Symantec Workspace Streaming: Enabling the Dynamic Management of Software Licenses

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1 WHITE PAPER: LICENSE MANAGEMENT Symantec Workspace Streaming: Enabling the Dynamic Management of Software Licenses Who should read this paper IT organizations that need to move beyond the static environment to manage application licenses should read this white paper. Before, the workforce environment was mobile in which most users worked in the office, from the same computers this management method is no longer sufficient. The flexibility needed to support today s mobile work force while providing the control, efficiencies and cost savings, is required by IT organizations.

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3 WHITE PAPER: LICENSE MANAGEMENT Symantec Workspace Streaming: Enabling the Dynamic Management of Software Licenses Content Executive Summary Challenges with Traditional Approaches to License Management Licensing Strategies for Today s Workplace Just-in-Time Computing: Putting Effective Licensing Strategy in Place License Management with Symantec Workspace Streaming Conclusion

4 Executive Summary The methods that IT organizations historically used to manage licenses when there were static environments in which most users worked in the office, from the same computers are no longer sufficient. They don t provide the flexibility needed to support today s mobile work force. And they don t provide the control, efficiencies, and cost savings that IT requires. IT organizations need a new approach that addresses the priority that has been placed on reducing total cost of ownership (TCO), while enabling a portable user experience in which workspaces can be dynamically configured, license management can be automated, and user productivity can be improved. Symantec makes this possible with just-in-time computing enabled through Symantec Workspace Streaming, an on-demand application delivery and license management system that enables IT to capture all the rules associated with licenses and automatically enforces them. Using Workspace Streaming, customers can instantly provision the right resources to users as they need them, regardless of their device or location; eliminate the need for daily IT interaction; improve license compliance; and optimize license usage and reharvesting all while saving significant management time and IT costs. Challenges with Traditional Approaches to License Management Traditional license management approaches were originally designed for static environments in which all of a company s users work in the office, always access applications and data from the same computers, and in which software installations are targeted at machines and computers that are infrequently updated. They require IT to choose between models that maximize end user productivity and models that enhance IT control and contain costs. Companies that deem user productivity to be most important may end up allocating application licenses for every device that a user might need the software on leading to excessive license consumption. Organizations that focus on control and cost containment may implement terminal services across the enterprise, since it delivers the best cost-per-user. However, terminal services only supports users who are always connected to the corporate network and isn t appropriate for people who need dedicated computer power. To get around this either/or proposition, some companies adopt heterogeneous computing infrastructures and assign different groups within their IT organization to manage desktops, terminal services, and VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) environments. While these siloed teams often support the same, or overlapping, user base, they each handle their own application packaging and licensing. And because traditional license management wasn t designed to support these mixed environments, these companies end up with duplicate efforts and sets of licenses. Not only has the makeup of the corporate computing environment changed, the nature of the workforce has evolved during the past decade, making traditional license approaches much less effective. Today s workforce is comprised of people who are increasingly mobile, whether traveling for business, working from remote offices, or telecommuting. This growing mobility has considerable implications on computer and software usage. Instead of working from the same computers at the same locations, today s employees may use one computer in the main office, another when in a branch location, a company-owned laptop when travelling, or their own personal laptop when working from home or even in the office. Wherever they are, these users need to access their applications. Enabling this kind of anytime, anywhere access is expensive and complicated for companies that employ traditional license management techniques. It requires that they adhere to a maximum-configuration model, where IT invests tremendous time and resources into preparing systems with pre-loaded applications including developing images, testing co-existing applications for compatibility, and installing those applications. IT also ends up expending a lot of time updating and remediating these highly populated devices. Not only do these efforts represent a significant resource drain, they don t address the needs of all users, such as people who bring their own personal devices to work; 1

