Then there was dongle creation, and here is
where it gets interesting. Security is of supreme
importance to us, and as such all customers
are allocated their own FSB (firm security box)
that provides the encryption capabilities the
customer will need for protecting their soft-
ware and generating their licenses. This is so
complex and secure that Wibu-Systems itself
cannot generate licenses for customers’ soft-
ware, but we needed to do so in order to test
the CmCloud solution.
Four dongles were created for each pilot cus-
tomer, each of which replicated only a part of
the function of the regular FSBs in use. These
were set with different encryption certificates to
the customer’s original FSBs. In effect, it treated
them like new customers and thus could not
compromise their original secure setup.
■ ■ One to protect the software – sent to the
customer
■ ■ Two to create licenses for the software – one
for the customer, one for Wibu-Systems
■ ■ One to create the underlying certificate
used by CmCloud – for Wibu-Systems
Of course, it feels odd to create four dongles
for a dongleless licensing system, but these
four dongles will be replaced in production
with the company’s own FSB and only used to
create licenses and protect the software. It is
not needed for end users.
First Contact
The initial contact with the pilot customer was
typically performed via an internet meeting and
always included me and Dr. Bjoern Grohmann,
Head of Corporate Technology at Wibu-Systems.
We would explain why CmCloud had been
developed and then give a demonstration of
its use. Bjoern had written a simple visual
application and was able to show how usage
could be controlled remotely and in real time
through CmCloud.
The easiest way to understand this is typically
through the use of license quantity (LQ), which,
in this environment, sets the number of times
an application can run concurrently before
CmCloud prevents startup. With LQ=1, only
one instance of a licensed application can
run at any particular time, while LQ=3 allows
three instances to be used simultaneously. Ob-
viously, other standard Wibu-Systems licens-
ing metrics can be used in a similar manner,
e.g. expiration time or license quantity. It is
easy to see how licensing models can be built
up around this structure.
Subsequent Meetings
I wrote a document explaining how to get up
and running with CmCloud and always sent
this to the pilot customer. Thus everyone was
able to use CmCloud without any problems
and as product manager this is particularly
important to me: the software should be as
easy to use as possible, since any problems
that can be ironed out at an early stage.
Initially, we tried to have meetings every
fortnight, depending on the availability and
wishes of the pilot customer. After a while,
this dropped to the occasional email to ensure
they were happy and not stuck on anything.
Feedback was encouraged at every step of
the way. Positive feedback is always welcome,
of course, but constructive criticism is even
more important, since this is what we need to
improve the software - the whole point of the
pilot program!
Variations of “I’d like some license reporting”
were also recorded. It might not sound like
it, but this is actually a huge product in itself,
since “reporting” can involve a multitude of
different nuances. For a while, we had been
aware that a reporting element would likely
be needed, so it was actually a very positive
thing to receive confirmation of this. Thus we
have been working on a reporting provision,
for example, that the customer can see how
many instances of a particular license is in use
at any time. More enhancements will follow.
We need credential management for large
customers” was also a popular requirement.
This is again a huge topic – one that warrants
its own article – but suffice it to say, this will
be provided.
The Ugly
Nothing to see here: the software proved itself
to be resilient and performant.
Feedback
The Good
The following comments are all 100% genuine
and accurate, though clearly any identifying
information has been removed since security
is paramount.
I really like this. It looks very cool.”
And it looks very good. Actually I can use
as usual...A first
performance test looks very good.”
Very happy that it integrates so effortlessly.”
…the concept is really promising … finally
a real solution for licensing in virtual environ-
ments.”
The Bad
During the pilot phase, we discovered areas
where CmCloud did not deliver exactly as the
customer needed. We diligently logged these
requirements and prioritized them, since the
whole point in writing software is to provide
what customers want.
Conclusion
I think it is fair to say that the whole pilot
program continues to be a huge success (we
are still taking new pilot customers on). I have
always found it to be of the utmost import-
ance for customers to be able to talk directly
to me about the products that I manage, so
that I can personally understand the reasons
for any pain: in that way, I can get problems
ironed out more effectively. From a personal
perspective I feel the pilot program was a
huge success, because I was able to chat
informally to pilot customers and get to know
them a little better.
CmCloud is due to be released in December.
Thanks to the invaluable feedback I received
from our pilot customers, it will be better than
it would have been and, for that, I want to
thank them all.
Proxy support needs improving” was proba-
bly the biggest comment we received. With
so many different types of networks with so
many different implementations of proxies
on so many platforms, it is a particularly hard
problem to solve; but, because we were able
to get this feedback early, we were indeed
able to ensure CmCloud worked smoothly in
proxy-restricted environments.
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