Bring your own license or subscription to the public cloud

Release version: Australia

Updated March 12, 2026

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Summary of Bring your own license or subscription to the public cloud

Bring Your Own License (BYOL) and Bring Your Own Subscription (BYOS) support in ServiceNow’s Software Asset Management (SAM) application enable organizations to assess license compliance for Microsoft, Oracle, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) software products across hybrid infrastructures, including on-premise and public clouds like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This helps organizations optimize costs by using existing licenses in cloud environments and paying only for infrastructure.

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Supported Products and Cloud Models

Microsoft SQL Server, Windows Server: All editions, BYOL on AWS, Azure, and GCP (IaaS shared and dedicated)
Oracle Database: Various editions, BYOL on AWS (IaaS and PaaS) and Azure (IaaS shared and dedicated)
Oracle WebLogic Server: Standard, Enterprise, Suite editions, BYOL on AWS and Azure (IaaS shared and dedicated)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server: All editions, BYOS on AWS, Azure, and GCP (IaaS shared)

Key Features

Automatic Discovery: Using ServiceNow Discovery and Service Mapping patterns, the application identifies software installations, cloud provider details, service models (IaaS/PaaS), infrastructure types, and license types across hybrid environments.
License Type Determination: License types (BYOL, BYOS, License Included) are identified automatically through key-value pairs or manually specified when automatic detection is unsupported.
Cloud Cost Management Integration: For Microsoft SQL Server on AWS, license determination can use billing data from the Cloud Cost Management application.
Comprehensive Compliance Reconciliation: The application applies cloud-specific licensing rules combined with on-premise rules to provide an accurate compliance position, including support for Microsoft’s special rights (dual use, edition flexibility, unlimited virtualization).
License Usage Reporting: Detailed license usage views and publisher-specific overviews are available for Microsoft, Oracle, and Red Hat software within the Software Asset Workspace.
Remediation Options: Includes removing unlicensed cloud installations and optimizing vCPU sizing for Oracle Database licenses on AWS RDS, enabling proactive compliance management.
Infrastructure Visibility: Reports provide insights into Microsoft Windows and SQL Server deployments across cloud providers.
Core Infrastructure Suite (CIS) Support: On-premise CIS entitlements can license Windows Server installations on cloud platforms such as AWS and Azure.

Prerequisites

Activate the Discovery plugin and install Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns application.
Migrate from Cloud API probes to pattern-based cloud discovery.
Install CMDB CI Class Models and Cloud Cost Management applications from the ServiceNow Store.

Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

This capability enables customers to maintain license compliance efficiently when migrating or operating software in public cloud environments, thereby reducing unnecessary license purchases and optimizing license usage. By leveraging automatic discovery and license reconciliation, customers gain clear visibility into their hybrid license positions and can take corrective actions to remediate non-compliance. Integration with cloud billing data enhances accuracy for Microsoft SQL Server licensing on AWS. The solution supports complex licensing scenarios, including multi-cloud and hybrid deployments, helping customers manage licenses consistently and cost-effectively.

Bring your own license (BYOL) support enables you to determine the license compliance of your Microsoft and Oracle software products across hybrid infrastructures. Bring your own subscription (BYOS) support enables you to determine the license compliance of your Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) software products across hybrid infrastructures.

When organizations move to the public cloud, existing on-premise perpetual licenses are carried over to the cloud using BYOL. Existing on-premise subscription licenses are also carried over to the cloud using BYOS. BYOL and BYOS help improve license optimization, as organizations must pay only for infrastructure costs.

The Software Asset Management application supports BYOL for Microsoft and Oracle software products and BYOS for RHEL software products as follows:

Note:

The
                              Supported infrastructure type column in the following table applies to Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) models only.


Product	Product edition	BYOL or BYOS	Supported cloud providers	Supported service model	Supported infrastructure type
Microsoft SQL Server	All editions	BYOL	AWS Microsoft Azure Google Cloud Platform (GCP)	Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)	Shared and dedicated
Microsoft Windows Server	All editions	BYOL	AWS Microsoft Azure Google Cloud Platform (GCP)	Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)	Shared and dedicated
Oracle Database	Oracle Database Standard Edition Oracle Database Standard Edition One Oracle Database Standard Edition 2 Oracle Database Enterprise Edition	BYOL	AWS Microsoft Azure	AWS: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) Note: 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). Microsoft Azure: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)	Shared and dedicated
Oracle WebLogic Server	Oracle WebLogic Server Standard Edition Oracle WebLogic Server Enterprise Edition Oracle WebLogic Server Suite Edition	BYOL	AWS Microsoft Azure	Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)	Shared and dedicated
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server	All editions	BYOS	AWS Microsoft Azure Google Cloud Platform (GCP)	Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)	Shared

BYOL and BYOS support on the Software Asset Management application help you:

Discover perpetual and subscription-based software licenses automatically across on-premise and cloud environments, such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and GCP.
Determine the license compliance of the following software products across your hybrid infrastructure:
- Microsoft SQL Server
- Microsoft Windows Server
- Oracle Database
- Oracle WebLogic Server (Standard, Enterprise, and Suite Editions)
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server
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.