5 these employees typically cannot access the corporate network or get their . And, because traditional license tools don t provide muchneeded intelligence on who is using which applications, what devices employees are using, or what the usage levels are, there is no way for these companies to know whether all of the licenses that are allocated and, therefore, consumed are actually being used. For instance, licenses may be unnecessarily consumed by sleeper users who never or rarely use an application; on hardware that is infrequently utilized; and by ghost employees whose licenses remain unaccounted for when they leave the company or change jobs within the organization and no longer require the applications. Even if IT creates scripts to monitor inventory, information will inevitably fall through the cracks when applications are running on laptops that are disconnected or on virtual desktops that are not activated when the script runs. Because they lack critical license information, companies that want to avoid non-compliance typically pay for more licenses than are needed and waste licenses that could have been repurposed. As a result, overlicensing and overspending are rampant. This high degree of spending is in direct conflict with today s economic conditions. Companies across the board are operating with less budget and fewer IT staff. As a result, their main focus now is on cutting near-term costs and reducing the amount of effort and money that it takes to maintain technologies throughout their lifecycles both of which are extremely difficult to achieve with traditional license management approaches. Licensing Strategies for Today s Workplace To effectively support today s workplace, companies need a new approach to license management one that is tailored to a highly mobile workforce, can efficiently handle a variety of computing environments and license models while capturing real-time license information, and is aligned with current fiscal realities. IT departments that want to meet the corporate directive for lower TCO without negatively impacting user productivity must re-examine the way they manage the user workspace. The workspace consumes the greatest amount of variable IT staff time and money with ongoing activities and costs associated with licensing, delivering, supporting, and maintaining applications, whether the desktop is physical or virtual, local or remote. As such, the workspace affords the greatest opportunity to affect savings. The right licensing strategy can transform the way IT manages the user workspace. It can help improve efficiencies, reduce the need for daily IT involvement, and lower costs for application deployment, support, and maintenance. Effective licensing management can also facilitate user productivity by enabling the workspace to follow the user, so that employees can access the resources they need from any location and any endpoint device, while making it easy for IT to support heterogeneous environments, employing a variety of models (desktop, VDI, terminal services, or a hybrid approach) as appropriate to user needs. By adopting a licensing management strategy that transforms workspace management, organizations can realize their budgetary goals while effectively supporting the needs of a dynamic workplace. Just-in-Time Computing: Putting Effective Licensing Strategy in Place Just-in-time computing is a user-centric approach to computing that enables companies to provision the resources users need, just when they need them, wherever they are and it is essential to effective license management. With just-in-time computing, instead of spending time and resources pre-configuring fully loaded systems that, in all likelihood, won t be completely utilized, IT organizations postpone setting up systems and consuming application licenses until they know exactly what each user s needs are. IT can adopt a minimum-configuration strategy, where it creates a standard image with the lowest-common denominator installation (for example, the operating system and security software) and delivers applications, upon request, to appropriate users. 2

6 To make just-in-time computing work, organizations must have a license management system that is rules-oriented and that can respond automatically to user actions. This way, when a user shows up by logging in (using domain logon, directory service, etc.), IT knows who they are, what role they play in the organization, where they are, what device is at their disposal, what applications they are authorized to use, and whether the licenses for those applications are available. The automated roles-based license rules engine makes sure that the right workspace resources are available to the user in the manner IT prescribed. And by leveraging on-demand deployment capabilities, the moment the user clicks on an icon, the application if not already on the device is streamed so that the user can begin working with it immediately. For instance, Microsoft Office might automatically start streaming in the background so that it is already there when the user needs it, while the rest of the user s applications are represented as icons only and streamed when required. By postponing assignment of licenses and delivery of applications until the user and her device are identified, IT not only avoids a tremendous amount of upfront effort, it can reserve application licenses for when and where they are actually required. License Management with Symantec Workspace Streaming Workspace Streaming is an on-demand application delivery and license management system that uses just-in-time computing to solve the management and cost challenges traditionally associated with licensing. It works across all computing models rich desktops, laptops that can be disconnected, VDI, and terminal services providing a unified solution for centrally managing and provisioning licenses enterprisewide. Workspace Streaming enables IT to easily capture all license rules up front, and then the solution does all the work of following and enforcing the rules. This automated rules enforcement enables IT to essentially guarantee compliance with license agreements while optimizing license usage. Workspace Streaming integrates the rules engine with streaming functionality so that IT can deliver and maintain minimally configured systems and still ensure that users get all the applications they need to do their jobs. These capabilities relieve IT of ongoing license management efforts, driving out costs and enabling a much more efficient process. Comprehensive License Rules Configuration Organizations that use Workspace Streaming begin by capturing license rules associated with each software provider agreement. This includes the number of licenses purchased, how many can be used simultaneously, whether to employ hard number enforcement or liberal distribution with alerts and future true-ups, and the type of license model employed, such as: User-based model - where an application is licensed for a particular user, for use on multiple machines. IT can configure licensing for several or unlimited instances. If a different user who also has a license for that application logs onto the same machine, the software is already there so it doesn t have to be streamed again, and Workspace Streaming recognizes that the second user is working via a separate license. Concurrent model - typically used in terminal services environments, where IT sets a specified number of users to access an application at the same time. Host-based - where an unlimited number of users can access the license when using the same device. Next, IT sets rules for license distribution and acquisition, tying in with its directory service through LDAP integration, to dictate who can use the licenses and under what circumstances. Applications are assigned based on logical roles and/or group membership such as human resources, marketing, sales, and contractors enabling a tailored, portable workspace that follows each user. Because applications can be 3

