2012 Key Trends in Software Pricing & Licensing Survey
The 2012 Key Trends in Software Pricing and Licensing survey was conducted by Flexera Software with input from IDC’s Software Pricing and Licensing Research division under the direction of Amy Konary, research vice president – software licensing, provisioning and delivery at IDC. This annual research project looks at software licensing, pricing and enforcement trends and best practices. The survey reaches out to executives at application producers (Software vendors and intelligent device manufacturers) and enterprises who use and manage software and devices. Now in its eight year, the survey is made available to the industry at large each year. Findings for the 2012 survey include:
Software Licensing, Pricing, Flexibility & Value
- New ways to consume and pay for software abound
- Application producers feel they’re delivering more value than they’re getting paid for, enterprises say they’re receiving less value than they’re paying for
- Producers trying to close the value-to-satisfaction gap
Software Usage Tracking, Optimization & Compliance
- Producers lack visibility into customer use, and therefore satisfaction
- Enterprises recognize growing risk of failing to adequately manage their software licenses
- License management challenges resulting in shelfware and out-of-compliant software use; enterprises turning to automation for help
Software Compliance Enforcement
- Software license compliance audits continue unabated; large enterprises are the most productive targets of audits
- Multi-million dollar audit true-ups common
- Microsoft is most aggressive auditor
- Enterprises are not practicing continual compliance
The Cloud and Virtualization
- Virtualization and the cloud are prompting changes to licensing & compliance policies
- Server virtualization has greatest penetration within enterprises, while other types are gaining hold
- Virtualization adds license compliance risk
