Very astounding decision from Adobe to stop selling its software and only sell (monthly) subscription to the on-line version (some will call it a 'cloud' version but 'on-line' is more appropriate and cloud here looks more like a marketing argument). Adobe is the first big size company going for this model fully and quitting the traditional 'software editor' one. There are good reasons for this from the Adobe standpoint, the major one being that their installed base is largely composed of companies who will prefer the 'subscription' model of monthly fees to the obligation of paying expensive updates every once in a while. The advantage is clearly to smoothe the payment and to always benefit from the latest version of the software.

But there is a downside to this that is not so much expressed, and not just by Adobe. A few aspects of the approach raise issues that may create some backlash from the industry:

• Absence of choice. With this switch, the users are left with no choice and must go for the new model as soon as they want to evolve from their current feature set. This is not in essence a problem, but it becomes very problematic as soon as competition in the industry segment is not fully open. It is difficult for a company to switch from Adobe to another provider, amongst other by lack of feature parity.
• Property model. This new model clearly outlines the on-going switch within the ICT industry for a new model of ownership, with actually no ownership at all. Here again, not in essence a problem, but this goes with the difficulty to predict the license schemes that will be associated in the future. It was already an issue with the latest versions of Windows and this is clearly not going to simplify the IT strategy of many companies.
• Control. With this approach comes the difficulty to keep control over the evolution of the feature set on which the company is basing its work at a given moment. In particular, it is very often the case that some old features are kept in use for internal compatitiblity reasons: this is feasible with the software purchase model, not so easily (if not at all) with the subcription model.
• Privacy. With this approach, the way the software is used within the company may (but to be fully honest, this is to be investigated) give some indications on what the company is actually developing. This may not be an issue for the vast majority of Adobe's customers, but for some it may be one. And there is no clear guaranty that the usage pattern will be well protected from external attempts to sniff it.

We will see soon if these aspects are also taken into account and whether or not Adobe may be forced to continue selling software, not just right-to-use.

Tags: Virtualisation, Innovation