METHOD, SYSTEM AND COMPUTER PROGRAM FOR PLANNING ASSIGNMENT OF SOFTWARE LICENSES

• US 20070005505A1
• Filed: 06/29/2006
• Published: 01/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Di Balsamo, Arcangelo, Donatelli, Alessandro, Marinelli, Claudio, D'Alo, Salvatore
• Granted Patent: US 9,009,079 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/59
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/105 Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/121 Restricting unauthorised execution of programs
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/184 Intellectual property management

Abstract

A method (300) for planning assignment of floating licenses of software products is proposed. Floating licenses can be requested to a runtime server by multiple workstations (to which they are assigned until a maximum number of instances of the product are running concurrently). In the solution of the invention, a user of every workstation needing to run the product in a future timeframe submits (306) a corresponding reservation request to the runtime server. If at least one license is available for the selected timeframe, the runtime server reserves (357) the license to the workstation (so as to prevent assigning it to other workstations for the same period); at the same time, a corresponding temporary permission is stored (360) on the workstation. In this way, the product can be used (363-387) during the selected timeframe on the workstation only; this is possible without any risk even if the workstation is disconnected from the runtime server.

Claims

1. A method for controlling usage of digitally encoded products in a data processing system, each product being associated with a set of usage rights for enabling data processing entities to which the usage rights are assigned to use the product, wherein the method includes the steps of:

receiving a reservation request of a selected product for a selected period by an entity, the start of the selected period being delayed with respect to the reservation request,

reserving a usage right of the selected product for the selected period to the entity in response to the reservation request thereby preventing assigning the reserved usage right for the selected period to other entities, the reserved usage right remaining available for assignment until the start of the selected period, and

assigning the reserved usage right to the entity in connection with the selected period.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of assigning includes:

storing control information on the entity in response to the reservation of the usage right, the control information locally enabling the entity to use the selected product at the start of the selected period and locally disabling the entity to use the selected product after the end of the selected period.

3. The method according to claim 1, further including the step of:

releasing the reserved usage right if the selected product is not used by the entity within a predefined delay in the selected period.

4. The method according to 1, further including the steps in response to the reservation request of:

verifying the availability of at least one usage right of the selected product for the selected period being not reserved to further entities,

attempting to release at least one reserved usage right relating to the selected period in response to the non-availability, and

reserving the at least one released usage right to the entity in response to the release within a further predefined delay or refusing the reservation request otherwise.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the step of attempting includes:

requesting a set of the further entities to release the corresponding reserved usage rights, and

releasing the corresponding reserved usage right in response to the acceptance of the request to release by at least one further entity of the set.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein each reserved usage right is reserved to the corresponding further entity for a predefined further period, the step of requesting including:

selecting the set of the further entities according to a residual duration of the corresponding further periods.

7. The method according to claim 4, wherein the step of attempting includes:

selecting at least one reserved usage right having a priority lower than a priority of the reservation request, and

releasing the at least one selected reserved usage right.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of refusing includes:

determining at least one alternative period for which at least one usage right of the selected product is not reserved, and

suggesting the at least one alternative period to the entity.

9. A computer program product in a computer readable medium for controlling usage of digitally encoded products in a data processing system, each product being associated with a set of usage rights for enabling data processing entities to which the usage rights are assigned to use the product, comprising:

instructions for receiving a reservation request of a selected product for a selected period by an entity, the start of the selected period being delayed with respect to the reservation request,

instructions for reserving a usage right of the selected product for the selected period to the entity in response to the reservation request thereby preventing assigning the reserved usage right for the selected period to other entities the reserved usage right remaining available for assignment until the start of the selected period, and

instructions for assigning the reserved usage right to the entity in connection with the selected period.

10. A system for controlling usage digitally encoded products in a data processing system, each product being associated with a set of usage rights for enabling data processing entities to which the usage rights are assigned to use the product, comprising:

means for receiving a reservation request of a selected product for a selected period by an entity, the start of the selected period being delayed with respect to the reservation request,

means for reserving a usage right of the selected product for the selected period to the entity in response to the reservation request thereby preventing assigning the reserved usage right for the selected period to other entities, the reserved usage right remaining available for assignment until the start of the selected period, and

means for for assigning the reserved usage right to the entity in connection with the selected period.