All Articles
144 articles, A to Z. Plus 95 archived pages kept as sources.
A
Acrobat Standard, Pro and Studio are Named User subscriptions for teams and enterprise whose built-in e-signature features do not include an Acrobat Sign entitlement, while Acrobat Sign is licensed per user (with a default of 150 Transactions per user per year) or per Transaction, sold in VIP Marketplace as a Consumable with its own discount tiers.
Adobe Creative Cloud for teams and enterprise licensingOrganizations license Creative Cloud as teams plans under the Business Product Specific Terms or as enterprise plans under the enterprise General Terms and the Creative Cloud, Document Cloud and Substance 3D PSLT (2023v1), deployed as Named User Licensing, Shared Device Licensing or FRL; Substance 3D adds per-Site and per-User-and-Computer metrics and Frame.io is sold per User per year with storage per Terabyte.
Adobe Experience Cloud and Experience Manager metricsAdobe licenses Experience Cloud products on volume metrics defined in product descriptions (Content Requests for AEM Sites, Power, Collaborator and Limited Users for AEM Assets, Form Submissions and Document Renditions for AEM Forms, Instances for AEM on-premise, Server Calls for Analytics, Page Views for Target and Person Profiles for Real-Time CDP), with quantities set in each customer's Sales Order.
Adobe generative creditsAdobe allots each licensed user a plan-specific number of generative credits per month that reset monthly, do not roll over and cannot be pooled; enterprise customers on an ETLA can add Shared Credits, sold per 1,000 Operations and drawn only after individual credits run out, with overuse billed through the ETLA true-up.
Adobe Named User licensingAdobe licenses Term License Products and most Creative Cloud and Acrobat subscription Software as a Named User license assigned to one individual, activatable on up to two Computers at a time, with Acrobat Sign adding a Transaction consumable.
Adobe VIP and VIP MarketplaceVIP and VIP Marketplace are Adobe's membership-based volume programs for Creative Cloud, Acrobat, Acrobat Sign, Stock, Substance and Firefly, built around an Anniversary Date on which all licenses co-terminate, with discount levels from 10 licenses, a 3-year commit with a Minimum Commitment of at least 10 licenses, and automatic renewal in VIP Marketplace.
Anthropic Claude licensingAnthropic sells Claude Team as Standard and Premium seats, Claude Enterprise as a seat fee plus usage at API rates, individual Pro and Max subscriptions, and the Claude API priced per million base input, cache-write, cache-hit and output tokens, also available through Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud and marketplace-billed platforms.
Atlassian Cloud and Data Center licensing metersAtlassian licenses Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket, Jira Service Management and related products to named users rather than concurrent users, billing Cloud monthly by maximum quantity and selling Cloud annual and Data Center subscriptions in user tiers, with product-specific paid units alongside.
Atlassian Cloud plans and user tiersAtlassian sells its cloud apps in Free, Standard, Premium and Enterprise plans, billing monthly subscriptions on a progressive per-user price with maximum quantity billing and annual subscriptions on fixed user tiers, with usage meters such as Rovo credits layered on top.
Atlassian Data Center end of life and pricingAtlassian Data Center products are annual, user-tiered self-managed subscriptions whose sale to new customers ended on 30 March 2026 and which reach end of life on 28 March 2029, with list prices last raised on 17 February 2026 and Bitbucket continuing under a Hybrid License.
Atlassian Guard licensingAtlassian Guard is an organization-wide cloud security subscription billed once per unique user across supported apps, with Guard Standard included in Enterprise plans and Premium collections, non-billable authentication policies, and Guard Premium sold as an add-on billed on access to Jira or Confluence.
Atlassian Marketplace app licensingAtlassian Marketplace apps are licensed at a user tier that must match or exceed the host product, per subscription in the cloud and per environment on Data Center, under the Marketplace Terms of Use and each vendor's own terms, with multi-instance billing for Cloud Enterprise and a Data Center app wind-down ending on 30 March 2028.
Autodesk education and startup programmesEligibility, permitted use and counting rules for Autodesk Education Offerings (Education Single User, Educational Network, Educational Multi-seat Stand-alone), plus the Fusion for startups and Technology Impact Program offers, as published by Autodesk in 2026.
Autodesk Flex, Token Flex and the Enterprise Business AgreementHow Autodesk token-based licensing is metered: the public Flex Rate Sheet with per-day, per-result and zero rates, Autodesk Platform Services token prices, and the Enterprise Business Agreement documents (Cloud Services Catalog, Additional Terms, Usage Data Table) that govern Token Flex.
Autodesk Industry CollectionsAutodesk Industry Collections bundle two or more products into one Single User subscription; this article lists the published contents of the AEC, PD&M and M&E Collections, the device rule that governs concurrent use of their titles, and how collections relate to retired suites, Flex, previous versions and donation programmes.
Autodesk previous-version, virtualization and home-use rightsThe Autodesk Previous Version Right (generally three prior releases), the Virtualization benefit and Virtualization List, the Multi User Home Use Copy, and Single User and Multi User global use rights, as set out in the Terms of Use last updated 17 September 2026.
Autodesk Single User and Flex licensingAutodesk sells current commercial subscriptions as Single User seats tied to a unique Autodesk ID, prepaid Flex Tokens consumed at daily rates, enterprise Token Flex under an EBA, and Capacity-based Offerings, with 1-year Multi User subscriptions retired in 2023.