Flowchart for BYOL and BYOS, starting with ServiceNow Discovery and ending with remediation. — Figure 1. Bring your own license or subscription flow

Prerequisites

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

Activate the Discovery (com.snc.discovery) plugin on your ServiceNow instance.
See Request Discovery for detailed instructions.
Request and install the Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns application from the ServiceNow Store.
See Discovery patterns used by ITOM Visibility for more information on Discovery and Service Mapping patterns.
Migrate cloud discoveries from Cloud API (CAPI) probes to pattern-based discovery.
See CAPI to Pattern Migration: Procedure for switching from CAPI-based Cloud Discovery to pattern-based Cloud Discovery [KB0827153] for detailed instructions.
Request and install the CMDB CI Class Models application from the ServiceNow Store.
See CMDB CI Class Models store app for more information on the CMDB CI Class Models application.
Request and install the Cloud Cost Management application from the ServiceNow Store.
The Cloud Cost Management application is required for discovering the license types of software in your Microsoft SQL Server deployments on AWS. See Cloud Insights application for more information on the Cloud Cost Management application.

BYOL and BYOS discovery

With BYOL and BYOS, 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, BYOS, 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 Google Cloud Platform (GCP) resource inventory discovery with Patterns and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Organization discovery with Patterns.

Resources for your discovered software are populated and stored in corresponding Configuration Management Database (CMDB) tables, including 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 by using Discovery or Cloud Cost Management (CCM) data, depending on the software product and cloud provider.

License type determination varies by product and cloud environment, as shown in the following table.

Table 1. License type discovery by product and cloud
Product	AWS	Microsoft Azure	GCP
Microsoft Windows Server	Automatic	Automatic	Automatic
Microsoft SQL Server	CCM or manual	Automatic	Automatic
Oracle Database	Automatic	Manual	None
Oracle WebLogic Server	Manual	Manual	None
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server	Automatic	Automatic	Automatic

The Software Asset Management application identifies and applies license types by using the following methods.

Automatic determination using key-value pairs: For supported products, the Software Asset Management application automatically determines license types by generating key-value pairs. These key-value pairs are stored in the Key Values [cmdb_key_value] table. Each key-value pair consists of a Key in the <software-product>_License_Type_automatic format and a Value of either License Included, BYOL, or BYOS.
Manual specification using key-value pairs: When automatic determination isn't supported, you must manually specify license types by creating key-value pairs in the Key Values [cmdb_key_value] table with a Key of software-product_Server_License_Type and a Value of either License Included or BYOL. For example, Oracle WebLogic Server requires a key of Oracle_WebLogic_Server_License_Type. After you create the key-value pairs, the specified license types apply to the associated configuration items (CIs).
Cloud Cost Management–based determination: For Microsoft SQL Server on AWS, the Software Asset Management application can determine license types by using billing records from the Cloud Cost Management application.

Note:

If you do not manually specify a license type for a software product when required, the Software Asset Management application does not 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, BYOS, or License Included licensing model. The BYOL and BYOS licensing models include 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 managing licenses.

Note:

For Oracle Database, 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 and BYOS license compliance

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

BYOL and BYOS licensing rules can differ for the same software products across different cloud providers. For example, Windows Server has different licensing rules on AWS and on Microsoft Azure. These rules must be combined with existing on-premise rules so that you can determine the complete license compliance position of each software product across your hybrid infrastructures. 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 BYOL and BYOS.

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

You can view BYOL license rights for your Microsoft software products in the Microsoft publisher overview of the Software Asset Workspace. For more information on the Microsoft publisher overview, see Publisher overview for Microsoft in the Software Asset Workspace.
You can view BYOL license rights for your Oracle software products in the Oracle publisher overview of the 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 on the Oracle publisher overview, see Publisher overview for Oracle in the Software Asset Workspace. For more information on the Oracle DB Server Deployments per Agreement report, see the Oracle DB Server Deployments per Agreement report.
You can view BYOS license rights for your RHEL software products in the Red Hat publisher overview of the Software Asset Workspace. For more information on the Red Hat publisher overview, see Publisher overview for Red Hat in the Software Asset Workspace.

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.