Microsoft software for rent the answer to open source?

Stan Beer
Thursday, 01 September 2005 06:20

IT Industry - Development

Australian based AIE Technologies has announced the launch of www.Software4Rent.Biz, a fully automated, webbased service where users can rent popular Microsoft programs such as PowerPoint, Excel, Project etc on an adhoc basis such as by the hour, day, week and so on. Could this be the answer to open source?

Following on from Microsoft’s innovative change to its licensing agreements with the launch of “SPLA” (Service Provider Licensing Agreements), AIE has developed Software4Rent, an online, internet accessed system to rent various Microsoft products and soon other software such as accounting, security, design, CRM etc on an as needed basis, on demand, online and always available.

The Software4Rent pitch is to allow the first time SME, SoHo and private users to be easily 100% license compliant with their software at a reasonable cost.

Garry Ohlson, CEO of AIE Technologies says, “Many people cannot justify what they perceive as a high license cost for their perceived low or private usage, so rather than buy it, many individuals borrow or download a copy illegally. Now we can give them the option of renting it online very easily and cheaply. This is known as “Software as a Service” (SaaS) –a utility like electricity, water or gas. You should only have to pay for software when you use it.”

Jeremy Horton, AIE’s chief architect says “We have spoken with many vendors which are developing this new channel to market. Our DOTNET2 based technology engine allows us to accommodate thousands of users simultaneously from anywhere in the world – using the service as a virtual office and workspace. Microsoft is offering more and more of its products in this manner, as well as the other major software vendors such as SAP, Oracle and Salesforce.com.”

Ohlson added “This model has been shown to have little impact on license purchases, as it appears that many people welcome the opportunity to “pay as you go” when using software. Software is no longer in the domain of the business person; it is a utility most people in the developed world require from time to time. A license purchase is not cost justifiable for infrequent users, hence the world’s high level of software piracy in the public sector. In fact it is now quicker, simpler and easier to rent the latest and current versions of software legally on demand than go to the trouble of locating software that can be copied.

The adoption of broadband worldwide and specifically in Australia recently, has been the big driver behind this change in consumer patterns. Ohlson said “We are extremely excited, as this market will continue to grow strongly. As we add a range of software from vendors, it will create a virtual workplace where users may access from anywhere. We are extremely excited about the prospects of this model which revenue shares with software vendors”. “We believe that our “market place” SaaS model, which has a range of software from various vendors, will prove to be extremely attractive to the worldwide user community."

Sounds quite interesting. However, why would you want to rent software that you use all the time? Either bite the bullet and buy it or go open source. In the long run, we believe the latter option will prevail. However, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Open source is simply a different type of payment model.