WP Cloud WIBU WhitePaper Licensing in the cloud EN | Page 5

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a. Wombat Inc. might decide that they are best
served with soft licensing, since they know
that the software will only be run on a specific
computer and nowhere else. In that case, Aardvark
Technologies would request a fingerprint file that
Wombat Inc. can easily generate using a special
tool that has been integrated into the software.
Using this file, Aardvark Technologies can create
a license file for Wombat Inc. to install: this can be installed in seconds and grants entitlement to use
the software.
Part of the ease of use of this story is that licensing can be performed in many ways, such as using
Wibu-System’s Software Activation Wizard, a tool that handles license transfer between CodeMeter
License Central and the local device where the license sits in an effortless and straightforward fashion.
b. Wombat Inc. might decide they needed more flexibility with the software, wanting to buy just a
single license that can be used on various machines. The process for doing this can be largely the
same as with soft licensing. The major difference here is that the ISV can provide their customer with
a special USB dongle, the presence of which would in this case be mandatory for the software to
operate. This provides a clear path to the stated requirement, since the dongle can only be physically
attached to one computer at a time (unless network licensing was required – but that’s a different
story).
c. There is a third choice, but we’ll come to that later.
d. In reality, of course, Wombat Inc. will likely have a great many diverse requirements, and all can be
catered for using Wibu-Systems’ technologies. I’m just keeping things simple here for the sake of brevity.
4. These examples illustrate the use of license provisioning in the cloud. Aardvark Technologies can choose
to host CodeMeter License Central on their own servers (private cloud) or to have it professionally
hosted by Wibu-Systems itself. Though this latter approach may be considered a public cloud, the
reality is that they have exclusive access to their own instance of the service. So, it isn’t a public cloud
in the same way as, say, Facebook, where multiple users are hosted on the same site. This approach
provides yet another level of security.
There is another benefit to using the Wibu-Systems’ license entitlement approach. Any software licensed
using CodeMeter License Central can be encrypted. Not only does this stop the unauthorized use of the
software, but it also ensures that any nefarious practices such as reverse engineering are prevented as well.
This form of cloud provisioning is very important for flexibility, since no special software needs to be
installed by the ISV in order to achieve their licensing goals. Some companies might talk of this as licensing
in the cloud, but it is not the whole story.
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