AWS License Manager is a service that helps you manage software licenses from vendors such as Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, and more. With AWS License Manager, you can centrally manage licenses across your AWS infrastructure, making it easier to track license usage and compliance.

The service allows you to set rules for license usage, automate the process of discovering and tracking licenses, and allocate licenses to instances based on your business needs. Additionally, you can use AWS License Manager to optimize your license usage by identifying and reallocating underutilized licenses.

Using AWS License Manager, you can also bring your existing licenses to AWS and manage them alongside licenses purchased from AWS Marketplace. This enables you to maintain license compliance and reduce the risk of license violations.

Overall, AWS License Manager simplifies the management of software licenses in your AWS environment, saving you time and resources while ensuring license compliance.

Overview

AWS License Manager is a tool provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that enables organizations to manage their software licenses in the cloud. It simplifies the license management process by providing a centralized console to track, manage, and enforce software license agreements across AWS resources and on-premises servers.

Definition of AWS License Manager

AWS License Manager is a service that helps customers manage their software licenses. It enables customers to discover and track software licenses from software vendors such as Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM, as well as custom software licenses. It allows customers to create custom licensing rules, automate the deployment of licenses, and enforce license agreements across AWS resources and on-premises servers.

Benefits of using AWS License Manager

Using AWS License Manager can provide several benefits to organizations, including:

  1. License compliance: AWS License Manager enables organizations to ensure that they are using the correct number of licenses for their software, ensuring compliance with license agreements and avoiding costly penalties.
  2. Cost optimization: By tracking and managing software licenses, organizations can optimize their license usage and avoid overpaying for unused licenses.
  3. Centralized management: AWS License Manager provides a centralized console to track, manage, and enforce software licenses across AWS resources and on-premises servers, simplifying the license management process.
  4. Custom licensing rules: Organizations can create custom licensing rules to meet their specific licensing requirements, such as allowing license sharing or limiting license usage to specific regions or instances.
  5. Automated deployment: AWS License Manager can automate the deployment of licenses, making it easier to manage licenses at scale and reducing the risk of human error.

Overview of how AWS License Manager works

AWS License Manager is a service that helps you manage your software licenses from vendors such as Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, and IBM across AWS and on-premises environments. The service allows you to create customized licensing rules that enable you to control and manage the usage of software licenses.

To use AWS License Manager, you first create a license configuration that defines the terms of your license agreement, such as license type, version, and allowed usage. You can then apply this license configuration to your AWS resources, such as Amazon EC2 instances, Amazon RDS databases, or on-premises servers, to ensure that your software licenses are being used in compliance with your license agreement.

AWS License Manager also provides visibility into your license usage, allowing you to monitor and optimize your license usage across your organization. You can use the service to track license usage across multiple AWS accounts and regions, and to generate reports to help you understand your license usage and compliance status.

How to set up AWS License Manager

To set up AWS License Manager, you first need to enable the service in your AWS account. You can then create a license configuration that defines the terms of your license agreement, such as license type, version, and allowed usage. You can also create license entitlements, which represent the number of licenses that you have purchased for a particular product.

Once you have created your license configuration and entitlements, you can apply them to your AWS resources, such as Amazon EC2 instances, Amazon RDS databases, or on-premises servers. You can do this using the AWS Management Console, AWS Command Line Interface (CLI), or AWS SDKs.

How to configure license rules

To configure license rules in AWS License Manager, you first need to create a license configuration that defines the terms of your license agreement, such as license type, version, and allowed usage. You can then create license rules, which define how the licenses should be used by your AWS resources.

For example, you can create a license rule that specifies that a certain number of licenses should be allocated to a particular Amazon EC2 instance or RDS database. You can also create license rules that specify how licenses should be allocated across multiple instances or databases, or that restrict the usage of licenses to certain regions or accounts.

You can manage your license rules using the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or AWS SDKs. AWS License Manager also provides visibility into your license usage, allowing you to monitor and optimize your license usage across your organization. You can use the service to track license usage across multiple AWS accounts and regions, and to generate reports to help you understand your license usage and compliance status.

Features

  1. License tracking and management: This feature enables organizations to keep track of their software license usage and manage licenses efficiently. It allows users to monitor license usage, renewals, and expirations, ensuring that organizations stay compliant with licensing agreements.
  2. Automated discovery of software licenses: This feature automates the process of discovering software licenses across an organization’s IT environment. It scans the organization’s systems and identifies installed software and their respective licenses, reducing the chance of license non-compliance.
  3. Reporting and analytics: This feature provides users with insights into their software license usage and compliance status. It generates reports on license usage, identifies potential compliance issues, and provides recommendations to optimize software license usage.
  4. Integration with AWS Marketplace: This feature allows users to purchase and manage licenses for their AWS Marketplace products directly from the license management tool. It enables organizations to track usage and manage licenses for their AWS Marketplace software, ensuring compliance with licensing agreements.

