AudioTools Server lets you share licenses for best efficiency 

From an early age, we’re always told that sharing is good, whether that be sharing your favorite toy with a sibling or sharing the workload with a friend or colleague. But did you know that you can also share your AudioTools Server licenses?

Sharing Is Caring

When it comes to licensing software the traditional approach would be to host the licenses directly on the system that the software runs on (whether that be using a physical USB dongle or software-hosted licenses). When you only require a single instance of the software in question this model generally works well. However, when expansion is needed, the traditional model can become costly because adding more instances requires purchasing duplicate sets of licenses, regardless of actual usage. This is where centralized licensing comes in.

With AudioTools Server this centralized approach is called the AudioTools LicenseServer. The LicenseServer is a small, dedicated, AudioTools Server node that acts as the licensing hub, hosting a centralized pool of AudioTools licenses that can then be shared between the various processing (or “Worker”) nodes. Rather than hosting licenses locally on each Worker, these systems instead reach out to the central LicenseServer to retrieve the licenses they need to process any jobs.

AudioTools LicenseServer setup.

By using a central pool of licenses, users can be more creative with how they configure their system. For example, take a module like Dolby E encoding that you might only need from time to time. In the past, you would have required a separate Dolby E Encoder license for each individual AudioTools Server node, regardless of how often it was used. With a license server, a single instance of Dolby E Encode can be shared between each connected AudioTools system as and when required.

The Keys Are Yours

But sharing doesn’t end there. Let’s take the example of a customer of ours, a large media organization with a number of facilities dotted across the globe. They were looking for the most efficient way to manage their resources. Typically, the workload at their US facilities would be just getting going around the same time that their European facilities were starting to slow down for the day (and vice versa), and they wanted to make use of some of this spare capacity. With a centralized LicenseServer, this can easily be achieved, as the same pool of licenses is shared between systems no matter their geographic location, meaning capacity can be directed toward the systems that need it.

Aside from sharing the same pool of licenses, the systems can be completely independent from each other, with their own site-specific workflows, shared storage, and orchestration system. As long as each system is able to access the IP address of the LicenseServer node, it doesn’t matter where it is situated.

Staying Resilient

I’m sure some of you are reading this and thinking “That’s all well and good, but what happens if the LicenseServer experiences an issue? Surely this would result in a global outage for our systems!” For the answer to this, I suggest reading our blog post on resiliency, where we discuss the concept of the Redundant LicenseServer.

If you want to find out more about how you can maximize your AudioTools resources and feel that warm fuzzy glow you get when you share things, please reach out to your AudioTools Server representative for more information. We’d love to hear from you.