Naming conventions/Glossary
Zentitle2 naming conventions and descriptions
Grace Period
A grace period in software licensing is a specified amount of time given by a software vendor after a subscription (time-based) license has expired, during which the software can still be used without penalty or disruption.
This period is designed to give users time to renew or update their licenses without having to stop using the software immediately. The grace period can vary depending on the software vendor and the specific license agreement but typically ranges from a few days to a few weeks.
It's important to note that the grace period does not extend the license term, and users must still renew or update their licenses within the designated time frame to avoid any potential legal or financial consequences. Also note that the renewal period starts when the prior term expired rather than extending from the end of the grace period.
Linger Period
A linger period in software licensing refers to the minimum amount of time a license can be checked out - typically in a concurrent use license. This concept particularly applies to applications with relatively short execution times (like compilers, linkers, etc.) Setting a linger period of, say, 1 hour, means that an end user will need a reasonable number of concurrent licenses to get their work done.
Lease period
The lease period in software licensing specifies the amount of time the application can run locally with a cached view of the license rights before forcing a refresh of those rights from the cloud-based repository (or a local license server).
Note: the lease period is completely independent of the term of the license itself (the license could be perpetual, a subscription, etc.).
Plan
Plans also define the activation rule that should be used for entitlements with that plan - such as 'Activate upon first use,' 'Activate upon creation,' and 'Activate Manually'. Sample plans may include a 1-year subscription, a perpetual (non-expiring) license, a 30-day trial, etc.
You can define as many plans as you wish, subject to your subscription.
License type:
Perpetual
A perpetual license is a type of software license that grants the user the right to use the software indefinitely, without any time limitations. With a perpetual license, the user typically pays a one-time fee upfront for the right to use the software for as long as they want, without any ongoing fees or subscriptions.
Under a perpetual license, the user is often entitled to technical support and software updates for a limited period, typically one year. After that, they may need to purchase a new license or renew their support agreement to continue receiving updates and support. However, the user can continue to use the software without interruption even if they choose not to renew their support agreement. The license itself will often include the ‘maintenance expiration date’ so that it can be appropriately enforced or communicated.
Perpetual licenses are common for many types of software, including desktop applications, server software, and some enterprise software. They are often contrasted with subscription licenses, which require the user to pay a recurring fee to continue using the software.
License type:
Subscription
A subscription license is a type of software license that grants the user the right to use the software for a limited period, usually for a fee that is paid on a recurring basis, such as monthly or annually. With a subscription license, the user does not own the software but instead pays for access to it for the duration of the subscription.
Under a subscription license, the user typically receives all software updates and technical support for the subscription duration. However, once the subscription period ends, the user must renew to continue using the software. If they choose not to renew, the software will no longer be accessible to them.
Subscription licenses are common for many types of software, including cloud-based applications, software-as-a-service (SaaS) products, and some enterprise software. They are often contrasted with perpetual licenses, which allow the user to own and use the software indefinitely after a one-time payment without any ongoing fees or subscriptions.
Note that software trials are a form of subscription license - with the end-user typically gaining access to the software for a short fixed amount of time (typically 30 days) for no charge.
License Start
Entitlements can be activated
on creation = Plans: License Start set to Entitlement Creation
or first use = Plans: License Start set to Activation
or manually = Plans: License Start set to Manual Activation - by using “Activate Now” button on Entitlement details page
This is the case for both Subscription and Perpetual License Type.
Offering
Often used interchangeably with “SKU” (Stock Keeping Unit) or “Part Number” - see below for SKU.
Together, the combination of an edition and a plan defines an offering.
Offerings often equate to a "price book" or SKU list in your systems, such as your CRM, ERP, or billing system. Per your Zentitle subscription, you can define as many offerings as you wish.
Entitlement
Entitlements track what your customers have purchased and all changes through the lifecycle.
In software licensing, entitlement refers to a customer's specific rights and permissions to use a particular software product. An entitlement is essentially a record of what a customer has purchased, determining what they can do with the software.
Entitlements can include a wide range of permissions and restrictions, depending on the specific licensing agreement. Some common examples of entitlements include:
The number of users or devices that are allowed to access the software
The specific features or modules that are included in the license
The geographic location or territory where the software can be used
The duration of the license, including start and end dates
The level of technical support that is included with the license
Any restrictions on how the software can be used or distributed
Entitlement management is an important part of software licensing, as it helps ensure that customers are using the software in compliance with the licensing agreement. By tracking entitlements, software vendors can ensure that customers are only using the software within the limits of their license, which helps prevent misuse and piracy.
Product
The “Product” in the Zentitle2 context typically refers to a given application or binary. Depending on the business model, most products are then broken down into price plans and editions.
License definitions are typically specific to a given product (i.e. a Word license may have features defined for access to dictionaries, thesaurus, etc., whereas an Excel license might have features related to pivot tables, etc.)
Edition
An “Edition” is a variation of a given product - with the classic example being a “Good,” “Better”, or “Best” progression of increasing functionality at different price points..
An edition is a subset of a Product in the third tab under the product menu.
Feature
A “Feature” in the Zentitle2 context is a boolean flag that determines whether a given feature / module / component should be enabled for a given user.
Attribute
An “Attribute” in Zentitle2 is a key/value pair that can be used to store useful information in the license, such as the customer name, etc.
It can also be used to represent aspects of the business model for the license itself, such as the number of licensed devices, lists of integrations that should be enabled, etc.
In Zentitle2, the attributes are typed and can be Integers, Strings, or Dates. They are equivalent to “Application Agility Fields” in V10.
