Nostradamus predicted a number of interesting trends for 2016, such as a single world language that many speculate will emerge from the Internet. It is surprising, then, that he did not foresee the accelerated pace of technological innovation and adoption we are currently witnessing. Had technology forecasting existed in the sixteenth century, he might have predicted the disruptive impact this would have on business today.

Industry experts across all verticals agree that this year’s market drivers will include the usual suspects: mobility, cloud, virtualization, globalization, and application proliferation. Moreover, traditional hardware companies will continue to transform into software vendors in an effort to remain competitive in an increasingly software-centric world. By changing how they go to market, businesses will require an operationally efficient approach to their entire value chain. Software monetization is fast becoming the solution of choice for licensing and entitlement management, giving rise to the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) subscription model.

In 2011, Netscape founder and serial entrepreneur Marc Andreessen famously stated in the Wall Street Journal that “Software is eating the world”. As prescient an observation as it was, I bet he never imagined that software would take over in such a short space of time and to such an extent. Indeed, IDC’s number one software and licensing prediction for 2016 is that software subscription revenue will continue its rapid growth trajectory to reach a whopping $130 billion by year’s end – 21 percent higher than the previous year. Given that virtually all applications being developed today support cloud capabilities, that figure looks only set to increase in the coming years.

From a business strategy point of view, it makes sense to know exactly which factors are driving the growth of this already sizeable market. Industry trends and successes are good indicators that can help you stay on top of user demand and reach your software’s full revenue potential.

Our January webcast, Subscriptions Are Eating Software, has everything you need to know about leveraging one of the most lucrative trends to hit global markets. Featuring expert insights from Gemalto’s Shlomo Weiss, Constellation Research’s Ray Wang, Viavi’s Will Brouwer, and Grey Heron’s Chris Kocher, the webcast will show you how, with the right tools, any licensing challenge can be turned into a revenue opportunity.