Frost & Sullivan
Frost Sullivan
Frost & & Sullivan
There are two primary choices of architecture for license management—using a hardware
lock (colloquially referred to as a “dongle”) or adopting software activation. Dongles are
“Wibu manufactures
widely deployed today by publishers seeking to achieve stringent security levels. The dongle
our dongles in a
enforces licensing rules on a user machine or a central server (for enterprise customers), and
customized casing
Software Is Monetized Through Licensing........................................................................... 3 computer to
offers the innate benefit of portability since licenses can be transferred from
Software Is
with a distinct colorMonetized Through Licensing........................................................................... is3considerably
computer simply by moving the dongle. It is expected that a hardware dongle
Licensing Must
and form that is a Resist Hacking to Be Effective.................................................................... 3 that using a
harder to replicate Effective....................................................................
Licensing Must Resist Hacking to Be or crack than digital bits; as a consequence, it is expected3
direct extension of
dongle Effective License Management Solution................................ 4
Core Characteristics of anwill provide significantly stronger security against tampering and piracy. In practice,
our brand.”
Core Characteristics of an Effective License Management Solution................................ application can
however, dongles with dated designs or insecure interfaces to the software 4
—Independent in Choosingcloned, virtualized or simplySecurity Architecture .................... Internet search
Considerations
easily be a License Management dissociated from the software. A simple 5
Considerations
Architecture .................... 5
software vendor in Choosing a License Management Securityengineer and virtualize many dongles within
yields businesses that can (and do!) reverse
Solution Brief: Wibu-Systems in Action .............................................................................. 7
24 hours. Additionally, dongles may impose significant cost overhead,
Solution Brief: Wibu-Systems in Action .............................................................................. particularly for
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lower-value software, and their use canSolution ...................................... 10
disrupt end-user productivity while adding logistical
Key Takeaway: How to Choose a License Management
Key Takeaway: Howcomplexity for License Management Solution ...................................... 10
to Choose a the vendor and their customers. That said, there are cutting-edge dongle
About Frost & Sullivan .......................................................................................................... 11 software, but
products available on the market that are not only highly effective at protecting
About Frost & Sullivan .......................................................................................................... 11
also offer a branding opportunity and serve as a tangible token of ownership.
In contrast to hardware, License Activation is an all-software solution and is by nature
significantly more seamless in terms of deployment complexity and user experience. With a
decrease in traditional retail sales models and the corresponding rise of electronic distribution
of software, hardware-free clients are all the more desirable from an operations perspective.
From a scalability point of view, software is often the only workable solution in emerging
usage models, like inventory tracking software run on tablet devices. From an ISV perspective,
however, license activation solutions are widely perceived to be less secure than hardware,
although in reality the level of resilience achieved—regardless of the architecture chosen—
relies very much on the effectiveness of the license management solution chosen and the care
with which it is implemented.
In summary, whether vendors choose to enforce license management using dongles or
license activation, simultaneously achieving a seamless yet secure solution with a single
license management vendor has, to date, been difficult. This is because the core competencies
required for building feature-rich entitlement manage ment systems are entirely distinct from
those required to build tamper-proof systems. This is particularly true in the case of license
activation, where there is no hardware lock to rely on. Many publishers tackle this problem
by combining a seamless and scalable license management system from one vendor with
an application hardening solution from a separate vendor. These layered solutions can be
effective, but they add both expense and complexity to the development and testing process,
and if a breach does occur, there is no single reliable party the publisher can turn to for
resolution of the issue. From a best-practices perspective, a solution that incorporates all three
aspects of seamless, secure and scalable license management is best positioned to meet the
anti-piracy and entitlement management needs of software publishers and software-powered
device vendors. Fortunately, the vendor community serving the license management needs
of software publishers is stepping up to the plate to proactively respond to these urgent and
critical customer needs.
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