Cloud Licensing Overview

Cloud licensing enables end users to access local software with a license hosted in the cloud. You can set up a license server machine and grant access to cloud licenses over the Internet for your customers.

Cloud licensing uses identity-based access to give you granular control over who can access a network seat from an SL license.

Cloud licensing provides an alternative model for distributing licenses for protected applications to customers. Rather than providing SL protection keys to the customer, you host the SL licenses on your own license server and provides client identities for each end user. Each client identity is represented by a unique identity string that the end user installs on their machine.

The client identity entitles the user to execute an instance of the protected application, detach a network seat that can be used offline, or both. The user can install the identity string on multiple machines (if permitted by the vendor), but can only execute a single instance or detach a single network seat at any point in time.

Among the benefits of using client identities are the following:

>Software can easily be used on different machines using a single identity.

> Client identities are not affected by operating system upgrades or hardware upgrades.

>You can easily disable a client identity if necessary.

Client identities can be assigned an expiration date. This provides the following additional benefits:

>You can easily manage trial by providing users with expiring identities that consume the same license. This eliminates the need to generate a new key and a new license for each trial.

>You can easily provide customers with an emergency cloud license in case they face issues with their local HL or SL key.

>The IT administrator can manage which users can access a concurrency license and for how long.

Client identities are managed using Sentinel LDK Cloud Portal. described below.

For more information on the benefits of cloud licensing, see Understanding Cloud Licensing.

NOTE   Cloud licensing is only available if you have the Cloud Licensing module in your Sentinel LDK Master license at the time that you generate the SL licenses.

Sentinel LDK Cloud Licensing Portal

You can manage cloud licensing and client identities using Sentinel LDK Cloud Portal.

Sentinel LDK Cloud Portal is a web-based application for software vendors who want to host cloud licenses (CL keys) on their own servers. Sentinel LDK Cloud Portal simplifies setting up and distributing client identities to licensed users located anywhere, granting them access to the protected applications running on their own machines.

Each client identity can be granted a license to all products in specific CL keys, or the license can be limited to specific products in the CL key.

Sentinel LDK Cloud Portal enables you to optionally offload the responsibility of managing client identities to designated users in each customer’s organization. The designated users can log in to Sentinel LDK Cloud Portal to easily generate and deliver client identities, set and modify licensed user permissions, and revoke or restore access. Alternatively, you can continue to manage client identities yourself on behalf of customer organizations or for direct individual customers.

You also have the option of allowing customers to set up a second level of license servers to provide greater control over the distribution of network seats within an organization and to minimize the overhead of license administration. For more information, see Overview for Multi-Level License Servers.