During these unprecedented times, it’s only natural for companies to seek solutions to best meet their workflow needs while at the same time provide an acceptable ROI. While many companies understand the importance of implementing productive solutions to keep up with new demands of their remote workforce, they also may be working with tighter budget restrictions due to the pandemic. With this in mind, they might need to reevaluate their toolboxes, to see what solutions they can cut to ultimately reduce costs.
What we want to dissect for you, is why a fast file transfer solution would not be one of the solutions on its way to the guillotine. We know it can get confusing, the various pricing models, the features, the licensing models, etc. That is why we are going to break down the licensing models and pricing costs of a fast file transfer solution. So that your company can truly absorb the benefits of their selected file transfer solution and walk away feeling confident in their chosen licensing/pricing model.
The typical pricing models available to most file transfer companies are subscription-based, perpetual licence, consumption-based, and a cloud model. We are now going to dive into what each model consists of and how it could assist your company’s budget.
The Flexibility of a Subscription:
A subscription model is truly one of the simpler payment plans available. It allows you the flexibility to sign up for a period of time. You will also have the option to make the jump over to another payment model once your subscription is complete. You really cannot go wrong with this payment model, it’s project-based and forecastable. FileCatalyst Direct, which is a complete point-to-point file transfer solution, offers a monthly subscription with no up-front capital expense. Pricing starts at $500/month for a single 1 Gbps server and $1000/month for a single 10 Gbps server. Pricing scales based on concurrent connections (5 are included), and which client applications you require (Express client included). With subscription terms of 3, 6 or 12 months, it can be budgeted into either short or long-term projects.
Own for Life:
With FileCatalyst, a perpetual license means that the software is licensed for life. An upfront license fee is paid which includes one year of support, and in year two an optional 20% annual support/maintenance fee. This model is ideal for organizations that prefer the predictable upfront capital cost and annual renewal costs. It’s also of better value if your company can forecast using this solution in the years to come.
Does your company transfer in bulk? Or only small amounts of data monthly? Do you find that there are time gaps between transfers? With unpredictable needs, a consumption-based licence may be a perfect fit for your company. This licence never expires and if you have an understanding of how much data you will be transferring monthly, you can budget the costs of the data transfer into your overall project budget. With FileCatalyst you can get a sense of how much your data will cost you under this model. The consumption calculator under our consumption payment model for FileCatalyst Direct will help you better assess if this is the pricing model for you.
To the Cloud:
If your company is lacking its own infrastructure, and are interested in using a cloud-based infrastructure this is the pricing model you should be researching. These resources are generally billed per hour, and FileCatalyst’s marketplace offerings fit this model perfectly and allow the billing to be done completely through your cloud provider (e.g. AWS, Azure, Google). Bandwidth is generally limited by the cloud provider based instance size you choose. Per hour costs start at $1.75 per hour, and scales up based on instance size. If you plan on bringing your own FileCatalyst Direct licence, you can use any of the license types on your cloud, including a monthly subscription, a “Per-GB” or a perpetual license.
Now that you know how many payment options are available to your company you can see that it’s not difficult to maintain a fast file transfer solution. These solutions are a staple for many industries and can make a difference to your workflows now and in the future. Take the time to analyze your company’s situation and when you’re ready, FileCatalyst will be there every step of the way to help you decipher the best solution and license payment model for you.