> vendors who are 
> asking/requiring a fee equal to 25% of the list price for
> the HA copy of 
> their software which we believe is very excessive.
> 
> I would like to hear the experience of others and how
> they have dealt with 
> this situation when they implemented their HA systems.
> 
> Thank you,
> Ronald L. Zimmerman
> I.T. Applications Manager
> Swiss Valley Farms, Co.      http://www.swissvalley.com
> "The Good for You Company"
> Email: Ron-Zimmerman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Bradley V. Stone
BVS.Tools
www.bvstools.com