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About LinkBacksIf you use one, which tool do you use to monitor (and enforce) concurrent user licensed applications?
If you use one, which tool do you use to monitor (and enforce) concurrent user licensed applications?
Although SMS has a tool like that.
IMHO license monitoring/enforcing utilities are a real pain in the backside.
9 time out of 10 they never work properly.
Consider for example an application hanging or the user not closing down properly - when and how does the license use get released?
Better to monitor rather than enforce.
Parago has a neat way of doing that (www.itvision.net) as part of it's asset management software.
Citrix
But what do you do if you already have a substanstial investment in a fat client infrastructure. Is it really worth the huge cost Citrix just for controlling liceensing.Originally Posted by CyberNerd
And what if the application to be controlled is unsuitabe for deployment in a thin client environment.
I wouldn't contemplate a Citrix migration simply to controlling licensing, infact it unearths a heap of licensing issues itself. I suggested it because it's what we use and a feature of Citrix is to control concurrent applications (as well as isolation environments for typically unsuitable apps). Of course the best method of controlling licensing is by choosing Open Source software that is not restricted in the first place.But what do you do if you already have a substanstial investment in a fat client infrastructure. Is it really worth the huge cost Citrix just for controlling liceensing.
And what if the application to be controlled is unsuitabe for deployment in a thin client environment.
Trust you to get that little nugget in. Anyway, fo a number of quite straightforward reasons it may not be possble to acquire FLOSS/freeware equivalents of certain applications.
I am just wondering what kind of software would need additonal license control over and above the number of HDD installions or control by a special server module e.g. the 10 connection limit on Windows desktop OS versions acting as file servers.
If the software runs of a Windows share, I think thre is an option to limit the number of possible concurrent connecions.
You can limit how many people connect to a share it there on the share tab.
'tis, until it comes to convincing the leadership team to purchase the necessary licenses. People complaining that they can't use software because there aren't enough licenses (when it is enforced) would be more compelling rather than being told that we are exceeding licenses (I would imagine). Although I totally agree that enforcing would be a nightmare.
I was recently asked about Adobe Photoshop CS2. I looked at concurrent licenses and was told that Adobe don't currently provide any license monitoring for their software and expect the end user to manage this, although they plan to introduce their own monitoring/enforcement software in the *future*.
The Adobe License Manager is here already. So far it only supports Acrobat 8 (and does not support concurrent licensing) Details of it are at http://www.adobe.com/elicensing/licensemanagement/alm/ and there was a fairly unsatisfactory e-seminar about it a couple of weeks ago (most of the participants saying "what about concurrent licensing" and just being ignored by the presenter!
If we enforced licences and there weren't enough to cover everyone that needed one, all we'd get from The Management is "Make it work". in which case we'd just unplug the licence enforcing software, and we're back to square one.
If you've made your superiors aware of what ought to be done in regards to licences and they blance the pros vs cons and decide not to act why must you do all you can to bend them over a barrel and force them to spend money they may not have on licences?
Sassafras K2 can both monitor concurrent usage and also enforce a stop on 11th program launch of a 10 concurrent use license entitlement (amongst mny other functions).
Definitely worth considering as just monitoring and allowing the 11th launch and dealing with retrospectively could well be putting you outside of the Adobe terms and conditions of their concurrent license model.
Or if you would like a chat please feel free to get in touch or come visit the Academia stand - K9 at the BETT show next week.
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