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Asoftware license manager is asoftware management tool used byindependent software vendors or by end-user organizations to control where and how software products are able to run. License managers protect software vendors from losses due tosoftware piracy and enable end-user organizations to comply withsoftware license agreements. License managers enable software vendors to offer a wide range of usage-centric software licensing models, such asproduct activation,trial licenses,subscription licenses, feature-based licenses, andfloating licensing from the same software package they provide to all users.
A license manager is different from asoftware asset management tool, which end-user organizations employ to manage the software they have licensed from many software vendors. However, some software asset management tools include license manager functions. These are used to reconcile software licenses and installed software, and generally include device discovery, software inventory, license compliance, andreporting functions.
An additional benefit of these software management tools are that they reduce the difficulty, cost, and time required for reporting and can increase operational transparency in order to prevent litigation costs associated with software misuse, as set forth by theSarbanes-Oxley Act.[1][2]
License management solutions provided by non-vendor companies are more valuable to the end-users, since most vendors do not provide enough license usage information. A vendor license manager provides limited information, while non-vendor license management solutions are developed for end-users in order to maximally optimize the licenses they have.[3]
Most license managers can cover differentsoftware licensing models aslicense dongles or license USB keys,floating licenses,network licenses,concurrent license etc.