Current Trends and Issues in Dba
August 2012
The High Cost of Enterprise Software by Craig S. Mullins
What is the most difficult thing about acquiring enterprise software? If you are like most IT technicians, your first inclination was probably something related to cost justification. Let’s face it, enterprise software typically is very expensive… and eventually, something will need to bring costs more in line with value.
Certainly, the software environment ten years from now will look very different than it does today. Of course, that is probably true notwithstanding my observation about the cost of software. Technological advancement will impact things, too. For example, the user interface for computing devices will likely be more like the iPad than like the current mouse-driven GUI. But that is not really the topic of today’s column.
No, I want to rail on about the extreme cost of enterprise software -- the software that runs the computing infrastructure of medium to large businesses. It is not uncommon for companies to spend multiple millions of dollars on licenses and support contracts for enterprise software packages. This comprises not only operating systems, but database systems, business intelligence and analytics, transaction processing systems, web servers, portals, system management and DBA tools, and so on.
Now don't get me wrong. I realize that there is intrinsic value in enterprise software. Properly utilized and deployed it can help to better run your business, deliver value, and frequently it can even offer competitive advantage. But what is a fair value for enterprise software?
Let's look at something simple, like a performance monitor. Nice software, helps you find problems, probably costs anywhere from several hundred thousand dollars to over a million depending on the size of the machines you are running it on. Why does it cost that much? Well, because companies have been willing to pay that much. Not because the software costs that much to develop. I mean, how many
The High Cost of Enterprise Software by Craig S. Mullins
What is the most difficult thing about acquiring enterprise software? If you are like most IT technicians, your first inclination was probably something related to cost justification. Let’s face it, enterprise software typically is very expensive… and eventually, something will need to bring costs more in line with value.
Certainly, the software environment ten years from now will look very different than it does today. Of course, that is probably true notwithstanding my observation about the cost of software. Technological advancement will impact things, too. For example, the user interface for computing devices will likely be more like the iPad than like the current mouse-driven GUI. But that is not really the topic of today’s column.
No, I want to rail on about the extreme cost of enterprise software -- the software that runs the computing infrastructure of medium to large businesses. It is not uncommon for companies to spend multiple millions of dollars on licenses and support contracts for enterprise software packages. This comprises not only operating systems, but database systems, business intelligence and analytics, transaction processing systems, web servers, portals, system management and DBA tools, and so on.
Now don't get me wrong. I realize that there is intrinsic value in enterprise software. Properly utilized and deployed it can help to better run your business, deliver value, and frequently it can even offer competitive advantage. But what is a fair value for enterprise software?
Let's look at something simple, like a performance monitor. Nice software, helps you find problems, probably costs anywhere from several hundred thousand dollars to over a million depending on the size of the machines you are running it on. Why does it cost that much? Well, because companies have been willing to pay that much. Not because the software costs that much to develop. I mean, how many