License metering and launch prevention

[mcslemon]

Hi,

 

I need a little help in understanding licensing and some suggestions on products..

 

OK, example. Adobe CS3 installed in more locations than licenses available. Is giving proof via a product like Labstats, demonstrating that CS3 has never had more launches than available licenses enough for them or would they expect to see some sort of application launch prevention to enforce the license numbers?

 

We've had demos for License Dashboard and have looked at LanRev, but they probably do a little too much for what we need. We also had a demo for Sassafras and ExpressMetrix recently but again, probably too much (and too expensive).

 

If application launch prevention would be required, what software is out there?? Sassafras and ExpressMetrix are the only ones I've seen that actually prevent application launches if the license count has been reached.

 

How are people monitoring what is actually installed on their machines and ensuring their use is in line with the licenses?

 

TFAI

 

Neil.

[KeithMPhoenix]

Hi There

Needless to say I have a slight Dashboard for Schools bias when it comes to management and compliance etc as its our product, however looking at it impartially I have to say that different vendors have different rules with regard to what they would look for to confirm whether you are breaking the law or not. Using Adobe as an example - you could purchase licence which resides on a device, or you could purchase concurrent. With other products you can throw the confusions that Citrix can cause, then you have agreements which require the whole estate to be covered irrespective of usage, then you can factor in other products that were on a Per Processor basis etc etc.

Of course these days its more than just 'are you breaking the law' - licence management is about making best practice of your purchasing ability - more often than not the person who demanded that copy of Acrobat last year may have only used it once so rather than buying another when someone else says they need it you could just re-utilise it and save some money.

Hope this helps.

Keith

[mcslemon]

Keith,

 

Thanks for the answer.

 

We will shortly have some monitoring in place which will provide application usage information so we can see whether we're spending too much.

 

As far as licensing is concerned, we'll have to stick with multiple images as whilst our Adobe License is concurrent, there are only about 30 of them.

 

Neil.