Big Picture vs Sentinel (Thales)
Thales positions Sentinel as supporting cloud, hybrid, and on-prem licensing choices. Their cloud licensing docs describe licenses hosted on a server machine in the cloud or on the organization’s network.
What Sentinel is optimized for
Section titled “What Sentinel is optimized for”- High-assurance licensing and IP protection domains
- Organizations requiring strong security posture for licensing
- Broad licensing options across deployment models
Where Sentinel is strong
Section titled “Where Sentinel is strong”- Strong brand in high-assurance licensing and IP protection domains
- Broad licensing options (cloud, hybrid, on-prem)
- Enterprise-grade security and compliance features
Where Big Picture differs
Section titled “Where Big Picture differs”- Big Picture’s scope is also release management + evergreen update control
- Big Picture’s primary value is “simple, modern, developer-first control plane,” not a full IP-protection suite
- Big Picture combines release governance + update policy + licensing in one coherent control plane
- Big Picture provides a vendor control plane that integrates cleanly with CI/CD and existing installer/artifact systems
- Big Picture offers explicit tenant policy + action decisions (AUTO_INSTALL, NOTIFY, MANAGED_BY_IT)
- Big Picture is designed around regulated downstream customers who require self-hosted artifact mirrors with signed metadata
Complementary integrations
Section titled “Complementary integrations”- Big Picture can export packages/metadata for Intune/SCCM workflows (when vendor customers choose MANAGED_BY_IT)
- Big Picture can offer integrations or migrations for Sentinel customers later
Suggested positioning
Section titled “Suggested positioning”“Sentinel provides comprehensive IP protection and high-assurance licensing. Big Picture provides a modern lease-based licensing substrate that supports per-user/per-machine/floating and local license servers for regulated customers—integrated with release governance and update policy.”