[Info-vax] VSI licencing policy (again), was: Re: VSI has a new CEO

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 8/4/2021 9:58 AM, John Vottero wrote:
> On Wednesday, August 4, 2021 at 8:19:24 AM UTC-4, Simon Clubley
> wrote:
>> On 2021-08-03, Dave Froble <da... at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
>>> On 8/3/2021 1:41 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>>> A business may love VMS and want to stay with it, but they are
>>>> not going to allow the collapse of a vendor to be the collapse
>>>> of their own business, even if that means moving away from
>>>> VMS.
>>> 
>>> On this we agree 100%.
>> 
>> Even when people disagree with me on the other things I say,
>> everyone still appears to agree with me on this.
>> 
> 
> Not everyone.

I think practically everyone.

> VSI is smart enough to know that they cannot expect much revenue from
> new sales of VMS.
> 
> VSI must charge a yearly fee to ensure a revenue stream. If they
> didn't, many customers would get to a stable x86 version and then
> stop paying.

Yes. That is probably VSI's problem with the forever license.

But that does not make the customers problem go away.

It just means that asking for a forever license is unlikely to
happen as it would not solve VSI's problem.

The key is to find a solution that works for both VSI and
the customers.

I gave my suggestion a few months back: an option for annual
extension of a 5 year license. That would give VSI annual
revenue. It would give customer that need assurance 4-5
years to migrate if VSI went under.

> But, IT DOESN'T MATTER because VSI will never just drop dead. If VSI
> decides they just can't make it work, they will lay off everyone
> except the one person that sends out invoices and generates new
> license keys. That would be a multi-million dollar business that only
> has one employee.

Or someone will takeover the remains and do that model.

The problem is if they do not switch to that model in time
and has to file for bankruptcy and the court appoints a lawyer
to run the business and that lawyer will need to spend time
figuring things out - including the contract with HPE.

The basic law of capitalism/greed says that it will be sorted
out - if money is to be made by issuing licenses then licenses
will eventually be issued.

Problem is that such legal matters can take a long time to sort out.

And customers with only a month left of their license could
be having a big problem.

Arne