I’m a big Chevy Chase fan – I thought he was awesome on Saturday Night Live and I loved his movies. One of my favorite Chevy Chase movies is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. I was recently reminded of a scene in the movie while discussing software escrow. Bear with me here…
In the movie, the Griswold family’s Christmas gathering includes the loveable Aunt Bethany who is getting a little forgetful. In this scene, Aunt Bethany brings in her presents to put under the tree. One box is meowing…and the other is leaking a green fluid. Turned out that she had wrapped her cat as well as the Jell-O mold she made for the party.
That scene reminds me of escrow agreements. And before you think maybe I’m a little like Aunt Bethany myself, let me explain:
First of all – for the uninitiated – software escrow is a way for developers and users to protect what matters to them. Developers want to protect the intellectual property (IP) they’ve developed, and users want to know that software they’ve licensed will always be there when they need it.
Here’s a scenario in how software escrow works. Let’s say that I’m the owner and sole developer for John’s Awesome Software Company. You work for Acme Mega Industries and think that my latest product could help you save money, but you are hesitant about using the software from a small company.
What if John’s Awesome Software Company goes out of business? You tell me you’ll buy my software but you want my source code in case something happens. (The source code is the text written in computer programming language that is then translated, executed and compiled into an application – essentially the crown jewels for any software developer.) Not being a complete idiot, I don’t think giving away my precious intellectual property is such a good idea. We agree that I’ll let Iron Mountain keep a copy of my source code and in the event that something happens to me then, and only then, will they give it to you.
All is well, problem solved. I get the protection for my IP that I need, but you get protection for your critical business processes that rely on my software. Or so we think…
Because when I hand over my source code to Iron Mountain for safekeeping, do we really know what I’m delivering? What’s in the box? I’m not going to cheat you, of course, but what if I forgot something? Some critical library, some extra module that is needed? Like Aunt Bethany’s boxes, we don’t know if it’s a present…or a cat…or a Jell-O mold.
And that’s where verification comes in. As Ronald Regan once said in discussing U.S. relations with the Soviet Union, “trust but verify.” How can we be sure that what I put in the box is correct? Fortunately Iron Mountain offers a full line of verification services and can take the source code, compile it, run it, and compare it against the currently shipping executable so you can be sure that it’s complete.
Because when your critical business processes are at stake, it’s no time to find out what you thought was source code is actually a green Jell-O mold.
Recommended reading to learn more: Software Escrow for Dummies®
