Workspot BYOcloud (Bring Your Own Cloud) Licensing

Introduction

The main expense of any Workspot deployment comes from the usage fees of the Cloud provider; that is, the cost of running the virtual machines. These are your virtual desktops, virtual GPU workstations, virtual application servers, and so on. 

Workspot’s original billing model (the “Elite” model) involved Workspot paying the Cloud provider for the virtual machines on the customer’s behalf, and then passing the costs along to the customer along with the cost of Workspot’s services. 

However, customers typically prefer to pay their Cloud providers directly. Workspot supports this unbundling in two ways:

• Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOcloud, the subject of this article).

• Enterprise/Enterprise+ per-user licensing.

Other than the difference in billing, the customer experience for BYOcloud is almost (but not quite) identical to other plans: 

• Initial setup is the same, with the same level of support and with the same Workspot experts as direct billing. The customer experience during this stage is the same. 

• Operation via Workspot Control is almost identical, including the range of virtual machines, regions, options, etc. 

• The user experience is identical. 

• Support is identical. 

One difference is that some power-management controls are unlocked for BYOcloud, allowing you to reduce or disable power management in ways that aren’t practical with fixed-price, non-consumption-based plans (use with caution). 

Note: Sometimes BYOcloud is erroneously called “BYOC,” which means “Bring Your Own Computer.” Hopefully this error is made harmless through context: if we are talking about licensing or a virtual machine, we mean “BYOcloud,” but if we’re talking about a local device owned by the end-user, we really do mean “BYOC.”

How BYOcloud Works 

With BYOcloud, Workspot charges for the number of licenses you purchase rather than the actual number or usage of your Workspot desktops and applications. This is consistent with Workspot’s normal Annual and Monthly billing model but not with its Hourly model. 

What is a License? 

A license is a ticket that entitles you to a Workspot desktop or an application. Licenses are pooled and are interchangeable within broad categories.  

A license is assigned to an end-user as a side effect of acquiring a Workspot desktop or application. 

For example, a user who is entitled to a Workspot persistent desktop won’t actually have one until they launch the Workspot Client and click on the desktop icon. That click allocates a license (if available) and a desktop (if available), and launches the desktop. If their desktop assignment is revoked for some reason, things revert to the way they were before: the desktop and the license are both available for the next user. 

If no licenses are available, the user won’t be able to launch the desktop or app. If all the desktops are in use, or the application servers already have all the users they can handle, the user also won’t be able to launch the desktop or app. 

Desktop Licenses

A Workspot desktop VM has only one user at a time.  

• A persistent desktop is assigned to a user for an indefinite period, with the assignment typically lasting months or years. This is equivalent to a traditional computer on an individual employee’s desk. You need as many licenses as you have desktops, and as many desktops as you have users. 

• A non-persistent desktop is a shared desktop with one user at a time but many users over its lifetime, perhaps more than one user per day. The license and desktop are allocated when the user clicks the desktop icon in the Workspot Client and are deallocated when the user is signed out of the desktop. If you have more users trying to log on than you have desktops, some of them can’t connect. Thus, you need enough desktops for your maximum number of simultaneous users, and a license for each desktop. 

• There is no difference between a desktop license and a GPU workstation license in BYOcloud licensing. They are interchangeable. 

• Persistent and non-persistent desktops use different licenses. Licenses are interchangeable within each category but not between them. 

Application Licenses

• Applications. Workspot Cloud Application Pools (RD Pools) are virtual servers running a Microsoft Server OS with the applications of your choice. A Workspot application license is required for a user to connect to an application. As with non-persistent desktop pools, you need as many application licenses as you have simultaneous users. 

• Application licenses are interchangeable. The same license can be used for any app on any of your application servers. 

• You can have as many application servers as you like, arranged in one or more pools of servers (called “Cloud Server Pools”) that you set up in Workspot Control. You can set up how many servers you want in the pool and how many users are allowed per server. You can create as many pools as you like. 

• Licenses work on a (user x application) basis. That is, if you have set up Excel and Word as Workspot application and a user runs both simultaneously, this requires two application licenses. 

• When the user clicks on the application icon in the Workspot Client, this checks out a license. If this succeeds, the application launches. Otherwise, the user sees a message that no licenses are available. 

• When the user exits the application or an idle timeout closes it for them, the license is checked back in and can be used by someone else. 

How Licensing is Enforced 

You are allowed to have more licenses than you have desktops, and more desktops than you have users, but you can’t have fewer. This is enforced by Workspot Control as follows: 

• You can’t create more Workspot desktops than you have (appropriate) licenses. 

• An end-user can’t launch a Workspot desktop or app without checking out a license first. This checkout process is a transparent part of launching the desktop or app from the Workspot Client. 

One Size Fits Most 

Workspot has a “one size fits most” policy where all broadly similar VMs using the same license interchangeably, regardless of the size and capabilities of the VM.

The current license categories are: 

• Persistent desktops, including GPU workstations. 

• Non-persistent desktops. 

• Applications in RD Pools. 

Licenses and Billing

Note: Multi-year contracts exist but are outside the scope of this article.

As their name implies, annual licenses are billed yearly. All annual licenses expire on the contract date, which is set when you sign up with Workspot. When you create a new annual desktop license, you are billed pro rata from the day it is created to the end of the contract year. The full amount will appear on next month’s bill.

When a new contract year rolls around, you are billed for another year of service on all your annual licenses. That is, all the licenses that exist on the first day of the new year. Thus, it’s a good idea to check your usage and delete any unneeded licenses before the end of the contract year.

Billing Example

Suppose your billing year ends on March 31. You will receive a bill in April for the full amount of all annual licenses you had on April 1. This applies both to licenses that are assigned to desktops and ones that are not.

If you acquire a new license on January 15, you will be billed in February for the prorated amount from January 15 through March 31 (75 days, or 76 if it’s a leap year). 

Increasing Licenses (Self-Service Licensing)

Increasing Licenses Manually

Licensing is controlled on the “My Account > Corporate Settings > Subscription > Company Subscription” page. The process is identical for desktop and application licenses.

• Click the Edit (pencil) icon on the license type you wish to edit.

• Enter a number of licenses larger than the listed “Annual Licenses” for the selected license type.

  • You can increase the number of licenses but can’t decrease them.

• Click the Green checkmark.

• Because changes to licensing will affect how much you are billed, you need to provide a special confirmation before the change takes place.

  • Type the email address you used to sign into Control into the text box.

  • Click “Confirm.”

Increasing Licenses Automatically

The process is the same for persistent desktops and non-persistent desktops (Application licenses must be increased manually). Suppose you have new employees who need Workspot desktops.

These licenses are assigned automatically as part of the process of creating or expanding a desktop pool in Workspot Control, as follows:

• If enough licenses are available already, they are applied automatically as part of the desktop pool creation/expansion process.  

• Otherwise, you are warned about the shortfall with a “Confirm Licenses Update” confimation like the one above.

  • If you proceed, you will be shown the same the necessary licenses are purchased on the spot.

  • The new licenses become active immediately. They appear on next month’s bill. 

• The process is the same whether you create a new desktop pool or increase the number of desktops in an existing pool. 

Decreasing Licenses

Contact Workspot.

Related Documents

• Control: Desktop Pools

• Per-User Licensing Model (Enterprise and Enterprise Plus)

• Self-Service Consumption Billing and Power Management