Autodesk transition to named user licensingHistory and rules of Autodesk's retirement of multi-user (network) subscriptions, maintenance plans and suites in favour of named-user subscriptions, including the two-for-one trade-in, the conflicting published dates, and the 2026 M2S/TNU Exit renewal offer.
B
C
Community-sourced catalog of about 185 certifications and courses relevant to IT asset management, software licensing, FinOps, cloud, security and process, grouped into ten categories with provider, duration, difficulty and cost band.
Cisco Catalyst, DNA and Networking Subscription licensingCisco Catalyst switches pair a perpetual Network Stack license with a mandatory 3, 5 or 7 year Cisco DNA or Catalyst subscription in Essentials or Advantage tiers, while the newer Cisco Networking Subscription sells unified Switching, Wireless and WAN licenses with a 36 month minimum term.
Cisco Secure Firewall and Duo licensingCisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense is licensed per managed device, with a base Essentials license plus term IPS, Malware Defense, URL and Carrier feature licenses, and virtual firewalls add performance tiers; Duo is licensed per user in Free, Essentials, Advantage and Premier editions.
Cisco Smart Licensing, Smart Accounts and Smart Licensing Using PolicyCisco Smart Licensing pools entitlements in a Smart Account divided into Virtual Accounts, and Smart Licensing Using Policy replaces registration and evaluation mode with policy-driven usage reports; neither is a purchase meter, but both determine where licenses can be consumed and how usage reaches Cisco.
Cisco software subscription and Flex Plan licensingCisco sells term software and cloud services under meters named in its Offer Descriptions and Portfolio Features, such as Device, Endpoint Session, Deployed Knowledge Worker, Covered User and Unique Users, while Smart Licensing is an activation mechanism rather than a purchase meter.
Citrix User/device, Concurrent, and Flex licensingCloud Software Group licenses Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops on premises by User/device or Concurrent, while current packages such as Universal Hybrid Multi-Cloud and Citrix Platform use a User unit type and Platform Flex is restricted by Flex Credits.
Cloud BYOL and authorized cloud environmentsCloud BYOL describes where already-owned vendor license entitlements such as Processor, Core, PVU or Named User may run on named public clouds and how each vendor says to count them there, without adding new license metrics.
Concurrent and device licensingConcurrent licensing counts the peak number of users, sessions or endpoints using software at the same time; device licensing counts the machines that run or access it; Microsoft CALs, Citrix user/device and SAP Digital Access documents show how vendors mix and extend these models.
D
Dassault Systèmes licenses SOLIDWORKS as Single User (Standalone) or SolidNetWork (SNL) floating seats, CATIA V5 as Concurrent or Machine Based licenses, and 3DEXPERIENCE as Named User, Casual Named User, Concurrent, Token and Credit Based rights, each sold under PLC/ALC, YLC, QLC or TBL pricing structures.
Docker Desktop subscription licensingDocker Desktop is free only for personal use, education, non-commercial open source and commercial undertakings with fewer than 250 employees and less than US $10 million in annual revenue; every other commercial or government use needs a paid Docker Pro, Team or Business subscription billed per user.
Dynamics 365 licensingDynamics 365 applications are sold as subscriptions per user, per device or per tenant; a full user needs one Base license (the highest priced application) plus discounted Attach licenses for further applications, while Team Members, Operations - Activity, device and Order Lines licenses cover lighter or indirect use.
E
An effective license position (ELP) is a reconciliation, per product and per license metric, of the software entitlements an organization holds against what it has deployed or used, showing a surplus or shortfall under the vendor's counting rules.
Elastic licensingElastic distributes Elasticsearch and Kibana under the Elastic License 2.0, offers their source code under a choice of ELv2, SSPL 1.0 or AGPLv3, licenses self-managed Enterprise subscriptions per Resource Unit (64 GB of addressable RAM) and legacy Platinum per Billable Node, and meters Elastic Cloud by resource consumption.
End-user license agreement (EULA) templateIllustrative end-user license agreement template with placeholders, covering definitions, grant of license, restrictions, warranties, limitation of liability, governing law and acceptance.
Esri ArcGIS licensingEsri licenses ArcGIS mainly through named-user user types (Viewer to Professional Plus), ArcGIS Enterprise by server cores, ArcGIS Online consumption by credits, and organization-wide use through Enterprise Agreements, under the Master Agreement (E204) and Product-Specific Terms (E300).
G
Generative AI is licensed through four overlapping models: per-seat assistant subscriptions and add-ons, consumption metered in input and output tokens or vendor credits, committed capacity such as provisioned throughput, and open-weight model licences ranging from Apache 2.0 to community and research licences with user, revenue or use conditions.
GitHub Copilot licensingGitHub licenses Copilot per user: personal plans per calendar month and Copilot Business or Enterprise per granted seat, with every plan carrying a monthly allowance of GitHub AI Credits (1 AI credit = $0.01 USD) that meters chat, agent and CLI usage by model and tokens.
Google Gemini API and Vertex AI licensingGoogle meters the Gemini API and Gemini on Agent Platform (formerly Vertex AI) per 1 million input and output tokens, with free and paid tiers that differ in data use, optional Provisioned Throughput bought in GSUs, and seat-based Gemini Enterprise and Gemini Code Assist subscriptions.
Google Workspace and Google Cloud licensingGoogle licenses Google Workspace per user under a Flexible Plan (monthly, daily usage) or an Annual/Fixed-Term Plan (committed licenses reducible only at renewal), and on Google Cloud supports dedicated-hardware BYOL through sole-tenant nodes billed per node.
