Flexera Software Makes Virtualization Profitable for Software Vendors and High-Tech Manufacturers

A June, 2010 survey conducted by Flexera Software found that most software vendors now view virtualization as an opportunity to grow revenues by as much as 50% and a way to reduce costs. Last year vendors saw it as a revenue risk. Of software vendors surveyed, 71% believe their customers are already deploying their software in virtual environments. However, until now vendors have lacked an easy way to protect and monetize the use of that software. FlexNet Producer Suite enables vendors to meet their customers' demands for more flexible licensing options for virtual environments while capturing more revenue. More details on the survey results can be found in the on-demand webinar "Machine Virtualization-Is It Impacting Your Software Business?"

"Virtualization is one of the most effective methods to save costs, increase availability, and improve agility within an organization's infrastructure," said David Greschler, Director, Virtualization at Microsoft Corp. "Microsoft Virtualization solutions provide enterprises with a way to optimize their infrastructure and Flexera Software solutions provide software vendors and high-tech manufacturers with a way to monetize their solutions within a virtualized environment. Solutions like the FlexNet Producer Suite ensure developers can deliver the solutions that their customers demand."

"Enterprises are rapidly adopting virtualization technologies, intensifying the focus on software licensing challenges- and opportunities- that often result," said Amy Konary, Research Director, Software Licensing and Provisioning at IDC. "ISVs are now compelled to consider whether their licensing approach is optimal for the inevitable use of their software within virtualized environments. Technologies such as Flexera Software's FlexNet Publisher Suite can play a role by helping manage application usage and monetize software assets in virtualized environments."

Key enhancements made to the FlexNet Producer Suites, which enable revenue growth and reduced operating costs through software licensing, electronic software delivery and entitlement management, include:

FlexNet Publisher- provides software licensing to secure and grow market share through flexible pricing, packaging, licensing, and protection of their software. FlexNet Publisher Virtualization Option contains patent pending technology enabling developers to establish varying enforcement strategies by customer segment and geography to protect and monetize their software in virtualized environments.

• Virtual Use Detection -detects if end-users are trying to deploy the application and license server on a virtual machine. It protects against revenue leakage by instructing the application or the license server to "operate" or "not operate" in virtual environments. It also delivers the foundation to enter new markets and/or monetize solutions in existing markets in new ways.
• Flexible Monetization Options -supports flexible revenue models ranging from preventing usage of software in a virtual environment to enabling software to run in virtualized environments while ensuring compliance. Flexibility can be restricted by ensuring licenses are bound to physical machines even while the software is running inside a virtual machine. It enables monetization of software and virtual appliances running in VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V-based public clouds.
• Tamper Proofing -adds WiBu dongle support to prevent tampering with the software licensing once the software is deployed. The inclusion of a physical dongle, which is coupled to the software via a software licensing system, greatly reduces the means to pirate software while still easily allowing the software to move from machine-to-machine.

"Quantapoint customers are increasingly taking advantage of virtualization technologies," said James McGill, vice president of marketing at Quantapoint, which provides software to access Digital Facilities created using 3D laser scanning. "After evaluating all of the available alternatives, including developing it ourselves, we chose Flexera Software's FlexNet Publisher with its Virtualization Option to implement software licensing that supports our virtualization requirements. FlexNet Publisher provided us with the flexibility and stability of an industrial strength licensing solution while enabling our customers to reap the many benefits of running our products in a virtualized environment."

FlexNet Embedded- gives high-tech manufacturers the power to unlock revenue with tailored software licensing, pricing, and packaging solution for their embedded software, including support for creating and running virtual appliances to replace hardware devices.

• License Pool Monitoring -provides functionality for serving and monitoring a counted pool of devices through the prebuilt FlexNet Embedded server application. This availability of an out-of-the-box server application greatly reduces development time and effort.
• Easier License Updates -adds support for a "push" model (in addition to a "pull" model where the device contacts the server when it needs a license update), where the server pushes updated licenses to devices. For devices requiring uninterrupted operation, the push architecture ensures a device's primary functionality is not interrupted by server communications.
• Backup License Capability -ensures availability of FlexNet Embedded served pools of software licenses through server failover. The server and device APIs, communication protocols, and license rights have been enhanced to support a backup license server managing a license pool if the primary server becomes unavailable, further increasing reliability.

FlexNet Operations- enables easy and efficient support for new revenue models by quickly creating product configurations to meet market demands, cutting operational costs by automating the generation, fulfillment, and activation of entitlements, and improving customer satisfaction by providing a consistent experience and a 24/7 self-service web portal for your end users.

• New Revenue Models -enables new revenue models for virtualized and region-based software licensing. Supports FlexNet Publisher's ability to detect; Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware virtualization and time zones. Delivers new revenue opportunities via new licensing models for cloud computing, the ability to prevent revenue leakage in virtualized environments, and the ability to grow revenues by pricing differently based on geography.
• Channel Partner Self-Service -new make-to-stock channel management allows tracking of software entitlements through a multi-tier channel. This enables channel partner self-service management of software entitlements while ensuring data privacy. The results are lower operational costs, the ability to track partner performance and enhanced partner relations.
• Superior Automation -allows internet and offline activation to run faster and more efficiently, reducing support calls and lowering network bandwidth costs. Devices are automatically tracked as they move within an enterprise, providing better visibility into the installed base. Efficient bulk operations notify upgraded, up-sold or renewed customers via email and fulfills their software licenses automatically, enabling revenue growth through subscription licensing and lower operational costs.

"Software vendors and high-tech manufacturers are dealing with increasing complexity as a result of a growing number of licensing models and new technologies such as the cloud and virtualization," said Randy Littleson, senior vice president of marketing at Flexera Software. "Having a strategic solution to manage application usage in such a volatile environment has become a priority and FlexNet Producer Suite continues to be the market leading, field tested solution of choice. These latest enhancements extend that lead with added flexibility, scalability and support for the latest virtualization environments to allow companies to capitalize on the tremendous opportunity that these technology innovations being deployed by their customers present."