SystemLink Licensing

[viScience]

Up until recently I had assumed that the Software Distribution and System Monitoring capabilities of SystemLink were being released, in part, as a general infrastructure improvement for NI's distributed systems HW.  I saw SystemLink as a replacement for such things as Shared Variables, Replication / deployment toolsets and the Distributed System Manager, all of which come with LV for windows/RT and do not require runtime licenses.  I was quite surprised and disappointed to learn that NI intends to charge a premium for the use of this technology and will only offer the license on an annual renewal basis.  I can understand data dashboards and cloud services having this type of license structure but the rest of systemlink technology is now fundamental and should be factored into the substantial cost we already pay for LV and HW devices like the cRIO or cDAQ.  Would love to hear other peoples thoughts on this...

[JoshuaP]

The problem with free tools are that they rarely get the investment they need to become great products. RAD is a good example.

RAD was created by System Engineering to help replicate RT systems. R&D helped add a few features and clean up the code and post it so others could contribute (https://github.com/ni/rad), but it never received significant staffing to become a full fledged product with a roadmap.  It is hard to justify dedicating significant resources to a project like RAD when there are other competing projects at NI with a clearer return on investment.  It is also difficult to track the impact and value that a free tool like RAD is having over the course of time.

The huge benefit to charging for SystemLink is that NI is incentivized to continue investing in it over the long-run and that should translate to a better solution for customers.  In addition, NI can track the impact and value over time and adjust resources as needed.

If sales are weak, NI is incentivized to revisit the features and value.  If sales are strong, NI is incentivized to continue staffing the product and adding new features to grow the market that it can serve.

[viScience]

Understandable point of view and agreed that some of the systemlink tools should be sold as addon's.  On the other hand, RTI-DDS is being bundled into LV at no cost.  The infrastructure of a powerful DDS and API are brought into LV, which is a great marketing strategy in the IoT world.  You can buy additional RTI tools but the API is there for anyone to use who has a LV license.  I think the best incentive concept is one that also incorporates an element of good will and partnership with its customers.

[JoshuaP]

I don't know this for sure, but I would assume adding RTI-DDS support was a one time hit and a fraction of the cost to create something as complex as SystemLink.  In addition, the ongoing cost to maintain that addon is probably very minimal to non-existant.  

That being said under the hood SystemLink uses a common off-the-shelf systems management tool called Salt. 

https://saltstack.com/salt-open-source/

If you are ok with a lower starting point you could always setup your own Salt server and manage your targets directly from its command-line interface.  They don't have a nice web interface like ours and they don't provide any of our Skyline data APIs like messages, tags, and file ingestion, but its free.  However, if you need help setting it up and configuring everything you would need to go to them for support.

[jlanier]

I want to add that SystemLink does have a perpetual licensing option.