Enterprise Licensing Model

Workspot’s standard licensing model is based on the number of Workspot users (rather than the number of Workspot virtual machines). Called Enterprise and Enterprise Plus, these models each include a bundle of supported features. For the purposes of this article, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus are identical.

This document covers Enterprise and Enterprise Plus licensing.

Note: There is also a Business Continuity license, which is beyond the scope of this article.

Overview

License Types

There are four types of Enterprise user licenses, shown below from the highest-level license to the lowest. Users with a higher-level license can use lower-level resources without an additional license, as shown below:

Control’s License Terminology

Control sometimes uses a single term to designate a specific license type and sometimes uses two terms. Use the table below to convert Control’s terminology:

Highlights

• Licenses are per-user instead of being based on VM type, number of VMs, or usage hours, making costs predictable.

• There are four user license types: “Named,” “Concurrent,” “Server and Browser Apps,” and “Browser Apps” These are described in the table above.

• A license entitles a user to an unlimited number of desktops and applications of the allowed types.

  • For example, a user with two persistent Workspot desktops needs only a single named license. A user with who uses ten Workspot applications plus a non-persistent desktop uses a single concurrent license, just like someone who only uses a single application.

  • A user can have multiple active desktops and applications running at the same time on a single license.

• The same license covers all VM sizes, Clouds, configurations, and locations. Switching a user to a desktop in a different Cloud, a different amount of RAM, a GPU, or a different OS does not require a licensing change.

• An Enterprise plan includes Workspot services only. The virtual machines are billed by your Cloud provider or are owned outright by you.

• Enterprise licenses are Cloud-agnostic. The same license can be used simultaneously with Azure, GCP, AWS, and on-premises desktops or apps.

• Enterprise licenses are typically billed annually, on the anniversary of your contract date.

  • Users added during the contract year are billed in the next calendar month, prorated for the fraction of the calendar year between adding them and the next contract anniversary.

• Enterprise is the default and recommended licensing method.

Determining the License Status of a User

Licensing information for a given user is shown on the “User Details” page (“Users > username”):

• User Workspot License Group: The group name used to determine the license type.

• Effective License: The license type that is (or will be) assigned, based on the user’s license group memberships.

• License Assigned: Whether the license is currently active.

• Active License Groups: Usually a repetition of “User Workspot License Group.”

• Other License Groups: Additional license groups the user is a member of, but that had lower precedence than the active group.

License Eligibility vs. License Consumption

End-users register and launch the Workspot Client based on the self-registration rules you have set in Control, or if you have added them manually in Control.

• Signing into the Client does not require a license.

  • But it does require valid login credentials.

• A license is required to launch a Workspot desktop or application.

  • This means that license assignment is deferred until the user clicks on the desired desktop or application.

  • Browser App license users acquire their license when they sign into the Client, not when they launch an application.

• At the time of license assignment, a user receives the highest license to which they are entitled (based on their group memberships).

• Having a higher license (such as a Named license) entitles the user to all the resources of the lower licenses (such as Browser apps).

  • This entitlement is implicit: the user with a higher license doesn’t consume a lower license.

  • For example, many customers have only desktop licenses (Named or Concurrent users), but their users still access Server apps and Browser apps.

• If all licenses of the requested type are in use, the user receives a message that there are no licenses available and cannot run their desktops or applications.

• Control administrators with Full Admin permissions can increase the number of licenses.

• Some licenses are assigned permanently, and some are temporary.

  • Named user licenses and Browser App user licenses are permanent until revoked.

  • Concurrent user licenses and Server App licenses are temporary, lasting only until the user’s login session on the remote desktop or application server lasts.

  • This means that it’s possible have more users of Concurrent desktops or Server apps resources than you have licenses, but when all licenses have been assigned, users have to wait for someone else’s remote login sessions to end.

Assigning Licenses

Licenses are assigned not to individual users, but by Groups. This is done in Control on the “Users > Group > Configure License Groups” page.

Default License is “Concurrent”

If you do not configure this page, all users are assumed to require Concurrent licenses (non-persistent desktops and below). This is true even if you don’t have any Concurrent licenses.

Users whose group memberships don’t match any of the configured license groups are also assumed to require a Concurrent license.

No Fallback to Lower Licenses

There is no fallback mechanism to lower licenses. That is, if a user is assigned to the Named license group but no Named licenses are available, they cannot use any Workspot resources at all, even resources that require licenses that are available.

The “Configure License Groups” Page

The “Configure License Groups” (“Users > Group > Configure License Groups”) is divided into four identical “License Types” sections, one per license type, plus a Sync Interval parameter.

“License Types” Section

Each “License Types” section has the following fields:

• Includes: A read-only field that lists the types of resources that are accessible to users with this license type.

• Total License: A read-only field that lists the number of user licenses of this type. To increase licenses, see Increasing Licenses (below).

• Group Assignments: A read/write block where you can add or remove groups from the desired license type. These groups must already exist.

  • To add a group, start typing a group name in text field marked “Enter Group Name” if there is one, or click the red “+” icon to create one. As you type, you will be offered matching Group Names. Select one.

  • Once the group name is selected, the “Directory” field will be populated with the source of the group: “Active Director,” “Workspot,” etc.

  • Delete a group from the list by clicking the red “-” icon for the group.

“Sync Interval” Section

This tells Control how often to check the license entitlements of the users. The default is six hours.

“Refresh Users” Button

This button tells Control to recheck each Client user’s group membership the next time they sign into the Workspot Client.

Licenses and Billing

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

Enterprise licenses are annual licenses. As their name implies, they 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.

You are charged for all the licenses you purchase, whether you use them or not.

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 all Enterprise license types.

• 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.”

  • The licenses are available immediately.

Increasing Licenses During Pool Creation or Expansion

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 confirmation” 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.

Resource Entitlements vs. License Consumption

Resource Entitlements

A user’s resource entitlements are distinct from licenses. A user is entitled to a Workspot resource (Cloud desktop, Cloud application, or Web application) if they belong to a Workspot Group that has resources associated with it or has had an entitlement assigned to them individually by a Control Administrator.

An entitlement alone is not enough to guarantee access to the resource. The resource itself has to be available, and so does a license.

Resource Availability

If every desktop in the desired desktop pool or every application in the desired application server pool is in use, no resource is available to honor your entitlement. “No desktops available in pool” and similar error messages will be shown instead.

This allows Workspot resources to be oversubscribed; that is, a thousand users may belong to a group giving them an entitlement to a desktop pool with only a hundred desktops. Resources are assigned on a first come, first served basis.

License Availability

Using a resource also requires a license. Once all licenses have been assigned, users without a license have to wait until one becomes available.

• A named user license is assigned to the user until revoked, as follows:

  • No named license is consumed until the user acquires a Workspot resource (by clicking on a resource icon in the Workspot Client).

  • Once the user no longer has any named resources or is no longer a member of the Named License Group, they will eventually lose their Named User License. See Weekly Membership Polling, below.

  • Users with a Named user license can use resources that require lower-level licenses without consuming one of these licenses.

• Concurrent and Server App user licenses are relinquished once the user has signed out from all Workspot resources and acquired again when they launch a new Workspot resource.

• Users entitled to only a Browser Apps license acquire one as soon as they launch the Workspot Client and keep it until revoked.

Except for users with Browser Apps licenses, only actual users of Workspot desktops and apps ever acquire licenses at all.

Related Documents

• User Self-Registration and Resource Entitlements.