Who doesn’t love a good Top 10 List?
Over the years, we’ve found that software developers have the following complaints in common: overworked, over-scheduled, and under-appreciated. The current economic conditions have heightened the need for getting more from less, and no employees feel that added pressure more than highly skilled software developers.
Most developers involved in selecting and then implementing a software license management solution will freely admit that they are not experts in software licensing. Many have experience writing a licensing system, but it’s certainly not their specialty. What they are looking for is a software licensing solution that is robust and well documented, yet is quick to implement and easy to maintain long term.
Based on our discussions we have compiled the following list of the Top 10 Reasons why the Reprise License Manager (RLM) is preferred by today’s busy software developers.
1. Clear and Concise Documentation:
The first contact with RLM is with the documentation. The manuals are written by developers, for developers. The RLM API is simple and streamlined. There’s no marketing fluff, just the technical information to get familiar with the concepts and to start an implementation. The documentation is sprinkled with real-world examples and sample source code.
2. No Mandated Look-and-Feel:
Software developers appreciate that they can retain their own “look-and-feel.” RLM does not impose a style of its own. It tries to stay out of the way. Software developers are free to design an interface and installation procedures to reflect their own preferred standards.
3. True Cross-platform Support:
The same API is available on all platforms, in all languages. Developers who write in Java and .Net compatible languages have access to the full breadth of the API as do developers who write in C/C++. Application licensing operates the same regardless of platform and language, saving time with development, testing, and deployment. Clients and servers interoperate, regardless of platform.
4. Points for Good Behavior:
Some licensing products require writing into the registry or writing to illegal disk sectors. RLM plays it straight, not even requiring admin privileges to install RLM-based applications. RLM uses plain old networking standards to connect clients to the license server.
5. Policy in the License:
Software developers can change license policies without changing their codebase. RLM is designed so that the application does not need to know what types of licenses are present beforehand. With RLM, license policy is largely removed from the application and specified in the license keys themselves. So, applications simply “checkout” a license, and the license that is granted is based on the type of license found in the customer’s license file. This is handy whenever you need to adapt to an ever-changing set of business rules and customer preferences.
6. Internet connectivity is not required:
RLM licensing does not rely on the Internet. Applications read local license files (digitally signed text files) or connect to an on-premise license server that manages concurrent use licenses. Servers can be hosted in the Cloud with RLMCloud. There is no forced Internet “phone home” requirement. However, licenses can be optionally obtained over the Internet 24×7 using Activation Pro.
7. License Generation and Delivery options:
The software developer’s job is not over when he is finished integrating software license management into his code. ISVs have to think about how they will generate and manage software license “entitlements.” We’ve found that there is a very wide variation in license generation strategies that ISVs want to employ. So, RLM allows ISVs the maximum amount of flexibility. Licenses can be generated using a license signing utility that works by computing digital signatures for common product license templates. Or, licenses can be made using utilities written by the ISV from API calls in the RLM kit. Optionally, a graphical program (RLC) is available to generate licenses for products that are pre-defined in terms of the licenses that enable them.
8. Built-in Server Administration Interface:
Software developers rely as much as possible on built-in functionality. A server administration interface is embedded into the RLM license server. Privileged users can point their browser to the server to get status information, and to perform routine server maintenance such as license file edits, server shutdowns, and restarts.
9. Built-in Diagnostic Tools:
A rich set of client-side and server-side diagnostics makes the job of troubleshooting easier. Users can easily create useful data sets that help to pinpoint potential license configuration errors. This saves time and improves customer satisfaction.
10. Technical Support by Software Engineers:
When software developers need help with RLM, they talk to other engineers. At Reprise Software, all support calls are handled by software developers. Again, saving time, and improving customer satisfaction.
Software developers know that RLM was designed and written, and is maintained and supported by software developers with years of experience in this specialized niche.