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Free Industry Report · IDC FutureScape 2026

IDC's 2026 Cloud Predictions and What They Mean for Your Monetization Strategy

Get the free 17-page report on where cloud, AI, and software monetization are headed in 2026 — and what it takes to act on it. Built for SaaS and software vendors navigating the shift from seats to usage, from static products to orchestrated services, and from cost-center compliance to premium-priced trust.

IDC's Top 2026 Cloud Predictions
Hybrid & Multi-Cloud Monetization Models
Agentic AI & the End of Seat-Based Pricing
Trust & Governance as Pricing Levers
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Download the Cloud Predictions PDF
  • 17 pages of IDC research and analysis
  • What's driving the shift to usage-based monetization
  • The control-plane architecture vendors need next
17 Pages
Packed with insights
IDC
FutureScape 2026
Free
Instant PDF download
Inside the report

What You'll Learn

IDC's Top Predictions for 2026

The cloud trends IDC's analysts say will matter most for AI-first, agentic software over the next few years.

From Access to Consumption

Why the vendors who win next are pricing on what customers use — not just what they're granted access to.

Agentic AI Turns Actions Into Billable Events

What happens to seat-based pricing when AI agents work around the clock, without a seat in sight.

Hybrid Cloud Needs a Hybrid Business Model

IDC's take on why fragmented hybrid and multi-cloud environments demand one commercial system of record.

Trust and Governance Become Monetizable

How data governance, compliance, and resilience move from a cost center to a premium pricing lever.

The Control Plane Vendors Will Need

The architecture IDC's predictions point to — and what it takes to actually act on them.

Wondering how to monetize AI features and AI agents in your products?

Learn how hybrid and usage-based monetization becomes key to product pricing and packaging.

Who should read this

Built for SaaS and Software Vendors

Learn how the Nalpeiron Growth Platform can meet the emerging demands uncovered by IDC's findings

RevOps & Pricing Leaders

Rethink packaging and pricing for an AI-first, usage-driven market before competitors do.

Product & Engineering Leaders

Understand what IDC says is coming, and what it means for how you architect entitlements and usage tracking.

SaaS & Software Executives

See where cloud monetization is headed in 2026 and beyond, and what it takes to get ahead of it.

From prediction to execution

The report closes with the kind of solution the IDC's predictions point to

Here's how the Nalpeiron Growth Platform maps to it — the commercial and entitlement control plane for vendors adapting to hybrid, usage-driven, AI-enabled monetization.

Entitlements & Rights

Who can access what, under which terms — enforced everywhere your product runs.

Usage & Lifecycle Intelligence

Every action, token, and agent run tracked and attributed, at millisecond scale.

Monetization Engine

Rate cards, plans, and pricing changes as configuration — not engineering sprints.

Solid Licensing Solution That's Improving Quickly

Overall, Zentitle is a capable and evolving licensing system with a supportive team behind it. The product works well once integrated, and improvements are delivered promptly.

Pros

Zentitle provides a strong and modern licensing platform with powerful API capabilities and good flexibility. The documentation is improving, and the team is responsive, helpful, and open to feedback. The SDK is actively maintained, and new releases address issues quickly.

Pete
Developer, Computer & Network Security
Nalpeiron Licensing

Positive and would recommend to anyone needing license service for software.

Pros

Innovative cloud based solution enables multiple revenue models.

Farshad
COO, Computer Software
Powerful and intuitive licensing tool with a promising roadmap

The integration process is very smooth, particularly thanks to the well-designed C++ API. Additionally, the development team is highly responsive.

Pros

The integration process is very smooth, particularly thanks to the well-designed C++ API. Additionally, the development team is highly responsive. Any bugs and new feature requests are addressed quickly, which gives me confidence that the product is moving in the right direction.

Austin
Program Manager, Industrial Automation
The best thing a CTO could outsource

Extremely positive on the technical side, and they have been supportive on the business side. They are very straightforward and are easy to reach for support.

