On Tue, 27 Dec 2011 11:14:47 -0800, Skip Robinson <jo.skip.robin...@sce.com> wrote:
>Software 'keys' are a huge PITA for reasons not so far mentioned. > >-- In larger shops, software contracts are often managed exclusively by >bean-counter types far removed from the sysprogs who have to implement the >keys. When a product threatens to self destruct--or actually does so--the >responsible sysprog can got caught in the middle of a negotiation >shoot-out. Most vendors are kind enough to supply a 'temporary extension' >key while the lawyers mud wrestle. (It's not as sexy as you might imagine. >Or maybe it is.) The dire messages flying across the console--even >appearing in a user's joblog--are tawdry testament to our inability to >just get along. > I did mention this, but you had to read in-between the lines a little "it's easy for the "techies" to make mistakes since they often (usually?) don't know the T's and C's of all the software contracts. " >-- While most vendors these days supply their products to be (at least >optionally) installed with SMPE, they all view themselves as sole guardian >priests of the divine software protection sword. Each vendor's incarnation >of this sword is unique to that vendor or even specific product. This >creates a dependency on individual SMEs who must be engaged to implement >and promulgate a new key. Vacation and holiday schedules only complicate >this monster dance. > >I'm with Barry. Dispense with keys. Trust your customers. The potential >cost of a legal hassle should be enough to keep customers on the line. Or >close enough. > I have to come to the defense of one of my client's again here. While the legal hassles and expense may not be a big deal for IBM and large ISVs like CA, BMC and others, most large companies have far deeper pockets than my client and the CPU protection is far more cost effective than having to fight it out in court. That probably holds true for many of the smaller ISVs and certainly the ones that are pretty much a one or 2 man show. Dave Cole's XDC comes to mind here (I haven't installed XDC in about 10 years, does it require a key?). Barry's MXG is the exception to the rule. As he mentioned, it is all source code and probably is the best deal on the planet in terms of cost and maintenance. :-) I am a sysprog... and agree with what you and others have said about what a huge PITA it is to deal with keys. Believe me, I know. I spend most of my time supporting a very large environment with many z196s and over 30 production LPARs supporting multiple companies. But I completely understand a vendor's reason for doing whatever they want or must do to protect their intellectual property from either accidental or intentional misuse when putting food on their table depends on it. The honor system doesn't really work much better in the 21st century mainframe environment than it does (did) for software installed on your PC. Oh, the stories I could tell.... Regards, Mark -- Mark Zelden - Zelden Consulting Services - z/OS, OS/390 and MVS mailto:m...@mzelden.com Mark's MVS Utilities: http://www.mzelden.com/mvsutil.html Systems Programming expert at http://expertanswercenter.techtarget.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