H
A ten-module training outline for hardware asset management covering the asset life cycle, policy and governance, inventory accuracy, procurement, maintenance, security, disposal, reporting and tooling.
House rulesOperating model for the LICENSEWARE Wiki that defines how catalog rows and encyclopedia pages relate, which sources count as catalog facts, and the order of coverage work.
I
IBM Cloud Paks are bundles of IBM programs licensed by a single pool of Virtual Processor Cores, which each bundled program consumes at a ratio set in the Cloud Pak License Information, with full licenses that include restricted Red Hat OpenShift capacity and reserved licenses that do not.
IBM Db2 editions licensingIBM Db2 12.1 for Linux, UNIX and Windows is sold in Community, Starter, Standard and Advanced editions, and from 12.1.4 in Db2 AI editions, differentiated by capacity limits and features and licensed by Virtual Processor Core, with Authorized User available for non-production use.
IBM Passport Advantage licensingIBM Passport Advantage is IBM's volume-licensing program, under which programs are measured by the unit named in each program's License Information, such as PVU, VPC, RVU, UVU, Authorized User or Concurrent User.
IBM Passport Advantage program structureIBM Passport Advantage is IBM's enrollment program for buying software licenses, Subscription and Support, cloud services and appliances, organized around enrolled sites, a single annual anniversary date and point-based Relationship Suggested Volume Pricing, with terms now carried in the Client Relationship Agreement.
IBM Processor Value Unit tablesThe IBM Processor Value Unit tables assign a PVU rating to each processor core by vendor, brand, type, model and maximum socket count, and are the basis for counting PVU entitlements on servers.
IBM sub-capacity licensing and ILMTIBM sub-capacity licensing lets core-based programs be licensed for the virtual capacity available to them rather than the whole server, on condition that deployments run on eligible technologies and are measured and reported with the IBM License Metric Tool or an approved alternative.
Implementing ISO/IEC 19770-2 software identification tagsEight-step roadmap for adopting ISO/IEC 19770-2:2015 software identification (SWID) tags in a software asset management practice.
Implementing ISO/IEC 19770-3 entitlement tagsEight-step roadmap for representing software license entitlements in the standardized, machine-readable format of ISO/IEC 19770-3:2016 and reconciling them with discovered software.
Informatica IPU licensingInformatica sells Intelligent Data Management Cloud by the Informatica Processing Unit (IPU), consumed per service at published rates for Compute Units, Rows Processed, Data Volume and API Calls, while on-premises Software such as PowerCenter is licensed or subscribed per CPU-core within an Environment under the Cloud and Product Description Schedule.
ISO/IEC 19770ISO/IEC 19770 is a family of international standards, developed by ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7, for IT asset management, comprising a management system standard (Part 1), data standards for software and hardware identification, entitlements and resource utilization, a vocabulary, and guidance on mapping, implementation and certification.
ISO/IEC 19770Introductory learning page on the ISO/IEC 19770 family of IT asset management standards, describing Parts 1, 2 and 3 and indexing three implementation modules.
ISO/IEC 19770-1 certification roadmapTen-step roadmap for taking an organization from ad-hoc asset management to an audit-ready ITAM system that can be certified against ISO/IEC 19770-1:2017.
IT asset managementIT asset management (ITAM) is the discipline of managing, controlling and protecting an organization's IT assets, including hardware, software, cloud and SaaS services, throughout their life cycle; software asset management is its software-focused part.
IT inventory templateIllustrative Notion database template for a simple IT inventory of hardware, accessories and software licenses, with its properties, saved views and fictional sample records.
ITAM Handbook: Enterprise InfrastructureITAM Handbook chapter on server and CPU architecture, clustering, high availability, infrastructure monitoring and how these configurations affect software licensing.
ITAM Handbook: Enterprise SoftwareITAM Handbook chapter on enterprise software architecture, common business systems, industry-specific on-premise systems and legacy systems.
ITAM Handbook: IntroductionIntroduction to the ITAM Handbook, a course on managing enterprise IT infrastructure and software licenses, with a list of its chapters.
ITAM Handbook: ITAM and ITSMITAM Handbook chapter on IT service management processes, IT operations in large enterprises and the role of IT asset management.
ITAM Handbook: ITAM DataITAM Handbook chapter on the data points ITAM collects, the business processes that use them, typical ITAM reports and the data vendors look at in license audits.
ITAM Handbook: License MetricsITAM Handbook chapter introducing user-based, device-based, processor-based and cloud license metrics with vendor examples.
ITAM Handbook: Software ProcurementITAM Handbook chapter on common software contract terms, example licensing agreements, maintenance and support programs, and centralised versus decentralised procurement.
ITAM Handbook: Vendor Specific RulesITAM Handbook chapter with step-by-step counting outlines for Oracle processor licenses and Microsoft SQL Server and Windows Server core licenses, plus pointers to vendor licensing documents.
ITAM Handbook: Virtualisation and Partitioning TechnologiesITAM Handbook section explaining partitioning versus virtualisation and describing HP-UX nPar/vPar, IBM LPAR, Hyper-V, Nutanix, Oracle Solaris LDOMs and Zones, Oracle VM and VMware.
J
JetBrains licenses its IDEs and the All Products Pack as monthly or yearly per-user subscriptions, split into commercial licenses owned by an organization and personal licenses bought by individuals with their own funds, with a perpetual fallback license after 12 months of uninterrupted payment and free non-commercial, educational and open-source options.
