Web Application non-compliant or free to use?

EE asked a question.

July 17, 2019 at 7:00 AM

Since turning on web metering in January, I have noticed and reported a large number of web applications being accessed by our users. In some cases the application are reflective of the application fleet we use, however majority of the web apps reported have been accessed by users via a browser, either to complete a form, do free online training, or just through the normal course of accessing and using a website. In some cases the transition from website to web app is seamless for the user.

Currently Snow is reporting most of these web apps as non-compliant. I agree that these are licenseable applications, but it's the website administrator that needs to be licensed not the user.

Is there some way that this can be managed within Snow?

If we wanted to take an overall compliance figure from Snow these results would skew our results. Thanks

LarsReifegerste
7 years ago
Hmm, that is really interesting. I think the best way is to set a second metric for a specified user. Is this particular user measurable? If you use the SLM 9.3.X you can set a second metric for the same Application (or Web Application) kind regards Lars
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- EE
  7 years ago
  We're yet to upgrade to SLM 9.3, the second metric could be useful, but ultimately it's about how smart is Snow's detection of Web Apps and their activation, OR do the Web App developers need to provide different versioning that somehow lists the location of the web app is licensed, therefore the user doesn't need to be, and vice versa. We could of course change the app to 'no license required' but with Snow detecting 7000+ web applications, which will only grow, this becomes tideous, and still doesn't differentiate the web app you are licensed for and the web app the provider is licensed for.
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EE
7 years ago
Hi ‌, is Snow aware of this issue with Cloud applications showing in SLM as non-compliant but the user only accessed a free component of the web app. Its very hard now to differentiate how many licenses/subscriptions we need to purchase as the non-compliance figure can't be trusted.
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Portal User
7 years ago
could you just add these applications to the compliance exclusion list?
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- EE
  7 years ago
  Hi, The problem with web apps (cloud) is some are free, some are not, some are free up to a limit of users (Atlassian Bitbucket, Bit.Ai, BrainCert). So which has been accessed by the user? That's my question. Snow is highlighting a web app activation, BUT not detecting subscriptions held, or subscription rules. In the case of Atlassian Bitbucket, up to 5 users is free, so Snow should highlight the first 5 users detected are free, beyond that a subscription license is required. The same with Bit.Ai. the first 50 users is free, etc. This is the new licensing world and these new rules need to be incorporate in someway within Snow to make Snow a market based source of truth for users.
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  - Portal User
    7 years ago
    Hi - yes i understand the issue, but without a connector into your specific SAAS vendor I think that it's an impossible task for SNOW to know everyone's licensing situation. You could however add a second metric to the application in SLM with concurrent users of 5. That would then give you the right compliance number if more people are using it.
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    EE
    7 years ago
    Thanks for the tip ‌, I had read previously about using a second metric but it didn't make sense to me, your example does. Thanks I try that. Yes, I agree without a connector to know the user's licensing arrangement it would be hard for Snow to know how its licensed. Ultimately with more apps being web/cloud apps we'd really need the industry to change and adapt a different SKU for licensable Web Apps that could be differentiated from free use. Would greatly help with licensing and compliance
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