In the spirit of keeping blog posts informative, short and fun, this one takes a cue from David Letterman in format. So without further fanfare or wasted space... the Top 10 Reasons To Use Licensed Software Vs Freeware are:
#10 - Sally, the exec admin won't be distracted by random pop-up ads for Krispy Kreme Donughts while trying to get her job done for the CEO with a utility downloaded as freeware from the internet
#9 - Andy, the Auditor won't be publishing a failure to comply report because he found spyware on a server full of freeware because the server admins decided it was the only way to get the job done under current budget constratints
#8 - Ted in Tech Support will actually be able to get support from a live person for the licensed software but will need to search the internet and pray to the support gods for valid information for the free stuff
#7 - Sid in Development won't be able to download Apache applications or any other unauthorized open source "tools" potentially injecting malware into our corporate network
#6 - Fiona, the night-shift systems administrator can't edit the full text log created by sudo to erase her tracks instead of documenting her illegal identity fraud activities
#5 - Barney, the corporate attorney can sleep nights knowing that the company has legal binding agreements with the software publishers as opposed to trying to find (and hold responsible) rogue programmers on the worldwide web for freeware
#4 - Alice, the CIO is a lot more comfortable knowing that a well funded and stable company is delivering the software that runs our business as opposed to two guys and a dog writing freeware in Kazakhstan for "generous donations"
#3 - Fred in IT won't be installing malware hidden in freeware on mission critical servers, bringing the network down for 4 hours and costing the company over $1M in lost transactions
#2 - Michelle in accounting, will continue to get yearly tax code updates to our ERP software as part our our annual maintenance contract and not have to rely on free internet search and bad advice that could land our CEO in jail
#1 - Tony, the CFO will finally realize that nothing in life is really free and managing to expense only can have negative implications when dealing with security and privilege identity management
Scott Lang, Sr. Director, Product Marketing at BeyondTrust
Scott Lang has nearly 20 years of experience in technology product marketing, currently guiding the product marketing strategy for BeyondTrust’s privileged account management solutions and vulnerability management solutions. Prior to joining BeyondTrust, Scott was director of security solution marketing at Dell, formerly Quest Software, where he was responsible for global security campaigns, product marketing for identity and access management and Windows server management.