Jira Service Management agent licensingJira Service Management is licensed per agent: agents and service space administrators are paid users, customers who raise requests are unlicensed and unlimited, collaborators use Jira licences, and in the cloud the app is sold inside Service Collection with metered Assets objects, automation steps, Rovo credits, assisted conversations and AI agent resolutions.
L
Hub for the wiki's learning resources: SAM and HAM training courses, the ITAM Handbook, a licensing glossary and models chapter, ISO/IEC 19770 implementation guides, templates and a certification catalog.
License complianceLicense compliance is the state, and the set of practices, by which an organization's use and distribution of software stays within the terms of the licenses it holds, covering both commercial use rights and open source license obligations.
M
Meta distributes Llama models under versioned, royalty-free community license agreements that require a separate license from Meta above 700 million monthly active users, impose attribution and model-naming rules on redistribution, and incorporate an Acceptable Use Policy.
Microsoft 365 and Online Services licensingMicrosoft licenses Microsoft 365 and other Online Services primarily through a User SL assigned to one Licensed User or a Device SL on a Licensed Device, with suite names being editions of that User SL rather than separate meters.
Microsoft 365 Copilot licensingMicrosoft 365 Copilot is a per-user add-on (User SL) that requires a listed prerequisite Microsoft 365 or Office 365 license, while Copilot Chat agents, SharePoint agents and Copilot Studio agents are metered in Copilot Credits bought as 25,000-credit capacity packs, pay-as-you-go through Azure, or a one-year pre-purchase plan.
Microsoft licensing on third-party cloudsMicrosoft's Product Terms split hosters into Listed Providers (Alibaba, Amazon, Google and Microsoft) and Authorized Outsourcers; since 1 October 2019 licenses without Software Assurance or mobility rights cannot be deployed on Listed Provider dedicated hosts, so bring-your-own-license on AWS or Google Cloud depends mainly on License Mobility through Software Assurance, for example for SQL Server.
Microsoft volume licensing programsLarge organizations buy Microsoft software through the three-year Enterprise Agreement (with annual True-up and pre-agreed pricing), the non-expiring Microsoft Customer Agreement sold directly or through partners, or Cloud Solution Provider partners on the new commerce platform, where prices are fixed for the term and cancellations are limited to seven days.
Mistral AI licensingMistral AI releases model weights under Apache 2.0, a modified MIT license with a USD 20M monthly revenue condition, or its own Research and Non-Production licenses, and sells hosted access per million tokens through its API and per user through Vibe (formerly Le Chat) plans.
MongoDB licensingMongoDB Community Server is licensed under the Server Side Public License (SSPL) for releases from 2018-10-16, self-managed Enterprise Advanced is sold per Server (a VM or container sized by RAM on the Order Form), and MongoDB Atlas is billed by the hour or against prepaid and committed credits.
Most common software licensing modelsTraining chapter introducing the history of software licensing and seventeen common license models, from perpetual and subscription to site, role, evaluation and free licenses, each with advantages, drawbacks and vendor examples.
MuleSoft Anypoint capacity and usage-based licensingMuleSoft Anypoint is licensed by capacity (CloudHub vCores and self-hosted Cores), by usage under usage-based pricing packages (Mule flows, Mule messages and data throughput), and by credits (Automation Credits and Mule Credits), with API instances, governed APIs and gateway calls counted against plan entitlements.
N
Named user licensing counts each individual authorized to use software, whether or not that person is using it at a given moment, with vendor-specific rules for devices, indirect access through multiplexing, reassignment and per-processor minimums.
Nutanix Cloud Platform licensingNutanix sells Nutanix Cloud Platform software as term licenses, 6 to 60 months, that move between hardware platforms and public clouds. NCI, NCM and NDB are licensed per physical CPU core covering the full cluster, NUS per usable TiB, NCI-Edge per powered-on VM and NCI-VDI per concurrent user. Legacy node-based licenses convert to cores by the core-to-node ratio.
O
OpenAI sells ChatGPT Business as Standard and Premium seats with optional credits, ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu under credit-based or token-based agreements, individual Plus and Pro subscriptions, and the OpenAI API priced per 1M input, cached input, cache-write and output tokens.
OpenText licensingOpenText licenses software perpetually by default under one EULA, with the metric set per product by the License Model Schedule (Named, Occasional, Concurrent and Anonymous User, Server, CPU, Program Instance) or, for former Micro Focus products, by Additional License Authorizations (Named / Concurrent / Seat User, Site / Area / Global, Virtual User).
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure BYOL and Universal CreditsOracle Cloud Infrastructure services are bought through Annual or Monthly Universal Credits, Pay as You Go or a Funded Allocation, and BYOL service versions convert supported on-premises Oracle licenses into OCPUs or ECPUs at published ratios.
Oracle Database licensingOn-premises Oracle Database licensing by edition, covering Processor and Named User Plus metrics, NUP floors, SE2 caps, partitioning, and Authorized Cloud Environment rules.
Oracle Database options and management packsOracle Database Enterprise Edition options and management packs are separately priced add-ons whose licenses must match the associated database by metric and quantity, with feature-level rules for Active Data Guard, Multitenant, Diagnostics and Tuning Packs, and restricted-use exceptions.
Oracle Java SE licensingOracle Java SE Universal Subscription is a term subscription licensed per Employee, with a 50,000 Processor install cap and separate no-fee Oracle JDK download licenses.
