Enterprise software licensing models are changing

In recent years the enterprise software sector has increasingly shifted from perpetual licenses to subscription-based models. Major vendors of virtualization, operating systems and databases have changed their pricing — bundling products and charging per core or per user — which has noticeably raised annual costs for some organizations. The change is prompting organizations to run license audits, re-assess actual usage, and in some cases evaluate open-source or alternative-vendor options. Many companies are also moving to hybrid and multi-cloud strategies to avoid vendor lock-in. Experts recommend studying licensing terms carefully before contract renewals and calculating the total cost of ownership (TCO).