Positioning of SmartLM

SmartLM is an advanced license enforcement product with a strong selling proposition for software licensing. SmartLM covers current features of available licensing software and meets the requirements of commercial Grid and Cloud deployments. The most important selling points are:

  • Improved security, authentication and authorization
  • Embedding in Grid environments
  • Automated Accounting and Billing (100% trustworthy)

As SmartLM addresses the security issues of license tokens too, SmartLM covers also the traditional market for software licensing in LANs, and WANs. The feature comparison from Table 10 to Table 12 is used to describe the positioning of SmartLM in comparison to the most relevant five alternative solutions.

Improved Security, Authentication and Authorization

SmartLM addresses the needs of increased security for license protected applications and advanced authentication and authorization mechanisms for software access in Grid environments. These needs come from both the Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and the end users. SmartLM prevents the misuse of license tokens like license cracking and license cloning by signing. The integrity of the license data and transported job data is guaranteed. The improved protection of license tokens is important for software licensing in local environments like LAN too.

To avoid the misuse of license in Grids by non-authorized users, SmartLM supports state of the art authentication and authorisation technologies like PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) methods and SAML assertions [5].

At the moment there is only one alternative solution on the market that uses state of the art Grid authentication and authorization technologies. But SmartLM is the only product supporting negotiation and re-negotiation at run-time.

Embedding in Grid environments

SmartLM is ready to use in Grid environments. SmartLM is embedded in Grid middleware like Globus Toolkit 4 [3] and Unicore [4]. The middleware integration includes advanced authentication and authorization (see above) and a license reservation system. The advanced reservation system is necessary to deal with the latency between process initiation and process start in the Grid environment.

SmartLM is the only licensing software supporting Grid middleware and the full range of licensing models described in chapter 5.1.

Automated Accounting and Billing

An accounting and billing interface is included in SmartLM. This accounting and billing interface allows the easy adoption of advanced business models like pay-per-use in Grid environments. The negotiation interface ensures WS-agreements (Web Service Agreements) and SLAs (Service Level Agreements). On the basis of these agreements it is possible to charge end users for the license usage. ISVs administrate the accounting and billing interface themselves. Sensitive accounting and billing data are protected by encryption.

SmartLM is the only product with an integrated accounting and billing interface. The unique build in accounting and billing interface and the additional functionalities like license aggregation and license extension allow SmartLM to offer new business models [6] like on demand combination of rented licenses with pay-per-use licenses.

Perceptual mapping

Figure 1 shows a perceptual map to illustrate the SmartLM positioning. Two criterions were used to position the licensing software solutions. The first criterion is the support or Grid environments in terms of support of Grid middleware, accounting and billing, license aggregation, license reservation. The second is the security. The highest level is the Grid state of the art authentication and authorization.

Figure 1: Perceptual map for Smart LM positioning

The perceptual map illustrates the excellent positioning of SmartLM in the market for software licensing in Grid environments.

Figure 2 shows a perceptual map showing the positioning of SmartLM in local environments with multiple users. Multiple users mean different companies, different applications and so on. This is a typical scenario from ASPs. The first criterion is the support of complex multiple user scenarios. To support complex scenarios like this you need features like license reservation, license aggregation, interface to Distributed Resource Managers (DRM), multiple vendor support. The second criterion is the connection to accounting and billing interfaces.

Figure 2: Perceptual map for SmartLM positioning in local environments with multiple clients

This figure show again the excellent position of SmartLM, as SmartLM is the only solution offering all features like license reservation, license aggregation, and interface to Distributed Resource Managers (DRM), multiple vendor support and built-in accounting and billing interface. It is difficult to determine the exact position of the alternative solutions regarding accounting and billing. FlexNet was positioned at second rank, as there are a lot of commercial tools (from Arcesso as FlexNet vendor) and other vendors available around FlexNet. The position of the rest should be similar. For better visibility they were ordered in an arbitrary order.

To conclude, SmartLM is a flexible Grid ready state of the art licensing software. SmartLM delivers highest security in combination with highly automated business processes. All market actors benefit, the ISVs from business expansion to the Grid, the End Users from increased flexibility and the ASPs from supplying more resources in the Grid.
As analyzed in Deliverable 2.2. [6] SmartLM offers new business models of which all market actors benefit. Four scenarios are accessible in SmartLM to fill in current gaps in the software licensing market (Featuring the ASP, Extension of licenses, Aggregation of licenses and Hardware-independent pricing) and therefore offering added value, such as pay-per-use model that opens the door to many new clients.