Oracle Partitioning PolicyThe Oracle Partitioning Policy is an educational Oracle document that classifies virtualization technologies as soft partitioning, approved hard partitioning or Oracle Trusted Partitions, and sets when a sub-capacity of physical cores may be licensed, including rules for Capacity on Demand, containers and Kubernetes.
Oracle technical support and Lifetime Support policiesOracle software technical support is sold per license set at matching service levels under the Lifetime Support Policy (Premier, Extended and Sustaining Support), with rules on repricing after terminations, 150% reinstatement fees and annual renewal adjustments.
Oracle ULA and PULA licensingOracle ULA and PULA are commercial program overlays rather than license metrics, and the ACE policy excludes ULA licenses used in Authorized Cloud Environments from end-of-term certification.
Oracle VM VirtualBox licensingOracle VM VirtualBox is licensed as a GPL base package, a PUEL-licensed Extension Pack, and a commercial Enterprise Program sold by Named Workstation User or Socket.
Oracle WebLogic Server licensingOracle WebLogic Server is licensed on premises by Processor or Named User Plus across Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, and WebLogic Suite, with a 10 NUP per Processor minimum.
P
Power Platform is licensed through per-user subscriptions (Power Apps Premium, Power Automate Premium), per-bot or per-flow capacity licenses (Power Automate Process, Hosted Process, per flow), tenant capacity add-ons, and pay-as-you-go meters billed to an Azure subscription, such as the Power Apps per app meter.
Processor and core licensingProcessor and core licensing measures entitlement by the hardware capacity on which software is installed or runs, counted per processor, per core, per socket or in weighted capacity units such as IBM PVUs, with vendor-specific core factors and minimums.
PTC Creo and Windchill licensingPTC licenses Creo and Mathcad mainly per Concurrent User (FlexNet floating) and Windchill per Registered User or Active Daily User, under the PTC Customer Agreement and product Licensing Basis documents, with new licenses sold by subscription.
Q
Qlik licenses Qlik Cloud Analytics by Data for Analysis capacity (Users for Starter), Qlik Sense Enterprise SaaS and client-managed Qlik Sense by Professional and Analyzer Users or metered Analyzer Capacity minutes, with legacy Token and core-based options.
Quest Software licensingQuest Software licenses each product by a License Type defined in its Product Guide: Seat for Toad desktops, Core, Factored Core, CPU Socket or vCPU for servers, Single Source and/or Target for SharePlex and Managed Physical CPU or monitored instances for Foglight, under a perpetual-by-default Software Transaction Agreement with annual Maintenance.
R
Red Hat sells Ansible Automation Platform and Red Hat Satellite per Managed Node, counting every node managed directly or indirectly during the subscription term, with no recycling of counts and separate SKUs for developer, operating-system and out-of-band use.
Red Hat Cloud Access and pay-as-you-go cloud subscriptionsOn public clouds, Red Hat customers either deploy existing Eligible Subscriptions under Cloud Access, keeping their Appendix 1 Units and paying the cloud provider separately, or buy pay-as-you-go On-Demand offerings that Red Hat meters in vCPU hours or core hours and bills monthly through the marketplace.
Red Hat Enterprise Agreement, Appendix 1 terms and support levelsRed Hat subscriptions are governed by the Enterprise Agreement General Terms, Product Appendices and Order Forms, which require every deployed Unit to be subscribed, auto-renew terms, allow Red Hat to verify compliance for a year after the agreement ends, set a 45-day true-up in practice, and attach Self-support, Standard or Premium service levels to each subscription.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux and OpenShift subscription licensingRed Hat sells Subscription Services against counted Units defined in Product Appendix 1, with RHEL Server purchased per Socket-pair for each Physical Node or 2 Virtual Nodes and self-managed OpenShift compute purchased per Core-pair.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription variantsRed Hat sells Red Hat Enterprise Linux as a family of variants that share Appendix 1 Units such as Socket-pair, Virtual Node and System but differ in Supported Use Case, support level, stacking, add-on eligibility and whether they may be used for production, with separate no-cost developer offerings and lifecycle add-ons.
Red Hat OpenShift editions, node roles and core countingSelf-managed OpenShift is sold in four editions per Core-pair or Bare Metal Node, with control plane and qualifying infrastructure nodes excluded from the count, compact and single-node clusters fully counted, and separate rules for OpenShift Virtualization Engine, IBM Z, AI Accelerators and Platform Plus components.
Request for proposal (RFP) template for a SAM toolIllustrative request for proposal template for the provision, implementation and support of a software asset management (SAM) tool, with scope, integration, implementation, proposal requirements, evaluation weights and an indicative timeline.
RISE with SAP and GROW with SAP commercial constructsRISE with SAP and GROW with SAP are subscription bundles for SAP's private and public cloud ERP, counted in Full Usage Equivalents that customers allocate across developer, advanced, core and self-service use types, with bundled cloud services sized by FUE tier and on-premise rights tied to support-fee conversion.
S
Data 360 is metered in credits consumed per million rows, megabytes or events at a multiplier for each usage type, paid either in Data Services Credits (a fixed Production and Sandbox rate card) or in Flex Credits (monthly volume tiers per usage type), with no rollover past the Order End Date.
Salesforce User and consumption licensingSalesforce sells Purchased Services as contractual User subscriptions with exactly one Setup user license per user, optional Permission Set License overlays, login-based daily unique logins, and consumption metrics such as Flex Credits, Einstein Requests and Conversations.
