By Vincent Brasseur
The device license metric has been around for decades. It relies on the simple consumption model where each and every installation of a software product consumes one license. If this model seems very simple on the surface, it has evolved over the years with the addition of many rules generating headaches for both enterprises and publishers. Enterprises have been struggling to stay in license compliance and at the same time publishers have been conducting more software audits to make sure they always get their fair share of revenue based on the use of their products. New technologies and delivery models over the past few years have challenged this license metric to the point where many software vendors are moving to other metrics such as user, capacity or usage based.
It has never been easy for large organizations dealing with tens of thousands of devices (desktops, laptops, servers, etc.) and users, to inventory and keep track of every installation. The dynamic created by:
- computer refreshes
- reimaging of installed software
- losses or re-assignments of computers
- uncontrolled user purchases and rogue installations
- new operating systems, and
- new software product versions and editions
has always created challenges to efficiently managing software licenses and staying in license compliance. Additionally downgrade rights across versions and sometimes editions need to be managed as these large organizations are typically slow to move to new software product releases.
The rise of the mobile devices associated with new technologies such as application or desktop virtualization has driven publishers to create new software product use rights for device-based licenses. For example:
- The right of second use—enables users to install or use the application on a secondary device
- Roaming use right—allows users to remotely access the software product
These product use rights have been created to leverage new technologies and match end user behaviors. Nowadays, employees want to be able to get to their data and applications from anywhere: their home, intelligent mobile device, phone or the Internet coffee shop around the corner. These product use rights do not come for free. They are often delivered with specific license or maintenance programs that try to cover every usage scenario and offer a way to estimate the license consumption.
Finally, a new delivery model, the cloud, where the device metric is impractical, adds a new layer of complexity. Staying in license compliance is now more challenging than ever. Large organizations are using different types of license and maintenance programs to fulfill each of their end user requirements. The actual use of software products must be understood to optimize the use and acquisition of licenses.
Software vendors are taking the opportunity provided by the adoption of cloud-based application delivery to create new license metrics based on users or actual usage. This move to the cloud also comes with a switch from perpetual to subscription licenses. Both publishers and their customers get many benefits from these changes. Publishers get a steady stream of revenue with subscription based licensing. And, license control is easier when driven from the cloud rather than reported by customers. On the other side, enterprises have better control over their software expenses and get some assurance of staying in license compliance.
These changes are just emerging. Software license management and optimization are still complex exercises today. Over time, the device licenses will likely be replaced, simplifying the management of licenses for a large set of software products. Software license optimization will still be required to control software costs, but it will be based on users and usage rather than devices and product use rights.
To learn more about Software License Optimization, please read our white papers:
What Does it Take to Achieve Software License Optimization?
Meet the BYOD, 'Computing Anywhere' Challenge—License Management for Desktop Virtualization