By By Ross Moyo
Gone are the days when IT executives must cont companies with huge license fees for software settlement citing sanctions and African location.
Speaking recently during the TechnoMag Tech Convergence Fora (TCF), experts and the US embassy all agree that they are no conditions that must force any executive not to buy software direct or get competitive solutions hiding on sanctions or lack of regional expertise.
Instead of also purchasisn expensive servers for local or cloud storage, the experts agreed that companies could save a lot on cloud computing solutions which are already available locally or internetionally with reputable companies
Dr Whisker Rukanda, Group CEO of MorniPac, agreed with the notion and stated that stern warning against any ict personnel who are in the habit of seeking approval of exorbitant annual fees license amounting to USD $400 000 instead of only paying hosting fees which are far much more affordable.
“I agree with you Cade, i think the whole world is going through data warehousing, you have AWS in Capetown for example, they used to say Zimbabwe is on sanctions and we cannot get data and now if you take banks you cannot be seen to be paying a license fee of 400 thousand a year, you can’t do that if you have an ICT manager who comes to the board for that approval fire the guy,”said the Mornipac CEO.
According to Dr Rukanda, a “license fee” is the cost you pay to gain the right to use a software program, essentially granting you access to its features and functionality, while “hosting” refers to the service of storing your website or application on a server, allowing it to be accessible online; essentially, you “license” the software to use, but you need a “hosting” service to make it accessible to others on the internet.
Rukanda hammered his message of firing all who blow company’s money on license fees citing Key points to remember on License fees being One-time or recurring payment depending on the license type (perpetual, subscription) which however grants you the right to install and use the software on your own devices. They May include access to updates and support depending on the license agreement.
Doctor Rukanda’s preference of Hosting, refers to the Recurring monthly or annual fee for server space and bandwidth which provides the infrastructure to make your website or application accessible online. It can be managed by yourself or through a hosting provider for example a relevant scenario if You want to use a popular content management system (CMS) like WordPress to build a website on License fee: You would pay a one-time fee to download and install the WordPress software on your server whilst on Hosting fee: You would pay a monthly fee to a hosting provider to store your WordPress website files and make it accessible online to visitors.
The authority on ICT issues added, “you gonna have to go hosting and by the way you start hosting you are cutting all license fees out and then you just pay the hosting fees.”
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