‘Revolution’ in software licensing for virtualised environments

“While virtualisation helps enterprises to reduce costs, it also poses a challenge for software providers who have traditionally relied on the ability to bind licenses to physical machines in order to control access to their software,” said Shlomo Weiss, general manager, software monetisation, SafeNet. “Software providers are in need of new tools to track, control, and manage the use of their applications when deployed in virtual environments.”

A common issue when deploying software in virtual environments is that it is very possible to maliciously or unintentionally duplicate license rights when spinning up new instances, or to move a license from one instance to another freely. By utilising SafeNet’s Sentinel Cloud, software providers can rest assured that users cannot virtualise the licensing system and over use beyond what was purchased. Sentinel Cloud licenses a user, not a physical machine, which promises legitimate use of licenses in virtual environments. ISVs have full control on how many licenses are running, and have complete visibility into the usage of their software, which can be used for billing purposes or business intelligence. In addition, Sentinel Cloud enables ISVs to automate the process of provisioning, applying updates, and renewing licenses.

Sentinel Cloud enhances the end-user experience by allowing access to licensed applications via any device – including smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers – without needing to generate new licenses for usage on multiple machines. This usage-based license model ensures end users only pay for actual usage of features that are relevant to them, while also providing user insight to the ISV, helping them improve their future offerings.

The benefits of Sentinel Cloud’s cloud-based licensing for virtualised environments include:
· Software vendors have much greater assurance that use of their software is legitimate.
· User-centric licensing eliminates the dependency on specific end-user devices or virtual setups.
· ISVs have full control over how many licenses are running, allowing usage on parallel instances of VMs and enabling “pay-as-you-grow” usage-based licensing.
· Remote control functionality simplifies license provisioning, updates, and renewals/cancellations, which can be done quickly on the fly.
· Advanced usage data collection provides ISVs with valuable insight into how customers are using their software in order to develop software that better meets users’ needs.