Adobe’s Creative Cloud -

“Should I stay or should I go?”

‘Joe Strummer’, lead singer of ‘The Clash’(21.08.52 – 22.12.02)

Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clash

• Adobe in the Enterprise • Adobe Licensing and Creative

Cloud • Decision tools• Adobe License Management• What tools offer (1E, Flexera,

License Dashboard)

• Adobe of little strategic value • Key Concerns

– Discovery and Suite Recognition – Aggressive audit and upgrade tactics

“72% of IT Asset Managers see no value in Adobe vendor

relationship”

Source: http://www.itassetmanagement.net/2013/03/14/72-asset-managers-adobe-vendor-relationship/

Adobe in the Enterprise

Working with Adobe, You said…

"As far as I understand, you're being forced to upgrade to the most recent versions in order to be compliant. Bundles are not transparent. In that sense difficult to manage”

Manufacturing Company, Netherlands

"The letters of audit and threat needs to be toned down. I understand that they need to audit and check for compliance but the language they use is not good or receptive. Everyone knows that Adobe and few other companies are out there for another revenue stream" IT Asset Manager, Japanese Bank

"Adobe in my humble opinion is horrible. Our particular account manager holds the threats of audits, increased fees, etc. for not going with the flavour of the month (creative cloud at the moment)." Service Owner, Fortune 500 Company

"There is no Account Manager readily accessible to access information re accounts, CLP's and licensing information and neither do the LARs understand how Adobe work either. So that leaves the end user none the wiser on how to process and manage adobe licenses. Also, Adobe's own customer services are simply awful and outsourced to the far east. they have no idea what they are doing" Software Asset Manager, UK Hospital

Adobe Licensing

• The cloud that isn’t cloud• Not Adobe perpetual vs. Adobe cloud – but Adobe versus other solutions • Anticipate TLP / CLP to be retired - No plans for future releases of Creative Suite or

other CS products

Further Resources: – Adobe Licensing Quick Guide: http

://www.itassetmanagement.net/2010/03/23/adobe-licensing-quick-guide/– Introduction to Adobe Creative Cloud: http

://www.itassetmanagement.net/2013/05/14/adobe-creative-cloud-licensing/– Pros and Cons of Adobe Creative Cloud http

://www.itassetmanagement.net/2013/09/28/pros-and-cons-of-adobe-cc/

Creative Cloud Pros• Low entry price for large suite of Apps • Very latest editions • More economical for some

organizations

Creative Cloud Cons• In the longer term will always be more

expensive• Have to pay every month, no sweating

assets • Future price increases

Minimize SpendWhat Adobe can we

remove that is unused?

Of the Adobe being used – what can we

negotiate to remove?

What tools can be swapped to cheaper /

easier to manage / more secure alternatives?

What can we keep unsupported?

Other creative ways to avoid Creative Cloud

subscriptions

Minimize SpendWhat Adobe can we

remove that is unused?

Of the Adobe being used – what can we

negotiate to remove?

What tools can be swapped to cheaper /

easier to manage / more secure alternatives?

What can we keep unsupported?

Other creative ways to avoid Creative Cloud

subscriptions

"Adobe software, particularly Reader and Acrobat, carry with them too much risk vs. benefits.”

USA Financial Services Company

Minimize SpendWhat Adobe can we

remove that is unused?

Of the Adobe being used – what can we

negotiate to remove?

What tools can be swapped to cheaper /

easier to manage / more secure alternatives?

What can we keep unsupported?

Other creative ways to avoid Creative Cloud

subscriptions

"Adobe software, particularly Reader and Acrobat, carry with them too much risk vs. benefits.”

USA Financial Services Company

"Tracking installs was so difficult we removed Adobe Reader from all of our corporate machines, and, with few exceptions, replaced all Adobe Acrobat installs with another, less expensive yet full featured product." US Manufacturing Company

Minimize SpendWhat Adobe can we

remove that is unused?

Of the Adobe being used – what can we

negotiate to remove?

What tools can be swapped to cheaper /

easier to manage / more secure alternatives?

What can we keep unsupported?

Other creative ways to avoid Creative Cloud

subscriptions

"Adobe software, particularly Reader and Acrobat, carry with them too much risk vs. benefits.”

USA Financial Services Company

Minimize SpendWhat Adobe can we

remove that is unused?

Of the Adobe being used – what can we

negotiate to remove?

What tools can be swapped to cheaper /

easier to manage / more secure alternatives?

What can we keep unsupported?

