The Charon-SSP VPC License server provides a new type of licensing for Charon-SSP product. However, any Charon emulator product requires a license to run. This section briefly describes the different licensing concepts and products.

Contents

Charon-SSP VPC Licenses

The main characteristics of VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) licenses are the following:

• Software licenses only.
• Developed by Stromasys.
• Installed on Charon-SSP host or separate license server.
• Require the Charon-SSP VPC license server software.
• Require VPC-capable Charon-SSP emulator software.
• Are specific to a cloud or VMware environment.
• Currently only available for Charon-SSP products.

This document describes the use of this type of licenses.

Sentinel (Gemalto) Licenses

Sentinel HASP licenses are the "traditional" licensing method for Charon emulator products. Their main characteristics are:

• Software and hardware (dongle) licences.
• Based on third-party vendor solution.
• Require special third-party license driver software.
• Installed on Charon-SSP host or separate license server.
• Problematic in cloud environments.
• Dongles are flexible and host-hardware independent (as long as there is a free USB port).

Please refer to  the Charon License Handbook (Handbooks) for details about these licenses.

Reason for VPC Licenses

USB dongles are by nature not suitable for cloud environments and their use in VMware environments is somewhat complex.

Sentinel software licenses are easy to install in an cloud or VMware environment. However, their ties to real hardware characteristics also makes it easy to inadvertently invalidate them in such environment. Hence they are also not suited for use in cloud environment. There are Sentinel software license types do not provide the same level of license security.

VPC licenses are designed to enable the ease-of-use of software licenses while providing a high level of security.