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License Manager

Dec 22, 20243 min read

Overview

AWS License Manager is a service provided by Amazon Web Services that helps organizations manage their software licenses from various vendors to ensure compliance with the vendorsā€™ licensing agreements. This service simplifies the management of software licenses, which can include Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, and IBM products, among others, that require licenses based on core, socket, or VM (virtual machine) capacities.

Key Features of AWS License Manager

  1. Centralized License Management: AWS License Manager allows administrators to centrally manage licenses across AWS and on-premises environments. This centralization helps ensure that an organizationā€™s software license usage stays within legal and contractual terms, thus avoiding compliance issues and reducing licensing costs.

  2. Automated License Tracking: The service automates the tracking of software licenses used in your environment. This includes the ability to set rules that match your licensing terms and prevent over-provisioning, which can lead to non-compliance.

  3. Integration with AWS Services: License Manager integrates seamlessly with various AWS services, including EC2, RDS (Relational Database Service), and Marketplace, to track licenses of products used within these services. It also works with AWS Organizations to provide management at scale.

  4. Cross-Account Visibility: It supports cross-account visibility that enables management of licenses across multiple AWS accounts, simplifying the tracking and enforcement of license rules under consolidated billing.

  5. License-included Instances: Supports management of licenses included with EC2 instances and RDS databases, helping ensure that even automatically managed licenses do not exceed the allowed limits.

How It Works

  • Define Licensing Rules: Set up licensing rules in AWS License Manager that reflect the terms of your agreements. These rules specify limits based on the number of cores, sockets, or virtual machines.

  • Launch Instances: When you launch an instance (such as an EC2 instance or an RDS instance), License Manager checks to ensure your license configurations conform to your defined rules. If a launch attempt violates a licensing rule, it can be blocked or allowed with notifications based on your settings.

  • Dashboard Monitoring: Use the AWS License Manager dashboard to monitor and manage your license usage. The dashboard provides insights into how licenses are being used across your AWS and on-premises environments, helping you stay compliant.

  • Manage License Counts: Continuously monitor and manage the number of licenses in use. You can adjust limits and manage allocations to prevent non-compliance due to overuse.

Benefits

  • Cost Savings: Helps reduce costs by avoiding unnecessary license purchases and penalties due to non-compliance.

  • Simplified Compliance: Makes it easier to stay compliant with license terms set by software vendors, thus reducing the risk of compliance issues.

  • Flexibility and Scalability: Offers the flexibility to apply license terms across hybrid environments (both AWS and on-premises) and scales as your usage grows.

Use Cases

  • Software Asset Management: Ideal for large organizations that need to manage licenses across extensive software portfolios to ensure compliance and optimize spending.

  • Cloud Migration: Useful during cloud migration projects to manage licenses as workloads are moved from on-premises environments to AWS, ensuring that licensing remains aligned with usage.

  • Enterprise IT Management: Supports enterprise IT teams in managing their software licenses effectively as part of their overall IT asset management strategy.

AWS License Manager provides an effective solution for managing software licenses in cloud-based and hybrid IT environments, offering tools and capabilities to ensure compliance, optimize license usage, and reduce costs.

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