Pros

Rock solid, secure, and very quick to setup and integrate into products. It has worked perfectly since we launched our products three years ago. In three years of business with Nalpeiron, we have had a total of 3 support tickets, which were mostly just questions.

Anthony
CTO, Computer Software
Positive Experience with Zentitle

I am quite happy with Zentitle. It has served its purpose when it comes to license management for our product. The customer service has always been great.

Pros

Uptime. Zentitle has only gone down once during the entire time our team has used it in our product. The API has also been great. It is fairly easy to integrate and use within our product.

Daniel
Software Engineering Manager, Computer Software
Zentitle Satisfaction

I find this product very easy to use. The ability to turn on and turn off customer access or reissue a license is priceless.

Pros

I find this product very easy to use. The ability to turn on and turn off customer access or reissue a license is priceless. If you need to add a product to the license it is simply a mouse-click. If there are more than one user, you simply add the number of users to a single license.

Christopher
Manager, Computer Software
Ease of use and Zentitle's support team really make Zentitle stand out

Using Zentitle in a very secure network and industry environment initially caused concern for adaptability, but the longer I worked with the team the easier it became.

Pros

Zentitle's ease of use in operating their platform both from a developer standpoint as well as a license admin standpoint, makes for a great experience. The biggest pro has to be its engineering and support team. Quick turnaround times and constant support reduced any sort of friction in the development cycle.

Stephen
Product Manager, Computer Hardware
Ease of use

Overall I'm glad to use Zentitle. Easy to work with. Easy to administrate. Easy to delete and put license expired.

Pros

Easy to use. Easy to handle licenses. Simple to create a company and assign license code. How simple it is to use.

Anonymous
Reviewer, Computer Software
Zentitle2 Review

Overall a very easy product to use and learn. Licensing is a pretty complex topic for most companies, and Zentitle simplifies it significantly.

Pros

Responsive web design for dashboard and end user portal. Quick and easy to setup relatively complex licensing schemas.

Reid
Software Engineer, Computer Software
A powerful, flexible licensing solution

A powerful, flexible licensing solution with easy customization for controlling feature entitlement.

Pros

Very flexible license structure. Easy to add customized fields to be accessed in software for controlling feature entitlement for a specific customer.

Gordon
Software Engineer, Industrial Automation
Super solid support team, could maybe improve documentation

The customer support team is great. All their responses feel carefully considered and confident, and I've never had to wait too long for a response.

Pros

The customer support team is great. All their responses feel carefully considered and confident. Always happy to help, even in the implementation stage. The individualized care is what makes Zentitle stand out from other services.

Nils
Head Developer, Computer Software
A software entitlement system that simply works

I'm happy to recommend Zentitle from Nalpeiron. It simply works. Initial setup many years ago took some time, but the C# examples were most useful.

Pros

The Zentitle software licensing system works well for us. We have developed our whole CRM workflow around it and our clients love the simplicity of the entitlement system. This system is robust and Nalpeiron's support and status updates are also excellent.

Alex
Head of Technology, Utilities
A solid platform for license management

Really happy with Zentitle. It's easy to use, clear, and does exactly what it promises. Everything feels well thought out.

Pros

Zentitle makes software license management a lot easier and more manageable. The interface is intuitive, making it easy to get started while still offering powerful functionality for more advanced needs.

Emile
Product Owner, Mechanical / Industrial Engineering
Zentitle is very good for licensing products

I have used Zentitle for about 10 years and it is definitely the best licensing I have worked with in my support career. I have worked with around 10 different licensing platforms.

Pros

Easy to implement, use and extremely rare to have downtime for our customers. Reporting on license usage is easy to provide to our customers.

Mr Kelly
Sales Support Sr. Associate, Computer & Network Security
Implementing Nalpeiron's licensing solution for efficient software management

Zentitle has been a reliable licensing solution for our company. Its user-friendly interface and robust reporting capabilities have significantly streamlined our license management processes.

Pros

Nalpeiron offers a comprehensive suite of licensing options, accommodating diverse customer needs with one-time, subscription, and trial models.

