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Systems Management: Software License Use Management (XSLM)
Copyright © 1999 The Open Group

License Types

This section contains two lists:

This specification also makes an allowance for software-publisher-unique requirements within the license certificate.

License Types and Terms and Conditions

BASIC
The BASIC license type is the base line. It represents a license for which there are no restrictions, other than time. In contrast, all the other license types define restrictions within which the application is licensed and the customer is to abide.
BUNDLE
A pricing and packaging option for two or more products which are licensed individually, not collectively. For instance if a customer were licensed for a bundle of five products and 50 uses, when 40 of product A are in use and 10 of product B are in use then the customer has available for use ten on product A, 40 on product B, and 50 on each of the remaining three products by users either actively using one or more of the products or not currently using any of the products. This type of terms and conditions is derived from the CONCURRENT license type.
CAPACITY
The CAPACITY license types compares the capacity of the operating environment (as defined by the machine serial number) along with a predefined table, for instance, to assure the application is running in a machine whose computing capacity is not larger that that for which the product is licensed.
CHECKOUT
See DISCONNECTED.
COMPLEX-WIDE
A license assigned to a complex, which is comprised of one or more unique serial numbers. This type of terms and conditions is derived from the CAPACITY or NAMED license types.
COMPONENT
A license that governs the use of other licensed runtime software components with the application being developed. An example of this would be the inclusion of a spell checker from software publisher A within a word processor from software publisher B. This type of terms and conditions can be any of the license types.
CONCURRENT
A license type for which the charges are based on counting the number of simultaneous demands or uses of a product, independent of who or what user is using the application, quite the opposite from the NAMED concept. Further, these license uses are reusable: when the license is no longer required it is returned to the license system and becomes available for re-issuance against another license request. The number and defined unit of measure may include a minimum or maximum number permitted per request. For instance, a CONCURRENT license may require that whenever a license request is made, five units of the measure defined (users, for instance), must be requested as a minimum.
CONSUMPTIVE
A license type for which the charges are based on counting the defined units executed, perhaps over a specified period of time, against those licensed. Of principal importance with this license type is that a license count once used is not retrievable or reusable. As with CONCURRENT licensing, the number and defined unit of measure may include a minimum or maximum number permitted per request. For instance, a CONSUMPTIVE license may require that whenever a license request is made, five units of the measure defined (blocks of time or gigabytes of storage, for instance), must be requested as a minimum. This license type might be useful in a "peak" use or need situation.
CUMULATIVE
A license type for which the charges are based on counting a defined unit of measure against the number of units of that measure which were licensed. While CUMULATIVE licensing merely accumulates the defined units of measure, as with CONSUMPTIVE licensing, once used these units are not retrievable, or reusable. This license type might be useful in a post- pay term and condition.
DEMO
A license typically restricted to a certain time period, number of executions, or limited set of functions. These licenses may allow any of the other types of use. This license is also known as "Try and Buy" or "Supply before Buy". This type of terms and conditions can be an added restriction to any of the license types.
DEPLOYMENT
See RUN TIME.
DISASTER RECOVERY
A license granted by the vendor to allow a specified product to execute under conditions defined as "disaster recovery" for a specified period of time or for a specified number of occurrences. This type of terms and conditions can be an added restriction to any of the license types.
DISCONNECTED
A license that allows an end-user application use to be licensed while disconnected from the licensing system. (Also known as Laptop or Checkout). This circumstance can be associated with any of the license types.
ENTERPRISE
A license assigned to an enterprise, which may be comprised of multiple sites, complexes, nodes and or serial numbers. It is an all encompassing license to a single entity. This type of terms and conditions is derived from any of the license types.
FEATURES
A packaging and enablement option. An optional feature of a product can be packaged, licensed and enabled at the discretion of the software publisher. Features can be licensed in the same manner as software products and can, therefore, be of any license type.
FLOATING
A license for which the software product (including application client and server) is not tied to a specific ID, site, or user. This type of terms and conditions is derived from CONCURRENT, CUMULATIVE, or CONSUMPTIVE license types.
GROUP-BASED subsets
A license that allows the customer to subdivide uses within an organization. For instance, the customer might allocate 10 uses to engineering and 10 to accounting. This type of terms and conditions is derived from the Named license type.
LAPTOP
See DISCONNECTED.
LPAR
A license granted for use on less than a full machine. Some mainframe computers can be logically divided into smaller pieces (known as LPARs) and the licenses are for these smaller pieces. This is an interpretation of the CAPACITY or NAMED license types.
MEASURED USE
A license for which the charges are based on counting a defined unit of measure; it is a measurement based on the function of the product. For example a backup product would be based on the number of bytes backed up over the course of a specified period. This type of terms and conditions is derived from the CUMULATIVE, CONCURRENT, and CONSUMPTIVE license types.
MIPS
A license based upon the number of MIPS - either single processor or aggregated across several processors. This type of terms and conditions is based on the CAPACITY license type.
NAMED
A license type which compares name or serial number or ID or node address etc., against those licensed. The NAMED license type implies pre-definition of the name. However, to build the registered or named "authorization list," the NAMED license type can also allow for a "first come-first served" concept where license-requesting users (for instance) are registered (accepted/defined) until the number of users licensed is reached.
NODE
A license based upon a specific node(s); some examples of nodes are Network Nodes and JES Nodes. This type of terms and conditions is based on either the Capacity or the Named license type.
PARTITIONING
A license granted for use on less than a full machine. Some processors can be divided into smaller pieces (e.g. partitions) and the licenses are for these smaller pieces. This type of terms and conditions is derived from the Capacity license type. PEAK - A license for which the charges are based on the maximum number of defined units used during a specific time period. This type of terms and conditions can be any of the license types.
POTENTIAL USE
See RESOURCE.
PROCESSOR
A license for which charges are based on the size of a machine. This type of terms and conditions is based on the CAPACITY license type.
REGISTERED USE
This license relies upon the counting and comparing of the ID or node address (for example) against the pre-defined IDs or node addresses licensed. The REGISTERED USE license type implies pre-definition of the user. However, it can also allow for "first come-first served" concept where license-requesting users are registered (accepted/defined) until the entitled number of registered users licensed is reached. This type of terms and conditions is an implementation of the NAMED license type.
RESOURCE
A license for which charges are based on the size of specifically identified resources, such as amount of memory used, number of gigabytes managed, etc. This type of terms and conditions comes from the CAPACITY or NAMED license type.
RUN-TIME
A kind of software license that governs the use of run time software where run time software is defined as those modules of compilers, data base programs, and other development tools that are required in order to operate a program developed using the tools. This type of terms and conditions is a form or descriptor of the COMPONENT type of terms and conditions, and is sometimes referred to as a DEPLOYMENT license.
SERIAL NUMBER
A license assigned to a serial number of a specific hardware device, including those devices that can be carved into smaller pieces (for example an LPAR serial number). This type of terms and conditions is derived from the Named license type.
SITE
A license of a software product on all computers at a geographic location. This type of terms and conditions is implemented from the Capacity or Named license type.
SUITE
A pricing and packaging option for two or more products which are licensed collectively, not individually. For instance if a customer were licensed for a suite of five products and 50 uses, when 40 of product A are in use and 10 of product B are in use by 50 different users, then the maximum allowable uses are reached; there are no remaining uses for the other three products by users not represented in the current count of 50. One of the concepts with this option is that an individual using one of the products in the suite can use all of the other products in the suite without them being counted as additional uses. This type of terms and conditions option is derived from the CONCURRENT license type.
SUPPLY BEFORE BUY
See DEMO.
TARGET ID
See NAMED.
TIME
Each license type is modifiable by time (also known as TIME DELIMITED).
TIME DELIMITED
See TIME.
TIME-SHIFTED
A license which, because of time differences in various locations of the licensee, allows use in multiple geographic locations, but not more than once at a time. For example, a multinational corporation may acquire licenses allowing use within either the US office or the Japanese office, but not both at the same time. This type of terms and conditions is a variant of the CONCURRENT or CONSUMPTIVE or CUMULATIVE license type.
TRY AND BUY
See DEMO.
UNRESTRICTED
See BASIC.
USE-ONCE
See CONSUMPTIVE.
USER-SPECIFIED
A customer administrator can specify more restrictive conditions then stated in the type of terms and conditions of the license. This type of terms and conditions is derived from any of the license types.
YEAR 2000
A license granted by the vendor to allow a specified product to support Year 2000 testing for a specified period of time or for a specified number of occurrences. This type of terms and conditions is derived from the time-option of any of the license types. It is similar to the DEMO type of terms and conditions.