Use Cases

License Compliance

AWS Cloud provides various services and tools to ensure license compliance for software applications running on its platform. This includes tracking and reporting the usage of licensed software, identifying any unlicensed or unauthorized usage, and enabling customers to optimize their license usage based on their needs. AWS also offers third-party software solutions for license management and compliance, such as Flexera and Snow Software.

Cost Optimization

AWS Cloud offers a range of cost optimization solutions that help customers optimize their cloud costs and achieve better cost efficiency. This includes services such as AWS Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets, and AWS Trusted Advisor that provide customers with cost and usage insights, recommendations, and alerts. Customers can also take advantage of AWS’s pay-as-you-go pricing model, which enables them to pay only for the resources they use and avoid upfront costs.

License Entitlement and Allocation

AWS Cloud provides customers with tools and services to manage their software license entitlements and allocations. This includes the ability to track and report the usage of licensed software, allocate licenses to specific users or groups, and manage license renewals and upgrades. AWS also offers license management solutions for specific software vendors, such as Microsoft License Mobility and Oracle License Included.

Pricing

AWS License Manager offers a flexible and cost-effective pricing structure to help businesses manage their software licenses on AWS.

The service is offered at no additional cost and customers only pay for the underlying software licenses they use. Customers can choose to bring their own licenses or use AWS-provided licenses.

For AWS-provided licenses, customers are charged based on the hourly usage of the license. The hourly rate varies based on the type of license and the region where the license is used.

For bring-your-own-license (BYOL), customers can use their existing licenses and track their usage through AWS License Manager. Customers are only charged for the instances that use their licenses. This allows customers to optimize their license usage and avoid overpaying for licenses they don’t need.

Example cost savings

AWS License Manager can help businesses save costs by optimizing their license usage. For example, let’s consider a hypothetical scenario where a business has purchased 100 licenses for a software that they use on AWS.

Without AWS License Manager, the business would need to purchase additional licenses if they want to use the software on more instances. However, with AWS License Manager, the business can track their license usage and identify instances that are not being fully utilized. They can then terminate those instances and reuse the licenses on other instances.

By optimizing their license usage, the business can reduce their license costs and avoid unnecessary license purchases. This can result in significant cost savings, especially for businesses that use a large number of software licenses on AWS.

Conclusion

In summary, AWS License Manager is a powerful tool that can help organizations manage and optimize their software licenses in the cloud. With its ability to track license usage, automate license provisioning, and enforce license policies, AWS License Manager can help organizations reduce costs, improve compliance, and increase efficiency.

Some of the key benefits and features of AWS License Manager include:

  • Centralized license management: AWS License Manager provides a single, centralized view of all your licenses across multiple accounts and regions, making it easy to track and manage license usage.
  • Automated license provisioning: AWS License Manager can automatically provision licenses to instances as needed, ensuring that you always have the right number of licenses for your workloads.
  • License policy enforcement: AWS License Manager allows you to create and enforce license policies, ensuring that you are using your licenses in compliance with your agreements and contracts.
  • Cost optimization: By tracking license usage and providing recommendations for license optimization, AWS License Manager can help you reduce costs and avoid overprovisioning.

For organizations considering AWS License Manager, we recommend the following:

  • Evaluate your current license management processes: Before implementing AWS License Manager, it’s important to understand your current license management processes and identify areas for improvement.
  • Identify your license requirements: It’s important to understand your organization’s license requirements, including the types of licenses you need, the number of licenses required, and any license restrictions or policies.
  • Plan your implementation: AWS License Manager can be complex to set up, so it’s important to plan your implementation carefully. This may involve working with a partner or AWS expert to ensure that your implementation meets your requirements and is aligned with best practices.
  • Monitor and optimize: Once you’ve implemented AWS License Manager, it’s important to monitor license usage and optimize your licenses to ensure that you are getting the most value from your licenses.

Overall, AWS License Manager is a powerful tool that can help organizations manage their licenses in the cloud. By providing a centralized view of license usage, automating license provisioning, and enforcing license policies, AWS License Manager can help organizations reduce costs, improve compliance, and increase efficiency.