Microsoft has finally spun off their Software Licensing and Protection Services (SLPS) technology:
"In a connected world, software developers of all kinds need the ability to protect their code, license their software, and track the performance and profitability of their products. To fill that need, a new Irish company called InishTech is embarking on a worldwide business venture using software protection and licensing technology developed by Microsoft."
This technology was based on an earlier acquisition of Israel based Secure Dimensions SecureLM technology. You can read more about the history of SLPS here. Late last year, Microsoft announced that no new customer orders would be accepted and then we later heard through the grapevine that most of the Microsoft SLPS team would move on. This was part of a larger reduction in force and streamlining effort going at Microsoft. When I spoke with one of the former SLPS product leads in April, he expressed how difficult it was to integrate into the Microsoft ecosystem and in many ways they were like any other independent vendor trying to partner with Microsoft.
From a V.i. Labs perspective, SLPS is a licensing system, and as we do for customers using Acresso, IBM, Nalpeiron, Reprise Software, SafeNet, and Uniloc, we offer value on top of SLPS to protect sensitive IP within .NET applications and provide Piracy Business Intelligence:
- IP protection - While there is overlap with the SLPS code protection component, CodeArmor Software Protection for .NET offers a more scalable protection for whole assemblies. The SLPS protection technology is best focused on license methods because its virtualization technology is performance intensive.
- Piracy business intelligence – Provides piracy detection and reporting functionality that is embedded within the application operates separately from licensing to help ISV’s recover revenue from unlicensed use.
So I think it's great news that SLPS has a home and can operate independently - software developers/vendors need more options for software licensing for their .NET applications. One thing I hope that improves with the spinoff is the positioning of the solution. Microsoft had marketed this as an anti-piracy solution, a position that I considered not current or accurate. Many of the legacy licensing players have evolved their positioning based on customer reaction and focused their solutions on overuse and compliance.
Essentially, they made sure that their sales people were not positioning licensing as protecting against or combating “overt” piracy – piracy enabled via reverse engineering. SLPS in no different and although their code protection is innovative, it should be positioned as a way to harden the license functions' resistance to tampering and not a solution for stopping piracy.
- Vic
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