Managing Single-User Licenses on a network?
So as everyone knows Autodesk is changing its licensing structure, and everything is moving to subscription. We're in the middle of evaluating our options... with network licenses costing 30% more than a single user license ($1000/year per user), and with our office having 10-15 users, we're stuck between the cost of the network license versus the convenience of it.
So my question is, for those of you with experience managing larger networks, how difficult do you find it is to manage many single-user licenses? Do you have any tricks/techniques for keeping track of who has what? And does anyone have any insight for where the threshold is - the number of users where it makes sense to just pay for the convenience?
The way I'm seeing it, we have two classes of software - "Necessary" and "Optional". The "Necessary" software gets installed and used every day by all users - Outlook, AutoCAD, Windows. The "Optional" software gets installed but used from time to time - for us, Artlantis is in this category. Everyone uses it, but generally no more than 4 people at a time, so we have 5 licenses shared among 15 people. I'm starting to feel that it makes less sense to pay for a network license for software that is always-on, and more sense to pay for a network license for software that is always changing hands - has anyone found this to be true, or am I overthinking it?
Re: Managing Single-User Licenses on a network?
Managing the perpetual stand-alone licenses beyond a handful of users gets problematic when you have high staff turn-over. Computers get wiped, so you need to re-authorize the computer. You either need to track individual licenses, or if you have multi-seat stand-alones (MSSA) you need to track current activations as it won't warn you about going over.
Not such a big deal with the newer individual Desktop/rental-model licenses, and its a little easier to handle staff fluctuations and client billing if work isn't consistent. Add a few extra month or quarter licenses to cover the work term and bill it the cost directly to the client who gets the work. User computers need periodic access to the internet for the licensing though, which may not work if things are locked down tight or in a remote/offline location. The network licenses operates the same as previously where user computers only need to see your own license server.
If the majority of the users are using the software and there isn't much staff turnover then individual licenses are easy enough to manage for a dozen or two users. Past that you typically have supervisors who use the program sometimes, staff turnover, part-timers, computers in meeting rooms, etc. and it just becomes easier to have enough licenses to cover a typical workday.
Re: Managing Single-User Licenses on a network?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
dgorsman
....or if you have multi-seat stand-alones (MSSA) you need to track current activations as it won't warn you about going over.
...or use the LTU to move the license to the mystical license cloud, for which there is no access..... and hope you can manually keep track of what is there.
Re: Managing Single-User Licenses on a network?
You know, I wonder if that would work properly given the MSSA licenses all have the same serial number.
Re: Managing Single-User Licenses on a network?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
dgorsman
You know, I wonder if that would work properly given the MSSA licenses all have the same serial number.
It does work, or at least it did up to the 2015 versions.
