Computing "Out Of The Box": Eight Contract Issues

The days of computing in any box, whether a small box or a large box, are gone. Increasingly, software and the data you need are processed through as a suite of solution oriented services from outside the walls of your enterprise. Whether those SaaS solutions are provided by an ASP; a utility or "on-demand" computing provider; through an outsourced or shared service arrangement; via a "hosted solution"; or from the infamous "cloud", the traditional concepts, commercial practices, and licensing contract terms are no longer applicable to computing "out of the box".

The following are eight important contracting differences between buying or licensing an IT product for your direct use and retaining another person to provide the same solutions as a service.