Research - verifiable analyses of software economics

FW Delta Research

Publicly verifiable analyses of software economics, portability, automation and self-controlled infrastructure.

No paid rankings. No invented benchmarks. Methodology, sources and assumptions are published alongside.

7 flagship reports · open datasets · traceable methodology · versioned corrections

published reports: 7
numbered sources: 233
open datasets: 33
data cutoff: 29 July 2026

How this series came about

These issues were worked on over several months. Data collection, modelling, source checking and review take time, which is why they are not released one by one but as a complete series. All issues listed here were released together on 29 July 2026. From here on the series continues on a rolling basis.

The month in an issue name marks its place in the series, not its release date. Both are stated separately on every report page, together with the data cutoff and the version, and the same applies to the machine-readable metadata. There are no backdated values.

A documentation score measures publicly findable documentation. It is not a compliance, security or quality statement. Missing information means "not documented", not "does not exist".

Sorted by edition month, newest issue first. The series reads from the most recent question backwards; the real first publication date is on every card.

FDR-2026-07 AI Engineering Edition July 2026

AI-Assisted Software Delivery Evidence Review 2026

FW Delta assesses the heterogeneous evidence on AI-assisted software development and translates it into review, security, and delivery controls.

First published: 29 July 2026
Data cutoff: 29 July 2026
Methodology: structured evidence review with evidence grades, a review capacity model, and a control architecture
Objects examined: 11 evidence items; 20 governance controls; 10 outcome metrics; 5 delivery gates

Key findings

OBSERVED The 2025 METR RCT reported 19 percent longer completion time in its specific setting when AI was permitted, even though participants subjectively perceived a speedup.
OBSERVED METR's 2026 update provided weak indications of a possible speedup for newer tools, but names selection and participation problems that prevent a strong interpretation.

View methodology and sources

FDR-2026-06 Software Supply Risk Edition June 2026

Source-Available License & Governance Risk Report 2026

FW Delta examines license changes, governance, patch continuity and fork capability of critical infrastructure components and delivers an operational License Bill of Materials.

First published: 29 July 2026
Data cutoff: 29 July 2026
Methodology: weighted license/governance risk index plus case studies, timeline and LBOM
Objects examined: 6 ecosystems; 7 risk dimensions; 11 timeline events; 6 fork capabilities

Key findings

OBSERVED Several infrastructure-relevant projects changed their license or added new license options in recent years; this gave rise to forks, new foundation models and altered procurement decisions.
CALCULATED In the disclosed model, CockroachDB 24.3+ reaches 72/100, MongoDB Community Server 63/100, Terraform/HashiCorp BSL 45/100, the MariaDB BSL reference model 42/100, Redis 38/100 and Elasticsearch 26/100. Higher means more modeled procurement risk, not worse software.

View methodology and sources

FDR-2026-05 Cloud Economics & Regulation Edition May 2026

EU Cloud Switching & Exit Readiness Report 2026

FW Delta connects the EU Data Act, cloud egress, provider exit programs and real shutdown cases into a reproducible exit readiness model.

First published: 29 July 2026
Data cutoff: 29 July 2026
Methodology: combined legal, documentation, pricing and recovery analysis
Objects examined: 5 provider scores; 8 egress models; 10 shutdown/sunset cases; 7 exit layers

Key findings

OBSERVED The EU Data Act has applied since 12 September 2025; its cloud switching rules address technical, contractual, commercial and organizational obstacles.
OBSERVED From 12 January 2027, switching charges including the corresponding data egress fees are to be removed entirely. This rule must not be equated with generally free ongoing internet egress.

View methodology and sources

FDR-2026-04 Automation Economics Edition April 2026

Automation Unit Economics Benchmark 2026

FW Delta shows why automation should be compared by billable units, failure paths, review work and successful outcomes rather than by number of workflows.

First published: 29 July 2026
Data cutoff: 29 July 2026
Methodology: normalized billing unit, workflow topology and cost-per-outcome scenario model
Objects examined: 4 platform meters; 12 workflow archetypes; 3 volume tiers; 180 cost-per-outcome scenarios

Key findings

CALCULATED In the baseline model, 10,000 identical lead events generate 90,000 Zapier Tasks, 100,000 Make Credits, 10,000 n8n Executions or one active Activepieces flow - before retry and failure paths.
CALCULATED Across the twelve extended archetypes, the assumed retry multiplier varies from 1.05 to 1.35; billable technical work therefore rises without additional business value.

View methodology and sources

FDR-2026-03 Software Economics Edition March 2026

Software Ownership Economics Report 2026

FW Delta discloses the conditions under which software built in-house makes economic sense – and when SaaS or a hybrid model remains superior.

First published: 29 July 2026
Data cutoff: 29 July 2026
Methodology: deterministic TCO, present value, operations and Monte Carlo scenario analysis
Objects examined: 5 ownership scenarios; 3 self-hosted profiles; 3 operating models; 50,000 simulations per scenario and horizon

Key findings

CALCULATED Across the five base scenarios, the nominal break-even lies between 21.3 and 33.3 months.
CALCULATED Two of the five scenarios show nominally positive savings after 36 months but a negative present value at eight percent. Nominal savings and economic advantage are therefore not identical.

View methodology and sources

FDR-2026-02 Portability & Lock-in Edition February 2026

Vendor Lock-in & Exit Readiness Index 2026

FW Delta assesses more than data exports: the reconstructability of data, logic, permissions, integrations, runtime and API contracts.

First published: 29 July 2026
Data cutoff: 29 July 2026
Methodology: three-part portability analysis combining lock-in risk, export completeness and API deprecation readiness
Objects examined: 10 business platforms in the lock-in module; 10 platforms in the export module; 9 API ecosystems; 6 vendors in the shared exit composite

Key findings

CALCULATED The lock-in risk score of the ten-platform sample ranges from 17 to 63 points; the median is 55.
CALCULATED The export completeness module reaches a mean of 72.3 and a median of 73.8 points.

View methodology and sources

FDR-2026-01 Software Economics Edition January 2026

SaaS Commercial Transparency Index 2026

FW Delta examines how well SaaS buyers can publicly model pricing logic, scaling, renewal and Exit before signing a contract.

First published: 29 July 2026
Data cutoff: 29 July 2026
Methodology: three-part public document analysis with a pricing, contract and scaling module
Objects examined: 20 products in the pricing index; 10 vendors in the renewal/Exit module; 10 public Seat plans; 8 vendors in the joint composite

Key findings

CALCULATED The median of the pricing transparency index is 80 out of 100 points; 13 of 20 products reach at least 80 points.
CALCULATED In the ten-vendor sample, the renewal/Exit module reaches a mean of 79.0 and a median of 80.0 points.

View methodology and sources