7 allocated to all users who might need them, whether now or in the future, IT can be assured that users will instantly be able to get the applications they require wherever they are, without having to contact IT for assistance and without interrupting user productivity. IT can configure licenses for provisioning in a number of ways: Pre-streamed upon first login - such as with the Microsoft Office example cited earlier. Displayed as icons - with the applications streamed only when requested for actual use. Workspace Streaming automatically identifies the startup block the minimum code needed to get the application up and running and streams that to the memory on the user s device. The user doesn t have to wait for the entire application to be downloaded before being able to work with it. Accessible through an application portal - when users go to the portal and click on an icon for software that they are allowed to access, the application is streamed to their device. (This method is beneficial for second- and third-tier applications that are less frequently required, and would unnecessarily clutter the desktop or start menu if their icons were pre-populated on the user s workspace.) Licenses can be configured for online, offline and/or offline-if-laptop modes, the latter of which enables administrators to specify that an application is automatically available and 100 percent streamed for offline use if Workspace Streaming determines that it is being accessed via a laptop or other mobile device. These options allow IT to dictate that certain users will not be able to access licenses when offline and ensure productivity for other users by allowing them to access particular applications when disconnected from the corporate network. IT can also set expiration dates for allocated licenses, if needed. For instance, IT staff in educational institutions can configure license longevity to match class duration, and corporate IT staff can assign an application to a contractor and enable it for offline use with an expiration date that coincides with the end of the engagement. Once any required expiration dates are configured, IT can create cost optimization guidelines, prescribing idle time re-harvesting and icon retention rules. With all the rules associated with licenses established, the foundation is now set for Workspace Streaming s rules enforcement engine to implement them. Optimizing Licenses through Automated, Real-time Rules Enforcement Workspace Streaming provides real-time usage monitoring and automated enforcement of licenses rules, whether those licenses are for virtualized software that has been streamed, software that has been locally installed via traditional methods, applications used on disconnected devices, or in VDI environments. This makes it easy for companies to remain in compliance without over-purchasing licenses and to reharvest licenses that aren t being used ultimately optimizing licenses and reducing spending. The solution s client-side enforcement capabilities ensure that the scenarios IT configured in advance such as trial period expiry, onetime use, and idle periods will be implemented. One-time use: Consider, for instance, the contractor configuration noted previously. When the contractor logs onto her computer, the appropriate application icon shows up on the desktop. When the time period is over, Workspace Streaming automatically removes the application and the icon, and the contractor cannot reacquire the license. Idle periods: In an idle period scenario, IT might have specified that a license for an application, such as Microsoft Project, that is used by a particular project manager can be inactive for 90 days. When the time period is up, if the manager hasn t accessed the application, Workspace Streaming s real-time rules enforcement uninstalls and completely removes the application. That license can then be reharvested for another authorized user; the application will be streamed when that second user clicks on the icon. If, during the configuration phase, IT specified that the icon can remain on the original manager s workspace, however, and he clicks the icon after the 4

8 idle period, he can access the application if another user hasn t already consumed the license. IT is not involved in reassigning the license or reprovisioning the application. Simplifying License Management through Notifications License management is also simplified through notifications that IT can configure in advance. Because querying individual users about their license usage simply is not practical, Workspace Streaming offers default notifications that automatically alert IT to take action on licenses consumed. This way, if utilization reaches 90 percent because of new hires or a new project, IT can decide to purchase additional licenses for that application. Or if IT is alerted that consumption is low because employees haven t used an application in more than 60 days, the staff can reharvest those licenses instead of purchasing additional ones. Reharvesting can save enterprises tremendous amounts of money. Ensuring Compliance and Maximizing Investments through Reporting and Integrated Asset Management The license information that Workspace Streaming captures can also be leveraged for auditing purposes. IT can run reports on license usage and share them with software vendors to prove compliance with license agreements. Organizations can also use the reports to show a particular ISV that licenses are continually underutilized, and can then renegotiate the number of licenses they maintain and pay for. Because Symantec recognizes that enterprises may also have other Symantec and third-party asset and contract management solutions, Workspace Streaming makes it easy to share all of the license information that it captures. Enterprises can use Workspace Streaming s Web services to integrate with these systems, exchanging data about license usage and availability, and thereby maximizing their IT investments and their license management capabilities. Conclusion Budget-constrained organizations that want to reduce endpoint TCO while maximizing worker productivity must take a user-centric, just-intime computing approach to license management. Workspace Streaming makes this possible by providing an automated, roles-based license rules engine with client-side enforcement and flexible, on-demand application streaming. As a result, IT no longer wastes resources and time on efforts and licenses that aren t required; instead, licenses are delivered and consumed only when they are truly needed for productive use, and can be easily recovered and repurposed. And users can instantly access their workspace from any location and device, without burdening the IT staff. Workspace Streaming enables the dynamic management of licenses that today s businesses require. 5

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10 About Symantec Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage, and systems management solutions to help consumers and organizations secure and manage their information-driven world. Our software and services protect against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently, enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., Symantec has operations in 40 countries. More information is available at For specific country offices and contact numbers, please visit our website. Symantec World Headquarters 350 Ellis St. Mountain View, CA USA +1 (650) (800) Symantec helps organizations secure and manage their information-driven world with endpoint virtualization, server virtualization, and application virtualization. Copyright 2011 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved. Symantec, the Symantec Logo, and the Checkmark Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Symantec Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. 1/