In larger corporations and enterprises, inaccessibility to expensive software is not an option. Users must be able to access software at any time of day, and redundant licensing is essential for ensuring this level of guaranteed accessibility. Recognizing this need, we have implemented high availability licensing in the most recent version of
LM-X License Manager.
Although market leaders have long provided redundant license servers and triad license server solutions, many of these systems have been far too easy to configure incorrectly. Looking at a competitor who recently introduced a very weak fail-over method that performs only a one-way connection check, we see it would be easy to break their system using a simple firewall. This leads to potential overuse, an obvious and serious drawback. Another problem we've often seen is that the dynamic master scheduling algorithm causes all the servers to be unstable, so that ultimately nothing works.
Learning from such examples, we've spent significant time ensuring that our system cannot be erroneously configured. We've introduced a model where three servers are required and set up with static roles. Our solution enforces a two-way license server check that ensures a majority of servers are working before serving licenses. It's virtually impossible to incorrectly configure the system, because it actively refuses to start if users don't have identical, proper settings on all three servers. This approach avoids all the clumsiness to which existing solutions are prone, and leaves it up to the end-users to define their server roles.
Designing our high availability licensing in this way, we've taken a step further toward providing an innovative solution to license failures. A solution without the expense of potential license overuse resulting from a weak one-way checking model, and without all the setup hassle and potential configuration errors. Supporting our
License Statistics software, we deal with end users of different licensing systems every day, and we've learned that end users benefit from a simpler, more straightforward approach instead of being overwhelmed by options. Recognizing this, we've kept both simplicity and security in mind--benefits that some of our competitors have failed to address.
In a software market where the right licensing solutions can contribute to a software vendor's success, no one wants to take unnecessary risks. This is why large corporations are choosing us as a better alternative to the market leaders. We understand that users want flexibility, simplicity, and reasonably priced products, and we help software vendors avoid risks by providing license solutions that work. What's more, most problems reported by our customers are solved within 24 hours, a claim that our competitors cannot make.
High availability licensing is included with LM-X License Manager at no additional cost.
