Six Reasons Why Cloud Licenses are Better than On-Premises Licenses

Last Updated:
May 24, 2023

Six Reasons Why Cloud Licenses are Better than On-Premises Licenses

Once upon a time, GO-Global supported on-premises licenses as its only licensing mechanism. We introduced cloud licensing due to demand from new customers. But, soon after its introduction, existing customers began switching their on-premises licenses to cloud licenses in droves.

Why make the change? It’s simple.

Cloud licenses are much easier to buy, manage and use than on-premises licenses.

On-premises licensing is enforced using license files that are tied to the MAC address(Host ID) of a computer’s network adapter. Here are just a few of the ways that inflexibility affects organizations using on-premises licenses:

  • To receive an on-premises license file for purchase, you need to wait 24 to 48 hours after the trial request or license payment for the license file with the associated Product Code (a long, random number) to be generated and emailed to you. And don’t lose that email—you’ll need the Product Code it contains if you want to make any changes to your implementation in the future.
  • An on-premises license file is only usable when it is installed on a computer that has a network adapter with a MAC address that matches the Host ID specified in the license file. Moving on-premises licenses to a new host requires that the customer re-register the licenses using the new MAC address, then reactivate those licenses on the new host.
  • Additionally, on-premises license files have a concurrent user number that’s fixed at purchase, so adding users to a GO-Global on-premises implementation requires purchase of an additional, separate license, which the customer will need to track and manage.
  • Support renewal is also tied to each license file, requiring more management to ensure that the GO-Global implementation is fully supported.

Even at a high level, it’s easy to see why GO-Global customers flocked to the cloud license model. For more specifics, here’s the six reasons why cloud licenses are better than on-premises licenses.

Reason One: Getting started using GO-Global cloud licenses is ridiculously easy.

Most GO-Global cloud licenses are created by starting a 30-day free trial in the Activation Wizard. You simply run the Activation Wizard on the computer where the license will be used, create a GO-Global account in the customer portal, and start using GO-Global. And, since no configuration changes are required when converting a trial cloud license to a production license, you can configure GO-Global during the trial period as you would use it in production and keep using that configuration after you place an order.

Reason Two: GO-Global cloud license activation is painless.

Ordering GO-Global without starting a trial first is just as easy as a free trial download. Cloud licenses do not require a license file, so when activating GO-Global cloud licenses, you don’t need to know a license’s Product Code or the Host ID (MAC address) of the computer on which the license will be used. All you need to do is run the Activation Wizard on the host you want to use, sign in to your GO-Global account, and select the cloud license you want to use.

Reason Three: Applying GO-Global cloud license changes is effortless.

Changes happen. But, after activating GO-Global cloud licenses on a host, you will never need to request a new license file or make any licensing changes on that host. Changes to a license’s version, seat count, and expiration date are made in GO-Global’s Cloud Licensing Service and are immediately and automatically enforced by the GO-Global Host(s) using the license (i.e., you do nothing!). And, if your GO-Global Host’s MAC address changes, no worries—your cloud licenses will continue to work without issues.

Reason Four: Moving GO-Global cloud licenses to a new machine is simple.

Need to move your GO-Global cloud licenses to a new computer? No problem! Just run the Activation Wizard on the new computer, sign in to your GO-Global account, and select the cloud license you want to use on that computer. Done.

Reason Five: GO-Global cloud licenses are highly available, even during network outages.

The GO-Global Cloud License Service is hosted on the internet in a high availability environment. It has multiple redundancies to ensure high availability. However, if there is a network outage that prevents your GO-Global Host machine(s) from communicating with the service, those hosts will continue to use those cloud licenses for up to 72 hours after the outage began.

Reason Six: GO-Global cloud licenses can be activated on multiple computers simultaneously.

If you want to use multiple hosts for your GO-Global implementation, you can run the Activation Wizard on each of those hosts and select the same cloud license.This flexibility isn’t possible with on-premises licenses since they must be tied to a single MAC address.

NOTE: for all this goodness to happen, the GO-Global Application Host(s) or Application Host Manager must be able to connect directly to the GraphOn Cloud License Service, cloud.graphon.com (IP address: 13.52.136.225) on port 443. Similarly, the GO-Global Activation Wizard must be able to connect directly to the GraphOn Portal, portal.graphon.com (IP address: 52.8.15.135) on port 443.

Want to know more about GO-Global cloud licensing? Email us at sales@graphon.com.

To learn more about GO-Global, request a demo here or download a free 30-day trial.