Terms and Conditions by License Type

BASIC


CHECKOUT
COMPONENT
DEMO
DEPLOYMENT
DISASTER RECOVERY
DISCONNECTED
ENTERPRISE
FEATURES
LAPTOP
PEAK
RUN-TIME
SUPPLY BEFORE BUY
TIME
TRY AND BUY
UNRESTRICTED
USER-SPECIFIED
YEAR 2000

CAPACITY


CHECKOUT
COMPLEX-WIDE
COMPONENT
DEMO
DEPLOYMENT
DISASTER RECOVERY
DISCONNECTED
ENTERPRISE
FEATURES
LAPTOP
LPAR
MIPS
NODE
PARTITIONING
PEAK
POTENTIAL USE
PROCESSOR
RESOURCE
RUN-TIME
SITE
SUPPLY BEFORE BUY
TIME
TRY AND BUY
USER-SPECIFIED
YEAR 2000

CONCURRENT


BUNDLE
CHECKOUT
COMPONENT
DEMO
DEPLOYMENT
DISASTER RECOVERY
DISCONNECTED
ENTERPRISE
FEATURES
FLOATING
LAPTOP
MEASURED USE
PEAK
RUN-TIME
SUITE
SUPPLY BEFORE BUY
TIME
TIME-SHIFTED
TRY AND BUY
USER-SPECIFIED
YEAR 2000

CONSUMPTIVE


CHECKOUT
COMPONENT
DEMO
DEPLOYMENT
DISASTER RECOVERY
DISCONNECTED
ENTERPRISE
FEATURES
FLOATING
LAPTOP
MEASURED USE
PEAK
RUN-TIME
SUPPLY BEFORE BUY
TIME
TIME-SHIFTED
TRY AND BUY
USE-ONCE
USER-SPECIFIED
YEAR 2000

CUMULATIVE


CHECKOUT
COMPONENT
DEMO
DEPLOYMENT
DISASTER RECOVERY
DISCONNECTED
ENTERPRISE
FEATURES
FLOATING
LAPTOP
MEASURED USE
PEAK
RUN-TIME
SUPPLY BEFORE BUY
TIME
TIME-SHIFTED
TRY AND BUY
USER-SPECIFIED
YEAR 2000

NAMED


CHECKOUT
COMPLEX-WIDE
COMPONENT
DEMO
DEPLOYMENT
DISASTER RECOVERY
DISCONNECTED
ENTERPRISE
FEATURES
GROUP-BASED
LAPTOP
LPAR
NODE
PEAK
POTENTIAL USE
REGISTERED USE
RESOURCE
RUN-TIME
SERIAL NUMBER
SITE
SUPPLY BEFORE BUY
TARGET ID
TIME
TRY AND BUY
USER-SPECIFIED
YEAR 2000

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