Parul
Sr SQA Engineer, Information Technology & Services
Zentitle Review

It does what we need. The support has been good when an issue arises.

Pros

It gets us the functionality we need and the support has been good when an issue arises.

Eric
Head of Product, Machinery
Comprehensive license management that just works

Easy to set up and integrate into our products, straightforward experience for activation by customers, and reliable license management infrastructure.

Pros

Zentitle is easy to integrate into our products and has been completely reliable, which is crucial for us to ensure a good customer experience.

Mike
Director, Industrial Automation
Great product for business

I would recommend, if you look for a license solution just try them and you will like their product.

Pros

Zentitle does a great job in getting a license solution to customers. The product is easy to integrate. Zentitle provides a service that you do not need to worry about.

Hao
Technician Manufacturing, Medical Devices
Easy and Reliable

My go to app for working with customers and ensuring they are working efficiently with our software.

Pros

Use daily for troubleshooting customers. Can easily see how long they've been licensed, total users, renewal date and account they registered with. Very seamless.

Greg
Sales, Computer Software
Software Licensing

Ease of use and ability to control licenses as needed with an online portal.

Pros

Ease of use and ability to control licenses as needed. Online portal and ability to issue licenses without a separate application.

Daniel
COO, Defense & Space
Great product for startups and also for growing businesses

Overall has been a good experience. I would recommend that if you are looking for a license solution, to try them.

Pros

Zentitle overall does a great job in getting a license solution to customers. The tool has plenty of features to match business requirements. The product was quite easy to integrate, which lowers cost and time to get your product to market.

Chris
CEO & CTO, Computer Software
Switched and adopting to a new licensing system

Fantastic flexibility is key in how we license our software and features in order to provide a smooth experience for our end users.

Pros

Fantastic flexibility is key in how we license our software and features in order to provide a smooth experience for our end users. Zentitle delivered on this and more. Enough tools to provide us with what we need to integrate with our existing business systems.

Mark
Business Director, Computer Software
Easy Integration

It easily integrated with our software and allowed us to be flexible with our activations.

Pros

It easily integrated with our software and allowed us to be flexible with our activations.

Benjamin
VP of Operations, Computer Software
Easy to implement an intelligent, out-of-the-box licensing solution

Variety of licensing models and options available. Easy to implement with sample code and support.

Pros

Variety of licensing models and options available. Easy to implement with sample code and support. Comprehensive APIs and other solutions for communication between app and Zentitle. No significant downtime or end user issues encountered so far.

James
Product Lead, Industrial Automation
All in one solution in an easy to use user interface

Wide variety of licensing methods serving both conventional distribution channels and modern applications.

Pros

Wide variety of licensing methods. Serve both conventional distribution channels and modern applications, a platform that gives us certainty that our future needs are covered. Analytics part gives that extra info we used to lack.

Tuomas
Head of Software Development, Technology
Excellent choice for managing licenses and the challenges that come with doing that

Very professional and hope to be able to find other opportunities in the future as well.

Pros

We had a large list of priorities and Zentitle checked all of the boxes. The team was extremely responsive and easy to work with as well.

Tom
Release Manager, Computer Software
Flexible Licensing, Seamless ERP Integration, and No More Manual Workflows

Nalpeiron has ultimately provided us with a dependable, scalable, and sustainable operational foundation to protect our software while supporting our long-term business growth.

Pros

The outstanding flexibility it provides to seamlessly transition from traditional perpetual licensing to annual subscription models within a unified framework. It effortlessly supports a wide variety of licensing schemes all managed from a single, centralized system. The robust, API-driven integration capabilities allowed us to connect licensing operations directly into our ERP system to streamline our fulfillment workflows. It offers a highly stable and reliable platform that gives us complete confidence when it comes to protecting our valuable intellectual property.

Alex G.
Product Manager, Research

Read success stories from companies who have switched to Nalpeiron

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17 pages of IDC analyst research on the 2026 shift to AI-first, usage-driven cloud monetization — plus what it means for your product and pricing.

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IDC 2026 Cloud Predictions

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