an anchor of trust, it should be located at and
operated by a trustworthy partner. This can be
either you as the developer or Wibu-Systems as
your software protection and licensing partner of
choice.
As a rule, there is nothing in the technology to
prevent you from shipping a CodeMeter Cloud
Lite server to one of your larger clients. The
question to consider here is the relationship
of trust that exists between you and your key
accounts. The server could also be operated in
a private cloud.
and availability (which are discussed in more
detail in the “TMR Server” article in this issue).
The better option for cloud-based applications
is CodeMeter Cloud Lite, a license server that
you operate in the cloud for your users. It
represents the anchor of trust for the licenses
and does so by binding each license to a
known user.
Delivered as Usual
The best thing about CodeMeter Cloud Lite is
that it uses the same distribution processes
for licenses as are used with CmDongles and
CmActLicenses: You create a request with
CodeMeter License Central, which returns
a ticket as the retrieval code for the license.
As the next optional step, the licenses that
go with the ticket are then activated on the
actual target system.
What Is Light about CodeMeter
Cloud Lite?
CodeMeter Cloud Lite is a simple solution for
licensing cloud applications like predictive
maintenance. It includes a streamline SOAP
and REST-API for a particularly easy integra-
tion of license queries in languages like PHP,
Java, JavaScript, C#, or other .NET languages.
Compared to CodeMeter Runtime, there is
no C-interface available as a library, even
though a SOAP or REST-API can also be used
regularly from C/C++. Relevant examples can
be provided on request.
CodeMeter Cloud Lite deliberately comes
without the normal key storage and cryp-
tographic features which are indispensable
when software is used on premise and in un-
trustworthy environments. In the case of cloud
projects run by yourself, these are unnecessary.
This activation can take different forms, e.g. with
the transfer into a CmDongle, a CmActLicense,
or a CmCloudLiteContainer. You, the developer,
have the power to decide where licenses can
be moved, enabling you to e.g. sell the pre-
dictive maintenance engine as an on-premise
solution. This might not be necessary in actual
business, but it is good to know that you have
the ability to do so. Available APIs
Binding to a User You can also deactivate licenses to transfer
them back from CodeMeter Cloud Lite to
CodeMeter License Central and remove the
binding. The deactivated and reactivated
license can be moved to another user context.
By contrast to a CmDongle or an CmActLicense,
which have their licenses bound to a device or
other hardware, in the case of CodeMeter Cloud
Lite the licenses are bound to users. This opens
up many other opportunities for simplifying the
licensing process for users: Licenses can, for
instance, be allocated to the user directly after
their creation in CodeMeter License Central.
The specific process you employ will depend on
your ERP system and established procedures.
For instance, you should consider whether you
already know the users when an order is created
in SAP. If you do, there is nothing to prevent an
automated allocation of the license to them.
CodeMeter Cloud Lite comes with APIs for
license queries and management APIs for
activating and deactivating licenses, which
enable you to transfer licenses from CodeMe-
ter License Central to CodeMeter Cloud Lite
either automatically or with the simple click of
a button on the part of the user. The license is
bound to the user as part of that transaction.
In order to operate a CodeMeter Cloud Lite
server, either yourself or at one of your key
accounts, you need an unlimited license from
Wibu-Systems, which is an annual licensing
model that allows you to create an unlimited
number of CodeMeter containers during the
term of your contract, including licenses for
CmDongles, CmActLicenses, or CmCloudLite-
Containers.
Looking Ahead
In early 2019, Wibu-Systems plans to expand
the solution with CodeMeter Cloud, bringing
the full feature set, including encryption
capabilities, to allow servers in the cloud to be
used for the secure protection of on-premise
solutions. If such on-premise setups are meant
to operate offline as well, you can use a combi-
nation with CmActLicenses that are distributed
via CodeMeter License Central.
Beyond predictive maintenance, CodeMeter
Cloud Lite is an ideal choice for many other
possible use cases. All applications you are
running in the cloud – irrespective of the
language they were developed in – can be
licensed with CodeMeter Cloud Lite.
You can set the management API to start its
work automatically when licenses are created
in CodeMeter License Central in order to make
sure that licenses are immediately bound to
their user as soon as they are made.
Where Did the Server Go?
The CodeMeter Cloud Lite server’s home is –
unsurprisingly – in the cloud. As it works as
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