April 27, 2009 at 12:00 am
Comments posted to this topic are about the item All-Access
April 27, 2009 at 7:09 am
Sounds like we're almost back to the logic of the licenses that Borland had on TurboBasic (and probably other software) - "Use it like a book". You could load it on multiple computers, but were limited to using one at a time - meaning that the copy I had at work could be used at home and on a portable (with dual 720K floppies).
I also had a C compiler for that portable - with the proper defines, the same code compiled for DOS or command line UNIX. That was one of the few times the company provided me with leading edge hardware (getting a "Wow!" from someone spotting at a screen full of C while waiting at the Denver airport). But it was for economic reasons, not for the sake of technology 🙁 The portable (Toshiba T1100 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshiba_T1100) was cheaper to lease than a Silent 700 terminal...
Maybe I've been doing this stuff long enough 😉
John
April 27, 2009 at 8:50 am
thelabwiz (4/27/2009)
Maybe I've been doing this stuff long enough 😉John
Long enough? Nah. My first program was written using a punched card deck. I never wired boards, though. :w00t:
April 27, 2009 at 9:53 am
The "use it like a book" has been here before. And in this case, it's like a lot of licensing I had early in the Netware / Win 31 era where you tracked the number of copies being run at one time.
However it's not something that I've seen lately.
the All-Access, however, isn't like this. It's a license by user or machine, but it allows you to use any tool. So if I want ER/Studio for the architect, DBArtisan and the Rapid SQL for the DBA, DBOptmizer and Delphi for the developer, I can All-Access all of them and if they need one of the other tools for a day or two, they just run it. No licensing issues.
April 27, 2009 at 10:17 am
On the topic of sharing and printing data models. I am fortunate in that I work for an agency that also does GIS (mapping) work. We have big plotters that can print/plot large poster sized sheets of paper. I can make some very nice data models without having to tape together tiny pieces of paper.
Of course, some data models are bigger than even poster sized paper. But putting 2 or 4 of those pieces of paper together is no big deal. And it is wonderful decoration for my walls.
April 27, 2009 at 11:31 am
How long has it been since ER/Studio had the export to HTML Report option? I use that pretty regularly and push it to a file share. The only major issue is remembering to push it up to the file share when I make changes. However, doing that allows people to access the full ERD without too much trouble and includes the definitions and diagrams. That pretty much makes it easy for me to use a single license for ER/Studio and push out definitions on a semi-regular basis. Now finding the time to keep things up to date - that's a different story altogether. 😛
April 27, 2009 at 11:55 am
What about "printing" as .pdf file? Then you wouldn't need to print it out, everyone can read it, and you would have search/find capabilities.
Just a thought. I've used this idea to share my data models with developers at other agencies.
April 27, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Printing to PDF for most ERD's is pretty difficult to do unless you can finagle some pretty large page sizes for your ERD Images. You can export your images as JPGs, but you don't get some of the cool features of being able to see definitions and details.
And to Steve's point, it is quite a bit more convenient to give someone one ER Studio file and let them view it, but licensing for viewers can be a pain. I can definitely understand that point of view. We just found that publishing the HTML Reports was generally a workable option for our teams. 🙂
April 27, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Printing to PDF for most ERD's is pretty difficult to do unless you can finagle some pretty large page sizes for your ERD Images.
That's interesting. I've never had any problem printing .pdfs to large paper sizes. My standard is to use the standard page size of ANSI E, which is 34 x 44 inches. That's almost 3 feet by almost 4 feet. I use ERwin. Maybe that makes a difference compared to Study which I've never used.
I do have data models that take up more than one ANSI E sheet, but I lay out the tables so that related tables/areas all fit within an ANSI E sheet. It's been easy/usable for at least up to 4 ANSI E sheets. The .pdfs are usable and helpful. I haven't had to go more than 4 sheets, so I can't comment on usability for bigger.
The HTML option also sounds interesting. It sounds like you might be able to convey more data in one document going that route compared to simply printing up the data model. I have to print separate reports to make sure I have a file that shows all the meta data documentation I've added for the tables, columns, check constraints, etc.
April 27, 2009 at 12:16 pm
An industry survey we co-sponsored last year showed that BI vendor pricing/licensing has historically been one of the biggest obstacles to the deployment of Pervasive BI. All those seats start adding up pretty quickly.
Pricing/licensing issues can be challenging not only for customers but also for the software vendor. Personally, I don't see tracking user counts, numerous licensing discussions/transactions/invoices/payments/license keys, etc. as a particularly productive use of anybody's time. We have recently introduced a new pricing/licensing model which is intended to simplify the whole licensing discussion by offering 1) no charge for unlimited end users, 2) a very affordable way for people to buy a small number (even just one) of "Report Designer" licenses to get started, in production, still with unlimited end users, 3) a very reasonable license cost for both unlimited Report Designers and unlimited End Users.
Judging by the response so far, I'd say 1) the survey results were correct and 2) people like simplicity in licensing. Nobody likes having to track users, who is using licenses and who isn't, are there enough licenses, of what types, etc. etc. And of course nobody likes having to pay for licenses for people who may not even wind up using them, or using them very much. Pricing/licensing models are just one part of any overall solution, but they are an important part.
April 27, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Not sure how long we've been able to export to PDF from ER/Studio, but I don't think it worked well in the 99/'00 timeframe. The other issue is that you get into version issues with files as people store them in their machine, open the wrong one, etc.
I've always found a nice big diagram on a wall was the best reference. You can supplement it with a PDF or HTML, but a good central, easy to read point of reference is good.
April 27, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Licensing is a pain, and it's hard. Good to see that Bob is building a better license, working with customers. I'd like to see more of that with vendors, and not just some negotiation over price.
Negotiate to ensure the client gets their needs met.
April 27, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Well, the PDF option isn't really a good one for me. Our ERD's are a little too big to be easily readable in that format without some serious taping. The HTML option has been around for some time, though. I don't know if it was in the releases ~ 1999/2000, but if not it was pretty close to that point.
As for the licensing, I'd much prefer a concurrent user type licensing for the most part for tools like this. We just don't have that many people who are going to access them regularly. However, that is a significant cost increase over the single-user/pc license. I may need to check out the all-access license to see what the differences are. That may be worth it for us.
April 27, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Supposedly the All-Access is slightly above the cost of 2 tools. What that means, I'm not sure, but check it out.
April 28, 2009 at 7:04 am
The All Access license comes in many flavours.
One of the other benefits of this license scheme is the concept of InstantOn. With InstantOn, you can, if you want, run the software from a thumbdrive. No install required. So not only do you not have to deal with licensing hoops, you don't have to deal with which version of the software is installed on which machine issues.
Not all the Embarcadero products are InstantOn yet, but many are.
Karen
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