Advance Feature: Usage counter
An entitlement can have one or more ‘usage’ features. Consumption tokens can be used to track measures of usage over time. For example, you may have a 1-year subscription that provides 1000 report runs over the year.
The usage feature would track how many reports had been run so far (with the application deducting one from the count each time the report is run).
Advance Feature: Element Pool
Element Pools represent a concurrent aggregate count of some measure. For example, let’s say there is a storage management cluster and the business model was to charge for the aggregate amount of storage under management across the cluster.
Each node would check out from the element pool the quantity of storage that node was managing (50TB, 100TB, etc.) and the licensing would enforce that at no time was the aggregate amount of storage licensed ever exceeded.
Activation Codes
In Zentitle2, a given entitlement may have multiple valid activation codes - any of which can be used to activate a seat against the entitlement.
SKU
SKU stands for "Stock Keeping Unit," which is a unique identifier used to track individual products in inventory management and sales. In the context of software licensing, a SKU is a code or number that identifies a specific software product or licensing option.
SKUs are used by software vendors to keep track of their inventory and sales, and to ensure that customers receive the correct product or licensing option when they make a purchase. For example, a software vendor might use a SKU to differentiate between different versions of their software, such as a basic version and a professional version, or to track the number of licenses that have been sold for a particular product.
SKUs can also be used by resellers and distributors to track their inventory and sales, and to ensure that they are ordering and selling the correct products. When a reseller or distributor orders a product from a software vendor, they will typically provide the SKU number to ensure that they are receiving the correct product. Similarly, when a customer purchases a product from a reseller or distributor, they will often receive a receipt or invoice that includes the SKU number to confirm what product they have purchased.
Concurrency mode: Concurrent
Concurrent (also called ‘Floating’) licenses allow a maximum number of concurrent seats active on the entitlement at any one point in time. Upon startup, the application would attempt to check a seat out of the license pool, and check it back in one the application terminates. If the application dies without explicitly returning the license then the seat will automatically be returned once the current lease period expires.
Concurrency mode: Node Lock
Node lock licenses are meant to be permanently activated against a given machine / seat and are not returned upon terminating the application. They are persistent licenses (not to be confused with perpetual licenses).
Seats
Seat count - number of seats available on Entitlement that has been set from Offering that this entitlement has been created with, but can be amended on Entitlement level.
Seats used - currently used seats
Seats - overview on seats used from seat count, presented in form of 3/21
Webhooks
Webhooks are a type of callback mechanism used by web applications to provide real-time notifications to other systems. Essentially, a webhook is a way for an application to send data to another application automatically when certain events occur.
The basic idea behind webhooks is that one application sends an HTTP POST request to a URL specified by another application, indicating that a certain event has occurred. The receiving application then processes the data in the request and takes appropriate action based on the content.
Webhooks are commonly used in a wide variety of applications, such as:
Integrating with third-party services to receive notifications when specific events occur
Triggering custom workflows or automation tasks in response to user actions
Updating data in real-time across multiple systems and applications
Automating data synchronization between different systems
Webhooks can be thought of as the opposite of an API, which requires the client application to poll the server for updates. With webhooks, the server actively pushes data to the client, eliminating the need for the client to poll for updates and reducing server load.
Activation Usage History
A graph that shows the usage (typically active seat count) of a license over time
Seat Count is the allowed number of seats that can be used with this Entitlement.
Min and Max is maximum and minimum count of used seats at any given moment during the day. For example:
activate: max 1, min 1, current 1
deactivate: max 1, min 0, current 0
activate: max 1, min 0, current 1
activate: max 2, min 0, current 2
deactivate: max 2, min 0, current 1
deactivate: max 2, min 0, current 0
End User Portal
The end user portal (EUP) is an option to help your end users manage their entitlements and do "offline" activations/de-activations.
A pre-built way for users to manage their entitlements saves support time and costs.
The end user portal can be customized to fit in with your branding.
Local License Server (LLS)
The Zentitle2 Local License Server allows the vendor to deploy a docker-container-based server to an end customer who does not want to (or cannot) allow an ongoing connection with the Zentitle2 cloud-based license server. Often also called "Dark Site" Local License Server (that enables Network-based licensing).
LLS provides similar functionality to Zentitle2 in the cloud.
Once you have your Local License Server (LLS) running, you can delegate a given entitlement to that LLS by going to that entitlement and changing the 'Entitlement Host' to the appropriate LLS instance.
Account Based Licensing - ABL (Identity-based licensing)
Account Based Licensing is the process of managing users’ accounts and giving users access to software or an application, typically via a username and a password or an external identity management solution such as Microsoft Azure AD, Okta, OneLogin, Ping Identity, ForgeRock, Auth0, and Oracle Identity Manager.
Zentitle2 enables both types of application access and also allows you to choose the best-of-breed identity provider you or your customers are using.
Accounts replicated from the vendor's authentication platform are called "OpenID Token authentication."
Accounts created and managed within Zentitle2 are called username/password authentication.
Virtual Machine Control - nonce
Today, most desktops are virtualized, and the same has been true for servers for years. This means that Licensing has to deal with issues related to impermanent storage and copying of deployed application instances.
Abuse of VMs leads to lost revenues and improper use of the customer's IP.
To help with managing VMs, Zentitle has created the concept of the Licensing API: Nonce.
The API uses a nonce concept. Every request must contain a unique nonce value in the N-Nonce header. First, the Create Activation endpoint returns the Nonce. The application needs to store this nonce and use it in subsequent requests. Subsequent requests will return a new nonce, which needs to be used in the next request. Nonce values are returned in the N-Nonce header.
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