After sharing a successful few days with leading telco, hosting and cable companies and celebrating openness and freedom in Berlin last month, it is disturbing to see that walls continue to be erected. Whether you are a individual or a business user, Microsoft is making sure that access to your own data is their business. And it is going to cost you with their updated pricing scheme this December: the “client access license” (CAL). Looks like with Microsoft, BYOD is no longer an open alternative for a flexible workforce or more productive workers. It is a new way for Microsoft to leverage their monopoly and try to capture more revenue whether you are a User or a Device.
We here at Open-Xchange continue to be in awe of both what Microsoft has done and now still tries to do. There is no model and even fewer users that work so that a single vendor can lock the device (access), service (data usage) and delivery (software).
The internet works because it was built to be open. It thrives because innovation and web-based technology scale like hell on the web — both for the developers that collaborate on advancements like browser-based applications, as well as for mobile users who benefit from HTML5 working everywhere they are.
It is time that this legacy assumption (strategy?), i.e. that there should be ‘one to control them all’ is countered, and that individual user–personal or professional–has an alternative with their needs in mind. We believe that answer is OX App Suite.
Without one, there will only be (data/software) hotels where you can check-out anytime you want, but you can never leave.