Other creative ways to avoid Creative Cloud

subscriptions

Key considerationsConsiderations• Awful security track record • Non-cloud a low priority • ROI should be 3-5 year cost versus alternative technologies• Assume Adobe price rises (already offering lock-in prices) • Actively manage cloud subscriptions – ensure user transferability and flexibility on suites

offerings • New contracts pro-rata until end of year (As with Salesforce) - Only accrue during term• Typically pushy and aggressive  

Cheaper / Easier to Manage Alternatives• Please share your examples of enterprise grade alternatives• http

://gigaom.com/2013/04/06/how-to-build-your-own-adobe-creative-suite-with-cheaper-mac-app-alternatives/

• http://lifehacker.com/5976725/build-your-own-adobe-creative-suite-with-free-and-cheap-software

Tracking AdobeSuite Recognition

including historical bundling

Duplicates, false positives, OEM, trial

Good Software Recognition

User AND Device tracking

ISO Tags Identification

"Standalone products, easy, suites very cumbersome"Independent SAM Consultant, Canada

"Its a tedious process to segregate installations of standalone products from that of the CS product suite. There is no way to differentiate the inventory of Creative suite products from their standalone counterparts unless we keep a chart of products bundled with the particular CS version." Licensing Administrator, Singapore

"When back tracking installations of Adobe Suites it is difficult to verify if an application is part of the Suite without doing Internet research as to what came with the Suite at the time of purchase.”

US Government Department

Tracking AdobeSuite Recognition

including historical bundling

Duplicates, false positives, OEM, trial

Good Software Recognition

User AND Device tracking

ISO Tags Identification

"Identifying Adobe products is interesting when it comes to desktop products. Their product line for Acrobat v.10 or X often comes up duplicate in discovery. This is due to the patches that they install that alternate between v.10 and X being the version. Its quite frustrating." US Manufacturing Company

"Adobe does not tend to share all knowledge about the audit process with customers. For example, there tends not to be full disclosure around trial software cannot be easily distinguished from fully licensed software."

Tracking AdobeSuite Recognition

including historical bundling

Duplicates, false positives, OEM, trial

Good Software Recognition

User AND Device tracking

ISO Tags Identification

"As with many software vendors, a good catalogue to normalize the data extracted from your inventory is necessary." Nightmare. This is from a SCCM report:

Adobe System Inc.Adobe SystemsAdobe Systems IncAdobe Systems Inc.Adobe Systems IncorporatedAdobe Systems Incorporated.Adobe Systems, Copyright 2005-2008Adobe Systems, Inc Adobe Systems, Inc. Adobe Systems, Incorporated Adobe Sytems Incorporated " IT Asset Manager, Australian Energy Company

Tracking AdobeSuite Recognition

including historical bundling

Duplicates, false positives, OEM, trial

Good Software Recognition

User AND Device tracking

ISO Tags Identification

"A Good tool will pick up Adobe correctly but if it's a device centric tool it will take you a while to work out PC and User metrics and bundles versus standalone product."

Tracking AdobeSuite Recognition

including historical bundling

Duplicates, false positives, OEM, trial

Good Software Recognition

User AND Device tracking

ISO Tags Identification http://www.itassetmanagement.net/2013/10/15/iso-tags-adobe/

How can tools help?

• 1E – Proactive Reclaim & Redundancy • Flexera Software – Product Use Rights • License Dashboard – Hybrid Environments

1E

• AppClarity – Filter Noise (Suite, Licensable)– Taking Action– Microsoft PDF Overlap

Flexera Software

• Flexnet Manager for Adobe License Management– Upgrade Rights – with the right license program, Adobe

customers can upgrade to the latest version when it becomes available (Except Adobe Creative Cloud).

– Downgrade Rights – Adobe customers have the right to use a version of the software older than the one purchased.

– Second Use Policy or Portable Use Policy – Adobe allows customers to use an application on a user’s second device – for example a work and home PC. (Does not apply to dual boot machines or mixed operating systems).

– Multiple copies on the same device – Adobe allows multiple versions of the same application on one device. So several different versions might be installed and only consume one license.

License Dashboard• Cloud and perpetual hybrids

Need help?

Dedicated Adobe resource area:www.itassetmanagement.net/Adobe

LinkedIn Group to discuss licensing queries:http://www.linkedin.com/groups/ITAM-Review-Networking-Group-1769350/about

Contact Us: http://www.itassetmanagement.net/contact/

martin.thompson@itassetmanagement.net +44 (0) 845 130 3166