Bring your own license to the public cloud

  • Release version: Washingtondc
  • Updated February 1, 2024
  • 8 minutes to read
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    Summary of Bring Your Own License to the Public Cloud

    Bring Your Own License (BYOL) support in ServiceNow's Software Asset Management (SAM) enables organizations to manage compliance for Microsoft and Oracle products across hybrid infrastructures. This feature allows existing on-premise licenses to be utilized in the cloud, optimizing licensing costs by requiring payment only for infrastructure usage.

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    Key Features

    • Support for BYOL with Microsoft SQL Server and Windows Server on AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
    • BYOL support for Oracle Database and WebLogic on AWS and Microsoft Azure, covering various editions.
    • Automatic discovery of software licenses across on-premise and cloud environments.
    • Advanced optimization through Cloud Special Rights, including dual use rights and unlimited virtualization.
    • Remediation capabilities for non-compliance issues.

    Key Outcomes

    By implementing BYOL, ServiceNow customers can:

    • Efficiently determine license compliance for their software assets across hybrid infrastructures.
    • Utilize key-value pairs to track and manage license types for Microsoft and Oracle products.
    • Automatically reconcile licensing rules across different cloud providers, ensuring accurate compliance reporting.
    • Access remediation options to address non-compliance, including removing unlicensed installations and optimizing vCPU configurations.
    • Leverage existing on-premise entitlements to license cloud installations effectively.

    Bring your own license (BYOL) support enables Software Asset Management managers to determine the compliance of Microsoft and Oracle products across hybrid infrastructures.

    When organizations move to the public cloud, their existing on-premise licenses are carried over to the cloud using BYOL. BYOL improves license optimization, as organizations must pay only for infrastructure costs.

    The Software Asset Management application supports BYOL for Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Windows Server on AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) in Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) models for shared and dedicated infrastructures.

    The Software Asset Management application also supports BYOL for Oracle Database and WebLogic servers on AWS and Microsoft Azure. BYOL is supported by the following Oracle Database and WebLogic Server editions:
    • Oracle Database Standard Edition
    • Oracle Database Standard Edition One
    • Oracle Database Standard Edition 2
    • Oracle Database Enterprise Edition
    • Oracle WebLogic Server Standard Edition
    • Oracle WebLogic Server Enterprise Edition

    For AWS, the Software Asset Management application supports BYOL for Oracle Database and WebLogic servers in Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) models for shared and dedicated infrastructures. The Software Asset Management application also supports BYOL for Oracle Database servers in Platform as a Server (PaaS) models. In AWS, the IaaS model refers to the Amazon Elastic Computing (EC2) web service, while the PaaS model refers to the Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS). For Microsoft Azure, the Software Asset Management application supports BYOL for Oracle Database and WebLogic servers in only IaaS models for shared and dedicated infrastructures.

    BYOL on the Software Asset Management application helps you:
    • Discover software licenses automatically across on-premise and cloud environments, such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and GCP.
    • Determine the license compliance of Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Windows Server, Oracle Database servers, and Oracle WebLogic Server across your hybrid infrastructure.
    • Provide advanced support for optimization through Cloud Special Rights, such as dual use rights, edition flexibility, and unlimited virtualization.
    • Perform remediation when your software is out of compliance.
    Figure 1. Bring your own license flow
    Flowchart of the Bring your own license to the public cloud starting from ServiceNow Discovery and ending with the remediation action

    Prerequisites

    Before you can begin determining the license compliance of software across your hybrid infrastructures, you must complete the following prerequisites:

    BYOL discovery

    With BYOL, the ServiceNow® Discovery application locates and identifies licensable software in both your on-premise and cloud environments using Discovery and Service Mapping patterns. The Discovery application uses Amazon AWS Cloud, Microsoft Azure Cloud, and Google Cloud discovery patterns to discover the following resources for software in cloud environments:
    • Cloud provider
    • Virtual machine details
    • Service model type, such as IaaS or PaaS
    • Host infrastructure type for IaaS, such as shared or dedicated
    • License type, such as BYOL or License Included
    • Software that is installed on the virtual machine
    Note:
    The Amazon AWS Cloud, Microsoft Azure Cloud, and Google Cloud discovery patterns are included in the Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns store application. For more information on Amazon AWS Cloud discovery patterns, see Amazon AWS Cloud components discovery using patterns. For more information on Microsoft Azure Cloud discovery patterns, see Microsoft Azure Cloud components discovery using patterns. For more information on Google Cloud discovery patterns, see and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Organization discovery.

    Resources for your discovered software are populated and stored in corresponding Configuration Management Database (CMDB) tables, such as the Host [cmdb_ci_cloud_host] and Serverless Hardware [cmdb_ci_serverless_hardware] tables, on your ServiceNow instance.

