Innovative business models for integrated hardware/software systems.
Monetize your system with feature, metered, and subscription licensing through Orion.
Hardware/software systems licensing, done right
Transcend simple per-unit perpetual-license business models
Ship the product under feature, utility-pricing, per-feature floating-pool, and subscription licensing — or any combination.
No roadblocks integrating licensing
Pick licensing technology that works on non-mainstream platforms and at the OS kernel level.
Streamline your operations from manufacturing to distribution
Install an initial license on the appliance at the final manufacturing step. Customers later activate additional features themselves as they purchase them.
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What Orion gets you in integrated hardware/software systems
Why integrated systems need software licensing
The common objection — "the hardware can’t be copied, why node-lock?" — is mostly true, though a well-equipped plant can in fact clone many hardware/software systems. More importantly, licensing isn’t just node-locking. Subscription, metered, feature, and combination models all require licensing technology at some layer. Orion delivers all of those non-intrusively, plus the cases that do require under-the-covers node-locking — floating-license pools spread across user populations, or weighted floating-licensing policies that weight features by value.
New business models
Sell advanced features under subscription or metered pricing, and offer floating-license pools across device populations. Multiple features, policies, and pools combine into a single complex license configuration — without complicating distribution or activation logistics.
Cutting manufacturing cost
The conventional approach — one SKU and one assembly line per priced feature bundle — raises both manufacturing cost and distribution complexity, and locks the business model to perpetual-license-per-unit pricing. Software licensing collapses this to a single SKU and a single assembly line, with features unlocked by license at any point (including after the unit is operational at the customer site) and offered under recurring subscription or metered terms.
Realistic integration on non-mainstream platforms
The constraint on integrated-systems licensing is library availability for non-mainstream OS platforms and the ability to operate at the kernel level — pick a vendor whose product is straightforward to port and engineer down to that level. Orion’s client library has been ported in hours to HP-UX on PA-RISC, AIX on PowerPC, and Linux on PowerPC, and has been engineered to run without OS calls where required.
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