Cloud Computing is probably going to make Machine ID licensing obselete

[Turtle Trader]

I'm running Ninja on a Cloud Virtual Machine and want to buy third party software and run it on that VM.

I hesitate to buy the software because I believe there are going to be problems with a license process that is based on the underlying hardware.

In a Cloud Computing environment the underlying hardware is a commodity...the virtualized machine may not permanently run on a single machine. If the user reboots the VM, it could start up on new hardware, and there are other things that may change the underlying hardware of the VM, such as, I suppose, rebalancing of the Cloud by the Cloud provider.

Another feature of Virtual Machines is that it is very easy to clone a new instance of the VM. I have done this recently from a backup because I broke the current VM with a bad installation. Thus I created a new instance from the backup and deleted the VM I had broke. In this case the new VM was likely running on new hardware and any licensing of software installed on the VM based on hardware would fail.

Does Ninja derive Machine ID from the underlying hardware? And, is this what many third party vendors use for licensing?

Here is the initial response from Amazon Web Services, the largest Cloud Computing provider.

================================================== ============

3rd party software that relies on specific hardware attributes for their licensing to be in effect causes problems in a virtualized environment. While the instance is running the hardware will remain the same; machine ID, MAC address, etc are all static. Whenever you stop and start an instance then you will likely be put on different hardware. The remedy is for the software provider to consider changing their license model.

================================================== ============

It makes sense to me to not tie a license to a specific piece of hardware. Why do that anymore?

Instead it would be better to have the licensing allow an upper limit of concurrent users and allow the software to run on any machine, anywhere in the world, any time of day.

That is the new reality!!

Will post replys from other Cloud vendors as I get them.

[NinjaTrader_Kyle]

Hello Turtle Trader,

Thank you for your post.

Machine ID is something the Windows operating system creates based on what hardware components are present in the machine from which Windows is being run. That said, I do understand your concern - a change here is something development is currently considering, and I'll be sure to forward your comments on to them. Thanks for taking the time to write in with this feedback.