Adobe Creative Cloud

Adobe Creative Cloud is a service from Adobe Systems that gives users access to the company's suites of software for graphic design, video editing, web development applications, and cloud services. Creative Cloud is hosted on Amazon Web Services.

It works on a software as a service model, where the consumers do not purchase a license for a copy of the software, but are merely renting it for the duration of the subscription. When the subscription ends and is not renewed, the user loses access to the applications as well as some work saved in proprietary formats that cannot be used with competing applications. Currently users may get a discount for the Creative Cloud service for a limited time, after which the subscription cost increases.

Adobe first announced the Creative Cloud in October 2011. Initially, they maintained the perpetual license model and released another version of Adobe Creative Suite (CS) the following year. On May 6, 2013, Adobe announced that they would not release new versions of the Creative Suite and that future versions of its software would only be available through the Creative Cloud. The first new versions made only for the Creative Cloud were released on June 17, 2013.

On October 3, 2013, Adobe announced that hackers copied from their systems encrypted data of 2.9 million customers, including passwords, names and credit card numbers. Hackers also stole source code of Adobe's software, consequently paving the way for further attacks. On October 20, 2013 the number of compromised user-names/passwords was increased to 38 million, but could go as high as 150 million.

Applications
The Adobe Creative Cloud retains the features Adobe Creative Suite and introduces new features; foremost is the instant availability of upgrades, saving to the cloud, and easier sharing. An Internet connection is required for using these features.

Reception
The change from perpetual licenses to a subscription model was met with significant criticism.