How to make app on your own?

How do I make money with a cloud-based Python EII/DaaS app in the age of private clouds?

• I have a cloud app that supports enterprise information integration, as a database-as-a-service. It is written in Python. I want to protect the copyright of the code, and more importantly, the business model, which is PAYG per usage. However, some enterprise clients are not okay with putting their data on the cloud, and require on "on prem" or private cloud solution. Technically, this is entirely possible to do. The main question is how can I make money and make this make sense economically considering these issues: I sell licenses, and provide the app (say a compiled python code). The enterprise sets it up, and uses it on 1000x more VMs than intended. They're on a private network, I have no idea how much they are using it. I have potential losses of 999x the value of licenses. Basically, this is not fair, and may be illegal, but I have no idea what to do. I sell licenses, and provide the code. The enterprise modifies the code, and builds an app, which they then use and eventually release as a product themselves. I have potential losses roughly equivalent to my contribution to their IP/codebase x #customers x Lifetime value I say, frag this, too hard, and release all the code as open source, so anyone can use it for free. I see the following pros and cons with Open Source here: Pro - people can find bugs and improve the software and benefit from using it without an additional cost barrier. The community benefits from modifications that are published. Con - unintended emergent usage of the system, learning curve, means that the utility of the software is lessened, and inefficiencies are increased compared to what it would have been had a central service applied it and provided it in the way it was intended (possible example : Hadoop). Second con is making money through "expertise/support" (a la: Canonical) is more inefficient than making money through software. A reflection prompted is: after the initial "cloud revolution" with enterprises rushing to the cloud, and recently the turning of this trend in some enterprises toward private clouds, are we really back to the 80s and 90s, that is, the same old problems of selling licenses and protecting code/IP/usage somehow? Or are there better strategies?

• Answer:

  Well you pretty much have to obtain a patent to protect the method of integration, of course there is liekly already 5-10 patents filed for the same thing However in any case, if you are targetting Enterprise it is unlikely they will bother reverse engineering your code and implementing it themselves. THis is simply because, unless you are selling to IT Enterprises, they are buying your technology specifically NOT to worry about it themselves. You providing them the tech (smallest enterprise value), SLAs (higher value), and the ability for the IT manager to call you at 2 am and expect to you to fix a crash in 15 min (biggest value). Unless you're selling it to them for 1m+ a year, the shift in liability, simply does not making business sense.