BALTIMORE, Jan. 28, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- SafeNet, Inc., a global leader in software monetization, today announced the first and only cloud-based solution for license management in virtual environments. Sentinel® Cloud, SafeNet's award-winning software licensing and entitlement management service, now eliminates the need for node-locking, decoupling software licenses from physical hardware and reducing monetization risks for vendors provisioning software and enforcing license compliance in virtualized environments.

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"While virtualization helps enterprises to reduce costs, it also poses a challenge for software providers who have traditionally relied on the ability to bind licenses to physical machines in order to control access to their software," said Shlomo Weiss, general manager, software monetization, SafeNet.  "Software providers are in need of new tools to track, control, and manage the use of their applications when deployed in virtual environments."

A common issue when deploying software in virtual environments is that it is very possible to maliciously or unintentionally duplicate license rights when spinning up new instances, or to move a license from one instance to another freely. By utilizing SafeNet's Sentinel Cloud, software providers can rest assured that users cannot virtualize the licensing system and over use beyond what was purchased. Sentinel Cloud licenses a user, not a physical machine, which promises legitimate use of licenses in virtual environments. ISVs have full control on how many licenses are running, and have complete visibility into the usage of their software, which can be used for billing purposes or business intelligence. In addition, Sentinel Cloud enables ISVs to automate the process of provisioning, applying updates, and renewing licenses.

Sentinel Cloud enhances the end-user experience by allowing access to licensed applications via any device – including smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers – without needing to generate new licenses for usage on multiple machines. This usage-based license model ensures end users only pay for actual usage of features that are relevant to them, while also providing user insight to the ISV, helping them improve their future offerings.

The benefits of Sentinel Cloud's cloud-based licensing for virtualized environments include:

• Software vendors have much greater assurance that use of their software is legitimate.
• User-centric licensing eliminates the dependency on specific end-user devices or virtual setups.
• ISVs have full control over how many licenses are running, allowing usage on parallel instances of VMs and enabling "pay-as-you-grow" usage-based licensing.
• Remote control functionality simplifies license provisioning, updates, and renewals/cancellations, which can be done quickly on the fly.
• Advanced usage data collection provides ISVs with valuable insight into how customers are using their software in order to develop software that better meets users' needs.

Supporting Resources
Sentinel Cloud - www.sentinelcloud.com

About Sentinel Cloud
Sentinel Cloud provides strong licensing enforcement to stop revenue loss without inconveniencing end users for both cloud-based and on-premises applications. Its cloud-connected licensing ties licenses to individual users instead of the physical hardware of a machine by managing the license outside of the end-user network. This ensures that licenses cannot be duplicated or used without the software vendor's knowledge. Sentinel Cloud also gives software vendors full control over how many licenses are running – stand-alone and in parallel – in order to accurately bill customers for the software they use.

About SafeNet, Inc.
Founded in 1983, SafeNet, Inc. is one of the largest information security companies in the world, and is trusted to protect the most sensitive data for market-leading organizations around the globe.  SafeNet's data-centric approach focuses on the protection of high-value information throughout its lifecycle, from the data center to the cloud.  More than 25,000 customers across commercial enterprises and government agencies trust SafeNet to protect and control access to sensitive data, manage risk, ensure compliance, and secure virtual and cloud environments.

SafeNet Media Contact:
Amanda Curtis
(443) 327-1276 
amanda.curtis@safenet-inc.com

SOURCE SafeNet, Inc.