SAP BusinessObjects BI licensingSAP BusinessObjects BI is licensed per Deployment on either named Users or Concurrent Sessions, with one edition per Deployment, a 10-session cap per User, tool restrictions on Concurrent Session licences, unlimited non-productive installations, and fixed user and session caps on the Edge editions.
SAP HANA runtime and full-use licensingSAP licenses the HANA database either as a full-use enterprise edition measured in gigabytes of memory or as runtime editions (REAB, REAB-Partial, Runtime for BW, Limited Runtime) whose fee follows HANA SAP Application Value and whose use is confined to the SAP software they support.
SAP Named User and Digital Access licensingOn-premise SAP software requires both a Named User License and a Package License under the Software Use Rights enGLOBAL.v.4-2026, while SAP S/4HANA Digital Access licenses indirect and non-human use by Documents created annually.
SAP package and engine metricsOn-premise SAP software needs a Package License counted on a business metric defined in Exhibit 2 of the Software Use Rights, such as Revenues, Employees, Gigabytes of Memory, SAP Application Value, Managed Systems or Flat Fee, and use of each Package may never exceed its Licensed Level.
SAP S/4HANA contract conversion programmesExisting SAP ERP customers can move to SAP S/4HANA through a line-item product conversion, a wholesale contract conversion onto new S/4HANA Software Use Rights, or a conversion of on-premise support fees into cloud subscriptions, with dual use rights until the transition completes and hybrid rights tied to converting at least half the support fee.
ServiceNow App Engine and custom table licensingServiceNow counts every table a customer creates that ServiceNow does not provide as a custom table that must be mapped to a subscription with custom table entitlements; App Engine packages supply those entitlements (unlimited at Prime), while App Engine Studio and Creator Studio need their own subscriptions.
ServiceNow ITOM subscription unitsServiceNow ITOM products are billed in Subscription Units: each product counts the configuration items it manages, assigns them to CI categories, averages 90 daily counts and divides by a contractual CI-per-unit ratio, with bundle subscriptions consumed before a la carte ones.
ServiceNow Now Assist licensingServiceNow licenses Now Assist (ServiceNow Otto) generative AI through account-level assist entitlements consumed per skill action at a skill-specific assist ratio, per-user Creator Plus subscriptions counted once across instances, and product tiers that decide whether custom skills and agents may be built.
ServiceNow product tiers and packagesServiceNow packages its workflow products in three tiers, Foundation, Advanced and Prime, that add AI capabilities cumulatively; some current documents still use the older Professional (Pro), Enterprise, Pro Plus and Enterprise Plus names, and ServiceNow publishes no mapping between the two schemes.
ServiceNow user and subscription-unit licensingServiceNow sells Now Platform subscriptions measured by Per-User meters (Fulfiller, Business Stakeholder and Creator User), instance-wide Unrestricted User, Capacity meters such as Subscription Units, Devices and Transactions, and unmeasured Unlimited and Display Only types.
ServiceNow user roles and per-user subscriptionsServiceNow measures per-user subscriptions through roles: fulfiller roles consume Fulfiller User entitlements, the business_stakeholder role consumes Business Stakeholder User entitlements, approver_user carries a fee, and requesters who hold no measured role are not a published meter at all.
Siemens Digital Industries Software licensingSiemens Digital Industries Software licenses its PLM software as Floating, Named User or Node-Locked seats, sold as Subscription, Rental or Perpetual licenses under the Universal Customer Agreement, with Tokens, Value Based Licenses, License Units, Cores and Credits as add-on metrics.
Slack active-member licensing and Fair Billing PolicyPaid Slack plans bill active members rather than provisioned seats. Under the Fair Billing Policy a member unused for over 28 days is credited pro rata, Multi-Channel Guests are paid, Single-Channel Guests are free up to five per paid member, and invoiced plans are reconciled quarterly.
Snowflake credit consumptionSnowflake meters compute in Platform Credits consumed per second by warehouse size, serverless features in Compute-Hours times a feature multiplier, AI features in AI Credits and storage in average terabytes per month, priced by edition, cloud region and On Demand or Capacity purchase.
Software asset managementSoftware asset management (SAM) is the discipline of managing software and the rights to use it through their life cycle, reconciling what an organization has deployed and uses against what it is entitled to, in order to control cost, contractual risk and security exposure.
Software asset management training courseA nine-module training outline for software asset management covering definitions, frameworks, the software life cycle, license compliance, tooling, governance, KPIs, maturity and common pitfalls, with tables and exercises.
Software entitlementA software entitlement is the right to use software that a customer has acquired, described by product, edition, license metric, quantity, term and use rights, and evidenced by contract and ordering documents; ISO/IEC 19770-3 defines a standard format for recording it.
Software licenseA software license is a grant of permission by the rights holder to use software in ways that copyright would otherwise reserve, defining who may use it, how much, for how long and on what conditions; it underlies both proprietary and free and open-source distribution.
Software license agreement templateIllustrative business-to-business software license agreement template with placeholders, covering grant, restrictions, delivery, updates and support, IP, confidentiality, termination, warranties, governing law and execution.
Software license auditA software license audit is a licensor's contractual verification of whether a customer's use of software matches its license rights, typically carried out under an audit or verification clause through notice, data collection, findings and remediation.
Software licensing modelsSoftware licensing models are the families of license metrics by which publishers measure and charge for software use, including processor, core and capacity units, named and concurrent users, devices, site and enterprise counts, subscriptions and consumption credits, feature-based licensing and OEM licenses.
Software licensing term glossaryTraining glossary of general software licensing and SAM terms and of common license metrics, each with the vendors or bodies it is associated with and a short definition.
