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Floating licensing – A hyper-efficient business trend

by Casey Schmidt  |  February 25, 2020

3 min. read
A keyboard that says 'Software License'.

Floating licensing is a revolutionary new way to utilize licensed software. It offers a versatile software experience for users and adapts to company requirements. This guide will give you some interesting ways to use this exciting method. Let’s first make sure you know exactly what floating license is as well as the difference between floating and standalone licensing.

What is floating licensing?

Floating licensing is a way to share and spread the use of a licensed product to a lot of users within a company. The easiest way to visualize floating licensing is by comparing it to a standard software license, which allows users on one system to operate the licensed content. By comparison, then, floating licensing is simply a different form of a standard license. It gives similar rights with a further extension for multiple users to access the program.

With floating licensing, the license moves from system to system, letting large groups of users benefit from it. This saves companies money, as it reduces the requirement to license numerous systems. As long as users don’t need to use the software at the same time, floating licensing is a huge advantage. It’s a one-at-a-time usage unless the company purchases more licenses.

Green keyboard illuminating the word 'License'.
There’s a reduction of waste when groups use the same license.

What’s the difference between floating and standalone license?

A floating license is software that, once installed, runs on multiple machines at once. There are limits to how many systems can use the program at the same time, though. A standalone license, on the other hand, is software purchased specifically for one machine. Furthermore, the standalone license allows users to run a program on their computer without connecting to the company network.

Here’s an example to help you illustrate the key differences between these two models. Imagine your company bought 90 standalone software licenses for 90 different computers. Now imagine that instead of buying 90 standalone licenses, your company had purchased a few floating licenses to cover all 90 user computers. The difference is immense, both in money saved and convenience.

Software license animated.
Know the difference between floating and standalone licenses.

How floating licensing boosts project versatility

Floating licensing offers companies extensive versatility and efficiency. Standard licenses, on the other hand, force businesses to stay within smaller parameters of user operation. This is typically because floating licenses widen their scope by spreading tools to a large base of users and departments. This increases project efficiency over time. It also increases the way a business can handle different purchases and digital product use.

One way this empowers businesses is through interdepartmental usage of floating licenses. For example, let’s say someone from the graphic design team needs an editing program used exclusively by the marketing department. If the editing program is purchased on a floating license, the user from graphic design can use the editing program without the company purchasing another license. Ultimately, this connects a company on a grander scale and reduces inefficiency in everyday tasks and procedures.

A network of digital icons.
Floating licensing keeps teams connected for projects.

The future outlook of floating licensing

A lot of systems offer floating licensing from a cloud system rather than an in-house structure. With digital rights management systems, floating licensing is the next step. The natural progression is to bolster security, because cloud systems offer potential for data breaches. However, companies running cloud floating licenses have committed themselves toward better security.

These systems save memory and hard drive space, can reach more users and have strong scalability. This makes cloud implementation the next step in the evolution of licensing, further increasing company benefits. Finally, with costs playing a huge role in tech companies and startups, the idea of a cheaper alternative is bound to make waves throughout the industry.

Consider implementing floating license for your next campaign. Its benefits are endless and its future is bright.