In order to properly manage internal software license usage within a global company, license management, administration and support must be carefully considered. A centralized licensing infrastructure is ideal, allowing for:
Centralized distribution and management of licenses
Centralized license support for end users
Reduction in overall global administration / supplier management support
Supplier leverage due to bulk purchasing and single points of contact
Gathering of metrics on license usage for assessment of licensing needs
In order to support a centralized infrastructure, mitigation of certain concerns is required:
Network failure between the end users and the license server(s)
Hardware failure on a license server containing a large number of essential licenses
Latency between clients and the license server(s), particularly over a large geography
Balancing sufficient license availability to meet global needs with the cost of additional license purchases
Centroid has worked with and developed many tools to assist with license server infrastructure design and implementation, as well as long-term license server administration and end user support:
Strategic placement of multiple license servers on the WAN to minimize the risk and impact of hardware and/or network failure, as well as to reduce the impact of network latency for applications which are sensitive to license server response time
Reports on end user location to analyze proper license distribution across multiple license servers around the globe
Reports on end user volume and license denials to analyze future licensing needs
Reports on end user project affiliation as part of a charge-back mechanism for internal financing of license purchases
Automated alarms to notify administrators immediately in the case of hardware, network, or license server process failure
Automated messages to end users to gently remind them of extended license usage for high priority applications
Server administration tools, such as automated distribution of daemon binaries, to simplify ongoing license administration requirements
End user configuration scripts to simplify client setup support
License file validation and revision control tools to help with meeting auditing standards and requirements
Future licensing blog entries will discuss other aspects of a complete licensing infrastructure, including other custom tools for optimizing consumption and production of software licenses.
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