Software maintenance and supportSoftware maintenance and support is a recurring contract, separate from or bundled with a license, that gives the customer updates, rights to new versions and technical assistance for a period, subject to vendor policies on coverage, lapse and reinstatement.
Software renewal tracker templateIllustrative Notion template for tracking software contract renewals: database properties, supporting databases, views, reminders and integrations, plus usage guidance, best practices and troubleshooting.
Splunk licensing under CiscoSplunk Enterprise is licensed either by Daily Indexing Volume or by vCPU, Splunk Cloud Platform by Daily Indexing Volume or Splunk Virtual Compute (SVC), and the security and observability products each have their own capacity unit; volume licenses below 100 GB a day can have search disabled after repeated overages.
SQL Server licensingSQL Server 2025 is licensed under the Microsoft Product Terms either Per Core, with a minimum of four core licenses per physical processor or virtual OSE, or Server/CAL, with one Server License per instance plus CALs.
Subscription and consumption licensingSubscription licensing grants use rights for a defined term, usually per user or per capacity unit, while consumption licensing meters use in credits, tokens or other units drawn down from a prepaid or committed balance, such as Oracle Universal Credits, Autodesk Flex Tokens and Salesforce Flex Credits.
SUSE Linux Enterprise and Rancher Prime subscriptionsSUSE sells time-bound Subscriptions counted in Units of Measure set by its Product Appendices: SLES per 1-2 Sockets or 1-2 Virtual Machines, per 1-2 Sockets with Unlimited Virtual Machines, per IFL or per group of Arm Cores, and SUSE Rancher Prime per Cores and vCPUs or Sockets and Cores.
Symantec and Carbon Black enterprise security licensingBroadcom licenses Symantec Endpoint Security per managed device, Symantec Network Protection per User (people plus every 8 GB of traffic, up to four devices each), PGP encryption per Device, Server or User, and Carbon Black per Endpoint, and offers Portfolio License Agreements measured in Software Consumption Units.
T
Tableau is licensed per user by role (Creator, Explorer, Viewer, with Display for shared screens), or on Tableau Server per core, with each user consuming one license set by the highest site role and editions that cannot be mixed within a deployment.
True-upA true-up is a periodic reconciliation under an enterprise software agreement in which the customer reports and pays for growth in licensed use since the last reconciliation, at pre-agreed terms; a true-forward bills such growth prospectively for the rest of the term.
V
Veeam licenses Veeam Data Platform on the Veeam Universal License (VUL), a portable License Instance consumed per protected workload (one per VM, server or cloud VM, three workstations, 500 GB of unstructured data or 10 Entra ID users), alongside legacy per-CPU Socket licenses, per-TB Capacity Packs, per-User offerings and VCSP rental points.
Virtualization and partitioningVirtualization and partitioning rules decide whether a license count follows the whole physical host or only the virtual capacity assigned to the software, covering Oracle hard and soft partitioning, IBM sub-capacity with ILMT, Microsoft Virtual OSE and License Mobility, Red Hat virtual nodes, Broadcom core counting and container licensing.
Visual Studio subscriptions licensingVisual Studio subscriptions are licensed per user under the Developer Tools license model: each licensed user may run subscriber software on any number of devices to design, develop, test and demonstrate programs, but not in a Production Environment, with a monthly Azure credit restricted to dev/test.
VMware Cloud Foundation add-on licensingBroadcom licenses VCF add-ons on their own metrics. vDefend Firewall is sold per Core with deployment-specific purchase ratios, Avi Load Balancer per Service Unit with a five-unit bare-metal floor per Processor, and VMware Live Recovery per protected VM plus protected TiB for Live Cyber Recovery.
VMware Cloud Service Provider ProgramThe VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP) Program licenses VMware Cloud Foundation to service providers on commit contracts measured in core usage per hour by the mandatory VCF usage meter, with subscription-only license keys and a 125% key generation cap since July 7, 2025.
VMware perpetual licensing end of availabilityAfter the December 11, 2023 announcement, Broadcom stopped selling VMware perpetual licenses and Support and Subscription renewals for perpetual offerings; existing perpetual licenses keep working after SnS expiry, but patches, support and upgrades require active SnS, and legacy perpetual upgrades are capped at vSphere and vSAN 8.x and VCF 5.x.
VMware vSphere and VMware Cloud Foundation licensingBroadcom licenses VMware vSphere, VMware Cloud Foundation and VMware vSphere Foundation as subscription software per Core with a minimum of 16 Core licenses per Processor, the vSAN add-on per TiB of raw claimed storage, and VCF Edge per Core with an 8-Core-per-Processor floor.
W
Windows Server 2025 Standard and Datacenter are licensed Per Core/CAL, with at least 8 core licenses per physical processor and 16 per server, plus CALs or External Connectors for access, while Essentials uses a separate OEM server license.
Workday subscription licensingWorkday sells multi-year SaaS subscriptions priced by employees, users and other size metrics that cannot be reduced during the Order Term, with Flex Credits and API Request entitlements metering agents and integrations on top.
Archive
Archived LICENSEWARE Wiki white papers and galleries, kept as sources. They are not cited encyclopedia articles and may contain outdated claims.
