All - Thanks for the huge response both on-list and off-list. I've gotten both business and technical details. Exactly the type of information that I was looking for.
THANKS AGAIN! I'm especially happy to see that the signal-to-noise ratio is extremely high! I'm post some follow up question after I digest all of this input. Cheers, Sam On Tue, Dec 27, 2011 at 12:06 PM, Mark Zelden <m...@mzelden.com> wrote: > 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 > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
