joshkelahan.com

Okay, so here is the idea: You have a single copy of an expensive application.  It doesn’t matter what it is.  The problem is that you want to run it on multiple computers at once.  Now legally, you cannot install the software on more than one computer unless you buy a license for each computer.  So what do you do?  There are a number of commercial applications out there, but they are also expensive.

So here is what we need, a way to license ANY application to multiple workstations.

Here’s the way it works, you install the application on multiple computers, but instead of the shortcuts the application wants to install, you create a shortcut that points to the server agent.  The agent connects to a mysql or other database server to see how many licenses you have, and how many are in use.  If there are more licenses available than in use, the server agent launches the executable specified in the database, launching the application.  If all the licenses are in use, then the application doesn’t run.

The server agent doesn’t actually have to run on a server, it could run on each workstation, which would remove the need for an extra piece of hardware, that you can’t afford anyway.