SUNFLASH ! ---------- Sunflash is an electronic mail news service from Sun Microsystems, Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Please address comments to John McLaughlin (sun!sunvice!johnj or johnmclaughlin@sun.COM). (305) 776-7770. Sunflash is targeted at Sun customers and users, not Sun employees as much of the information posted to sunflash is already available to Sun employees. If you have any information that you think would be of value to Sun users and customers, please email it to sun!sunvice!johnj. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SUNNET LICENSE OFFERS FLEXIBLE SOFTWARE LICENSE MANAGEMENT New Licensing Manager Benefits Both Users and Software Vendors MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --October 2, 1989-- Sun Microsystems today introduced SunNet License, a software license management package that offers an unprecedented combination of flexibility, scalability, security and ease of use for license management across a network. This new product from Sun makes possible "concurrent usage" licensing schemes, in which a company can buy a pool of licenses that can be shared by any number of users, thereby reducing costs. SunNet License includes an end-user component, which permits easy administration of software licenses, and a software vendor component, which affords software developers great flexibility in the way they sell their products. Concurrent usage licensing is superior to standard licensing arrangements, under which a company must buy an individual license for every user who requires access to a given software package. The license is typically associated with a specific system, so that the user cannot run the package from any other system. In addition, the cost of the license is fixed per user, with no price break for infrequent users. A concurrent usage licensing model, by contrast, allows software licenses to "float" among many users. As a result, more employees of a company -- including occasional users -- are able to gain access to the software, without additional cost. SunNet License is designed to enable the user to manage such a licensing system across multiple vendor networking environments. SunNet License functions like a librarian, tracking the pool of licenses purchased for each package. When a software package is invoked anywhere on the network, the SunNet License "checks out" a license from the pool. The product continues to permit licenses to be checked out until the pool is exhausted. Then, it can put users into a wait queue until a license is returned to the pool. SunNet License for Users For end users, SunNet License is made up of the license server, a database that maintains the pool of licenses and logs all licenses transactions; and the license administration tool. Based on the intuitive OPEN LOOK(TM) graphical user interface, this tool makes SunNet License very easy to use, from license management to installation and access control. SunNet License is scalable, meaning it can efficiently handle installations ranging in size from one user to thousands of concurrent users. This is in contrast to some competing license management products, which consume considerable server resources as the number of concurrent users increases. Other useful features of SunNet License include support for maintenance contracts and for multiple versions of a software package. The product also supports license expiration, enabling temporary licenses to be supplied so that a user can evaluate a software package before committing to a purchase. In addition, a reserved license feature allows licenses to be allocated to specific users, workgroups or departments within an organization. Users are demanding that their software suppliers offer concurrent usage licensing. Steve Warren, an assistant vice president in charge of technical support at Shearson Lehman Hutton, a leading Wall Street brokerage firm, said: "Our goal is to permit a user to log into any workstation in the company and obtain the same environment. That way, if a workstation goes down, the user can easily move to another one. If he is promoted, his workstation does not have to follow him to a new office. Yet under standard licensing arrangements, it is cost-prohibitive to buy separate licenses for every application we use. We therefore encourage software vendors to offer floating licenses as soon as possible." Flexibility for Software Vendors For software vendors, Sun offers the SunNet License Development Kit. Part of the kit is a license production tool, with which the vendor creates license tokens. New licenses may be printed or transmitted electronically to the customer, allowing fast and easy installation by the end user system administrator. With SunNet License, software vendors can adopt a wide range of licensing policies. For example, a vendor may vary the number of licensing units checked out per user, depending on the power or price of the user's system. SunNet License also lets each software development firm employ its own data encryption mechanism to protect the security of its licenses. Other benefits for the software vendor include the ability to supply demo software or an entire library of software at the time of original purchase. SunNet License also monitors usage of each software package over time so that users can determine whether new licenses need to be purchased and software vendors can monitor the success of their products. Sun has launched an aggressive promotional effort to ensure that independent software vendors adopt SunNet License. Already, many major software suppliers are evaluating the product. Sun itself will support SunNet License in subsequent releases of its own software products. "SunNet License is very attractive to software vendors because of its flexibility, scalability and support of Sun's widely implemented Open Network Computing (ONC(TM)) protocols," said Todd Corenson, product manager at Sun. "Both software vendors and users want a licensing systems that operates in a mixed vendor environment. SunNet License will be available to all ONC licensees and we'll also work with third parties to ensure that it is ported to other hardware systems. That will let software vendors who write for several hardware platforms employ just one concurrent licensing service." Availability SunNet License runs on Sun's SPARC(TM)-based systems and the Sun-3(TM) and Sun386i(TM) families. The product will be available in the first quarter of 1990. Pricing will be announced in the near future. SunNet License is part of the SunNet family of networking products from Sun. It complies with the emerging Network Computing Forum (NCF) recommendation for concurrent usage licensing. Sun Microsystems, Inc., headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., is a leading worldwide supplier of network-based distributed computing systems, including professional workstations, servers and UNIX operating system and productivity software. ### SPARC, Sun-3, Sun386i, SunNet and ONC are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark and OPEN LOOK is a trademark of AT&T. All other products or services mentioned in this document are identified by the trademarks or service marks of their respective companies or organizations. For reader inquiries, telephone 1-800-821-4643 outside California. Inside California, call 1-800-821-4642. Press Contact: Dennis Freeman (415) 336-6117