How to manage USB software in the cloud
If your valuable software runs in the cloud, how do you ensure that your licensing system still works?
The past decade has seen a significant shift to the cloud and using software-as-aservice. However, dongles are still a popular method for software companies to protect intellectual property and high-value software. But can you use USB dongles with cloud software to protect your data, and if so, what’s the best way to go about it?
One solution is to deploy a USB dongle server. These have been used in the past to provide a USB port for a network, allowing a computer to span beyond the local network to the internet.
Protecting high-value software-as-a-service
British Columbia startup ESP Estimating offers its clients, electrical contractors, a cloud-based custom estimating database for a monthly subscription. This solution also uses a third-party software platform called Accubid. This is specialised installed software, costing over $4,000 per licence, and is meant to be run on a single PC or a networked server. The software usually checks with a physical dongle inserted in the PC or server at each electrical contractor’s location. To run Accubid, the estimator is required to work from a physical PC with the USB licence plugged into it on the local network.
But ESP uses the cloud and virtual machines to deliver its software to the client, and these VMs don’t have USB ports. Sentinel dongles, supplied by Gemalto, wouldn’t work with pooled, session-based remote desktops; they require a one-to-one, PC-to-dongle connection.
ESP solved the issue by using SEH Technology’s myUTN-800 dongle server and user-dedicated virtual PCs. This enabled administrators to assign a USB port to each virtual machine, using SEH‘s own interface. Each virtual machine then makes the connection to the dongle server and presents the licence to the Accubid software for verified access. ESP’s clients only see their own specific Accubid licences that have been purchased, providing a completely secure isolated environment for each contractor.
The solution gives end users access to all purchased Accubid licenses across a geographically distributed and mobile workforce, including owners, estimators, and project managers. Once used, the dongles can be freed up for a new user. Customers benefit as the dongle server ensures that software licences are never circumvented.
In addition, by storing the dongles securely and centrally in the locked dongle server, they are safe from loss, damage, wear and tear, and theft.
Helping cloud providers offer more security
The use of a USB dongle server can help cloud hosting providers overcome the problem of hosting services for licensed software that’s protected by USB hardware keys or dongles.
Virtual server environments are not well equipped for handling USB devices, and it can be impossible to provision USB dongles with virtual servers and assign them to a specific customer’s virtual machine.
To fulfil its customers‘ security demands, German cloud provider Terra Cloud found the need to host dongles in virtual environments indispensable.
The problem was that the cloud provider has no reliable way to connect dongles to virtual servers and assign exactly the right VM to a customer. This was problematic for customers using a German accountancy package called Datev. These customers would outsource their data processing to hosted external servers, but still had to fall back on a costly physical server. Instead, Terra Cloud looked to use a dongle server that could be used with virtual servers.
The hosting provider’s admins can use the myUTN-800 dongle server to provide up to 20 protected software licences centrally and securely across a network via 20 USB ports. When users want to work with their software, they simply connect to their dongle with the help of the myUTN manager software. When work is completed, the dongle is released from the virtual machine so that others can use the licence without having to physically transfer a dongle from one machine to another.
For cloud providers, the dongle server can create a management VLAN, and also support several other VLANs with the option that every VLAN can use the same IP range. The direct assignment of a USB ports to VLANs enables operation in a multi-tenant facility.
The dongle server provides safe and simple dongle management in virtualised environments, making external hosting via data centres financially attractive for customers. Such solutions can scale up as and when for new customers with similar needs.