METHOD,SYSTEM AND COMPUTER PROGRAM FOR METERING USAGE OF MULTIPLE INSTANCES OF SOFTWARE COMPONENTS
First Claim
1. A method for metering usage of software products in a data processing system, at least one instance of each software product being available on the system in a corresponding context, the method including the steps of:
- providing a software catalogue associating each software product with a usage signature, the usage signature being indicative of the usage of any instances of the software product,associating a scope with each usage item matching a usage signature, the scope being indicative of a corresponding instance of the software product associated with the usage signature,detecting the usage items running on the system, andidentifying the instance associated with each running usage itemaccording to the corresponding scope.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A solution (500) for metering the usage of software products is proposed. For this purpose, a software catalogue (520c) is used to associate each software product to be metered with an installation signature and a usage signature. In the proposed solution, a scope (A2-A5) is determined for each installation item and usage item (available in the system), which match an installation signature and a usage signature, respectively; the scope represents a property specific of the context of an instance of the corresponding software product. The scope of each usage item (such as a path for an executable module) is then best matched (A6-A7) with one of the scopes of the installation items of the corresponding software product (another path for a different file); for example, this process is based on the number of common levels between the two paths. In this way, the scopes associated with the usage items identifying the running of the same software product may be used to discriminate (A13-A15) different instances of this software product.
36 Citations
12 Claims
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1. A method for metering usage of software products in a data processing system, at least one instance of each software product being available on the system in a corresponding context, the method including the steps of:
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providing a software catalogue associating each software product with a usage signature, the usage signature being indicative of the usage of any instances of the software product, associating a scope with each usage item matching a usage signature, the scope being indicative of a corresponding instance of the software product associated with the usage signature, detecting the usage items running on the system, and identifying the instance associated with each running usage item according to the corresponding scope. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. (canceled)
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10. (canceled)
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11. A computer program product in a computer-usable medium, the computer program when executed on a data processing system causing the system to perform a method for metering usage of software products in the system, wherein at least one instance of each software product is available on the system in a corresponding context, the method including the steps of:
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providing a software catalogue associating each software product with a usage signature, the usage signature being indicative of the usage of any instances of the software product, associating a scope with each usage item matching a usage signature, the scope being indicative of a corresponding instance of the software product associated with the usage signature, detecting the usage items running on the system, and identifying the instance associated with each running usage item according to the corresponding scope.
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12. A metering system for metering usage of software products in a data processing system, at least one instance of each software product being available on the system in a corresponding installation context, the metering system including:
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a software catalogue associating each software product with a usage signature, the usage signature being indicative of the usage of any instances of the software product, a discovery engine for associating a scope with each usage item matching a usage signature, the scope being indicative of a corresponding instance of the software product associated with the usage signature, and an agent for detecting the usage items running on the system and for identifying the instance associated with each running usage item according to the corresponding scope.
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Specification