Sharing Software Resources with Floating License In Grid Environment

Software resources are always important and expensive for users. Sharing existing software resources and paying for their usages become big challenges in grid environment. While existing license management systems are only suitable for LAN environment, a novel grid middleware, named LicTraveler, is developed for global license sharing across various domains. The two-leveled hierarchical architecture allows both autonomous local service and cooperative global service. It provides strong security and flexible reservation & quota policies for licensing activities. Flexible license distributing and scheduling policies are also provided. Experiments show that LicTraveler helps corporations reducing their redundant investments and promoting license efficiencies as much as 50%.