    The Software Asset Management application then determines the license types of your discovered software either independently or with the Discovery or Cloud Cost Management application.
    • For the Microsoft Windows Server and the Oracle Database server on AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, the Software Asset Management application determines license types independently.
    • For the Microsoft SQL Server on AWS, the Software Asset Management application determines license types using billing records from the Cloud Cost Management application.
    • For the Microsoft SQL Server on Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, the Software Asset Management application determines license types using resources that are discovered through the Discovery application.
    • For the Oracle WebLogic Server on both AWS and Microsoft Azure, you must specify license types manually.

    For Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Windows Server, and Oracle Database server, license types are applied to associated configuration items (CIs) using automatically generated key-value pairs. The key-value pairs are stored in the Key Values [cmdb_key_values] table. Each key-value pair consists of a Key in the <software-product>_License_Type_automatic format and a Value of either License Included or BYOL.

    For Oracle WebLogic Server, you must specify license types manually by creating key-value pairs. The key-value pairs must have a Key of Oracle_WebLogic_Server_License_Type and a Value of either License Included or BYOL. After you create these key-value pairs, the specified license types can be applied to the associated CIs.
    Note:
    If the license type is not manually specified for a software product, the Software Asset Management application won' license the installation due to insufficient information.
    You can use these key-value pairs to determine whether the associated software licenses are using the BYOL licensing model or the License Included licensing model. The BYOL licensing model includes license purchasing options such as Azure Hybrid Benefit. The License Included licensing model includes license purchasing options such as Pay As You Go (PAYG), SPOT, and On Demand. With the License Included licensing model, the cloud provider is responsible for license management.
    Note:
    For the Oracle Database server, support for the BYOL and License Included licensing models is based on the cloud provider and Oracle Database version that you're using:
    • AWS RDS (PaaS): The BYOL licensing model is supported on Oracle Database Standard Edition, Standard Edition One, Standard Edition 2, and Enterprise Edition. The License Included licensing model is supported on only Oracle Database Standard Edition 2.
    • AWS EC2 (IaaS): Only the BYOL licensing model is supported.
    • Microsoft Azure (IaaS): Only the BYOL licensing model is supported.

    Software reconciliation for BYOL license compliance

    After your discovered software is marked as BYOL or License Included, reconciliation runs on the software that is marked as BYOL. You can then use the resulting information to determine the software compliance across your hybrid infrastructure.

    BYOL licensing rules differ for the same software products across different cloud providers. Each software product has its own licensing rules based on the cloud provider that it’s deployed on. For example, the Windows Server has different licensing rules on AWS and on Microsoft Azure. These rules must be combined with the already applicable on-premise rules so the complete license compliance position can be determined for a software product in a hybrid environment. Microsoft offers special rights for products that are deployed on AWS vs Microsoft Azure, such as dual use rights, edition flexibility, and unlimited virtualization. For more information on licensing rules, see Licensing rules for Bring your own license.

    The Software Asset Management application automatically reconciles these rules and provides an accurate license position report that can be viewed in the License Workbench in the Software Asset Management classic application or in the License usage view in Software Asset Workspace.

    In the Software Asset Management classic application, you can view the BYOL license rights for Microsoft products in the Software Publisher Analytics dashboard. For more information, see Microsoft dashboards in Software Asset Management classic. In the Software Asset Workspace, you can view the BYOL license rights for Microsoft products in the publisher overview. For more information, see Publisher overview for Microsoft in the Software Asset Workspace.

    In Software Asset Workspace, you can view BYOL license rights for Oracle products in the publisher overview. For more information, see Publisher overview for Oracle in the Software Asset Workspace. In Software Asset Workspace, you can also view information about your Oracle Database server deployments across hybrid infrastructures, based on the agreement type, in the Oracle DB Server Deployments per Agreement report. For more information, see the Oracle DB Server Deployments per Agreement report.

    Cloud-based remediation options

    To remediate non-compliance for cloud installations, the Software Asset Management application provides the following remediation options:
    Remove Unlicensed Installs - Cloud

    The Remove Unlicensed Installs - Cloud remediation option removes all cloud installations that are unlicensed for the associated software product.

    When you select the Remove Unlicensed Installs - Cloud remediation option, removal candidates that follow the regular remediation workflow are created. After the removal candidates reach the Awaiting Revocation state, you can uninstall the cloud installations from your cloud provider and then mark the removal candidates as complete.

    Optimize vCPU

    The Optimize vCPU remediation option provides vCPU sizing optimizations based on the core count and core thread count. This remediation option is applicable only to Oracle Database Per Processor licenses on AWS RDS (PaaS). That Per Processor licensing is based on the number of vCPUs on which you install or run an Oracle database.

    For more information on AWS core counts and core thread counts, see Configuring the processor for a DB instance class.