- White papers by software vendorIndex
- Adobe Retires VIP Commercial Program - 05/31/25Adobe
- Adobe White PaperAdobe
- Adobe White PapersAdobe
- Broadcom Faces EU Scrutiny Over Controversial VMware Licensing PracticesBroadcom
- Deploying Microsoft products in hybrid environmentsMicrosoft
- Does running Oracle DB on VMware increase the risk of license non-compliance?Broadcom
- Five Oracle Licensing Pitfalls to AvoidOracle
- From Microsoft to Open SourceMicrosoft
- History of Microsoft SQL ServerMicrosoft
- How do I determine which Windows Server edition is more economical?Microsoft
- How do you determine the right sub for a Red Hat server?Red Hat
- How do you license SQL Server 2022 in containers?Microsoft
- How Poor Microsoft License Management Impacts Your IT BudgetMicrosoft
- How to assess your Java licensingOracle
- How to check if your Red Hat server is licensedRed Hat
- How to collect Dynamics 365 activity loggingMicrosoft
- How to collect Dynamics 365 usage dataMicrosoft
- How to collect Power Apps activity loggingMicrosoft
- IBM (ITAM Handbook vendor rules)IBM
- IBM DB2 Licensing White PaperIBM
- IBM White PapersIBM
- Identifying VMware Version and License KeyBroadcom
- Impact of the Broadcom-VMware acquisition on customersBroadcom
- Introduction to Microsoft Core licensing modelsMicrosoft
- Introduction to Oracle Enterprise AgreementOracle
- Introduction to Oracle Master AgreementOracle
- Is Oracle Linux free?Oracle
- Maximizing Flexibility: The Power of Oracle Fusion Cloud Contract RebalancingOracle
- Microsoft 365 licensing guideMicrosoft
- Microsoft 365 White PaperMicrosoft
- Microsoft CAL Suite Licenses ExplainedMicrosoft
- Microsoft Enterprise Agreement: benefits, drawbacks, and negotiation tipsMicrosoft
- Microsoft Flexible Virtualization Benefit – What you need to knowMicrosoft
- Microsoft License Mobility Quick GuideMicrosoft
- Microsoft Open Agreement: benefits, drawbacks, and negotiation tipsMicrosoft
- Microsoft SPLA: benefits, drawbacks, and negotiation tipsMicrosoft
- Microsoft SQL Server 2022 licensing guideMicrosoft
- Microsoft SQL Server in AWS – what to consider for a cost-efficient setup?Microsoft
- Microsoft System Center 2022 licensing guideMicrosoft
- Microsoft System Center 2025 White PaperMicrosoft
- Microsoft Volume Licensing guideMicrosoft
- Microsoft White PapersMicrosoft
- Middleware White PaperRed Hat
- Migrating Oracle DB (On-Prem) to the CloudOracle
- Named User LicensesIndex
- Navigating Changes in Oracle Java Licensing and PricingOracle
- Navigating Oracle EBS Licensing in 2025: Key Insights for IT LeadersOracle
- Oracle cost optimization tipsOracle
- Oracle DB Compliance Risk ScenariosOracle
- Oracle DB: Achieve Compliance and Cost OptimizationOracle
- Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) White PaperOracle
- Oracle Java Pricelist 06/23Oracle
- Oracle Licensing for VMware EnvironmentsBroadcom
- Oracle Middleware licensing overviewOracle
- Oracle ULA – How to certify the unlimited agreementOracle
- Oracle ULA vs. PULA – Flexibility or Long-term StabilityOracle
- Oracle VirtualBox Licensing GuideOracle
- Oracle WebLogic Server: Editions & CostOracle
- Oracle White PapersOracle
- Oracle’s tactics guiding clients to new DB versionsOracle
- Paid and free alternatives to Red Hat Enterprise LinuxRed Hat
- Quick guide to Oracle Database LicensingOracle
- Quick guide to RISE with SAP and GROW with SAPSAP
- Quick guide to SAP BTP LicensingSAP
- Quick guide to SAP Concur LicensingSAP
- Quick guide to SAP Digital AccessSAP
- Quick guide to SAP HANA Database LicensingSAP
- Quick guide to SAP LicensingSAP
- Quick guide to SAP S/4HANA LicensingSAP
- Quick guide to SAP SuccessFactors LicensingSAP
- Red Hat White PapersRed Hat
- RHEL White PaperRed Hat
- SAP White PapersSAP
- Simplifying SQL Licensing with Maximum Virtualisation AnalysisMicrosoft
- SQL Server 2008 - 2022 White PaperMicrosoft
- SQL Server 2025 White PaperMicrosoft
- The Advantages of Red Hat’s Socket-based Licensing MetricRed Hat
- The true cost of an Oracle licenseOracle
- Understanding Microsoft LicensingMicrosoft
- Understanding Red Hat Agreement TypesRed Hat
- Understanding Red Hat’s Licensing ModelRed Hat
- Understanding VMware’s Licensing ModelBroadcom
- VMware Horizon Pricing, Packaging, and LicensingBroadcom
- VMware vSphere 8 Licensing and ManagementBroadcom
- VMware White PaperBroadcom
- VMware White PapersBroadcom
- VMware’s Lawsuit Against Siemens: A Stark Reminder to Get Your Software Licensing in OrderBroadcom
- VMware’s Mandatory Compliance Reporting: What You Need to KnowBroadcom
- What is an Oracle Audit and what does it mean for you?Oracle
- What is Oracle License Management Services (LMS)?Oracle
- What you need to know about the Microsoft Product Terms documentMicrosoft
- Why Do I Need To Run Oracle Review Lite?Oracle
- Windows Server 2008 - 2022 White PaperMicrosoft
- Windows Server 2025 White PaperMicrosoft