Adobe's Creative Cloud and its evolving software rental model

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Adobe is one of the world's biggest software companies and since last year has been pushing a new product distribution and maintenance service through its Creative Cloud initiative. 

With Creative Cloud, most if not all of Adobe's major software products are available via subscription. Users pay a monthly  fee to access applications which are managed remotely on Adobe's server's. The upside to this model is that users never have to worry about updating software since the cloud will offer up the latest versions, fixes and updates.

Users also have the advantage of accessing the software from various machines or computers as well as setting up collaborative teams and managing software across a larger field. Project-specific requirements enable companies to rent as many licenses as  needed and then get rid of the licenses they don't, shrinking operating costs and reducing the amount of expensive and underutilized software.

Creative Cloud's subscription model is taking off according to Adobe

I spoke to Scott Morris Senior Marketing  Director at Adobe regarding the newest version of Creative Suite as well as its advantages for a wide range of users.

Adobe Creative Cloud encompasses all of Adobe's desktop and tablet applications, it includes various collaborative cloud storage solutions their app publishing solutions and most importantly access to the very latest and as of yet unreleased to the general public versions of applications. For as long as users have a paid subscription, they get to try out all the new features months ahead of everyone else.

This is a compelling feature for users who require the new collaborative tools and the cutting edge technologies introduced with newer versions. But for some shops who are content with their current set-ups, meaning they aren't looking to upgrade or don't need to anytime soon, then the benefits of subscription may not be as enticing until you look at the cost. A monthly Creative Cloud subscription on a one year contract ranges from$50.00 a month for individual users ($70.00 for a team). Users who opt for the month-to-month subscription will have to cough up more ($ 75.00 a month).

For 2012, Creative Cloud is focusing on technologies like HTML 5 which is expected to supersede Adobe Flash  as a content  creation tool for various web and mobile projects. As Adobe ceases further development of Flash on some platforms (i.e. the surging mobile Android OS), companies like Google have decided not to even include Flash in their latest software releases.

Subscribers to Creative Cloud, can now get all CS 6 applications, Muse, TypeKit, Catalyst, Acrobat X and Muse plus also get  exclusive access to various betas and pre-release software solutions and technologies.  These options are good, specialluy for users who need a variety of applications and services. Now, if all you use on a regular basis is Photoshop and have your workflow set-up so that you don't really need the newest features. Then it still makes sense to just purchase that one application if you can. It is all about scalability and flexibility for the users.

Is Adobe's software subscription model something that interests you as a user or a business? Chime in, I'd love to hear about it.