Monarch Perpetual Licenses Ending March / April 2024

Ron Premo

Hello to the Monarch Community,

Curious if anyone else has been contacted by their support / sales rep recently about the termination of all perpetual licenses sometime next year?  I've been told that the activation server is being shut down and all non-subscription based licenses will be inoperable.  From my rep:

The server hosting the legacy license is scheduled for decommissioning, making it incapable of validating the license key. While you'll retain access to your Monarch models and workspace, Monarch itself will no longer function around April or March 2024.

If this is the case, I'm wondering how many people are still using non-subscription / legacy versions of Monarch that they paid outright for a perpetual licenses (i.e.:  that authorizes an individual to use a program indefinitely).  Our company uses both perpetual & subscription, however the new subscription pricing  / licensing model for Altair Units is becoming cost prohibitive for our company.  As a small business who relies on using Monarch for a few small but important tasks each day, I find it disheartening how they will be treating a company like us that has used the product and supported them for over 25 years.

Thoughts or comments?

Thanks,

Ron

 

 

 

 

Christian Buckner

Hi Ron,

Thank you for reaching out on this topic, it's important. I’ve attached the announcement from March of this year.

To further explain what’s happening, Datawatch was a small software company who outsourced their licensing to a third party named Nalpeiron. Nalpeiron is a common provider of licensing to desktop software vendors. Altair acquired Datawatch in 2018 and we’re a larger software company with our own license servers in-house. Once the development was completed to let the legacy Datawatch software solutions, including Monarch, run off Altair’s license servers, we informed Nalpeiron we would not be renewing their service. So it’s not so much that any licenses will be terminated, but a business decision not to carry two license systems with duplicate costs. That said, it is true that once the Nalpeiron license servers go offline, licenses using that legacy activation method will not be able to activate or perform heartbeat checks.

Any perpetual licenses with an annual maintenance & support contract are eligible for upgrade. If you have perpetual licenses without a support agreement, I’m sure our Sales team will be willing to work with you on a new agreement that is commensurate with the value provided and scale of your business.

Thanks,

Christian

Shelton Vance_22282

I used perpetual licenses at a prior employer - more than twelve years ago.  At this employer, I have been on a subscription license plan.

I would not be able to do most of my expected duties without a full-time programmer or Monarch, so we pay the fee. 

I first used Monarch in 1991.  Fell in love with its power and flexibility.  Have only worked for 3 employers since that time and have used Monarch at all 3 employers.

I understand the commercial perspective of "there has to be a limit to perpetual licenses", but it is frustrating.

SV

Christian Buckner

Hi Ron,

Thank you for reaching out on this topic, it's important. I’ve attached the announcement from March of this year.

To further explain what’s happening, Datawatch was a small software company who outsourced their licensing to a third party named Nalpeiron. Nalpeiron is a common provider of licensing to desktop software vendors. Altair acquired Datawatch in 2018 and we’re a larger software company with our own license servers in-house. Once the development was completed to let the legacy Datawatch software solutions, including Monarch, run off Altair’s license servers, we informed Nalpeiron we would not be renewing their service. So it’s not so much that any licenses will be terminated, but a business decision not to carry two license systems with duplicate costs. That said, it is true that once the Nalpeiron license servers go offline, licenses using that legacy activation method will not be able to activate or perform heartbeat checks.

Any perpetual licenses with an annual maintenance & support contract are eligible for upgrade. If you have perpetual licenses without a support agreement, I’m sure our Sales team will be willing to work with you on a new agreement that is commensurate with the value provided and scale of your business.

Thanks,

Christian

James Sarasien

Ron,

Did you figure out a solution? Our perpetual licenses of Monarch 16 stopped working today. Did Altair convert your perpetual licenses over to the new server?

Perpetual licenses should not stop working and if they do Altair should provide some kind of work around to allow you to continue to operate. 

Ron Premo

Hi James,

Our perpetual license of Monarch v15 stopped today as well.  As stated in the announcement and previous response from Christian, we had to upgrade to the subscription based model of Altair "Units".  Unfortunately, the old licenses were not converted.  I had reached out to the sales team based on Christian's recommendation:

"Any perpetual licenses with an annual maintenance & support contract are eligible for upgrade. If you have perpetual licenses without a support agreement, I’m sure our Sales team will be willing to work with you on a new agreement that is commensurate with the value provided and scale of your business."

Good luck!

-Ron

James Sarasien

I am questioning the legality of intentionally making perpetual software licenses inoperable.

jdb910

This goes back to very old versions.  I have a license to v10.5 and it no longer works as of today.  I am retired, but still used it to extract data for my hobbies.  I don't like it and certainly can't afford a new license.  It is like losing and old friend - used it since the '90's.