Distribution and enforcement of per-feature-set software application licensing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11204981-B2
Application number	US-202016809132-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 4, 2020
Priority date	Oct 4, 2017
Publication date	Dec 21, 2021
Grant date	Dec 21, 2021

Abstract

A system may include a central computational instance disposed within a remote network management platform, where the central computational instance provides authoritative representations of software application licensing information to other computational instances, and where the other computational instances are dedicated to respective managed networks. The system may also include a particular computational instance that is configured to receive a representation of particular software application licensing information for a particular software application installed within the particular computational instance. The representation may include a set of entitlements, where an entitlement of the set of entitlements, when activated for the particular computational instance, allows the particular computational instance use of one or more features of the particular software application that are associated with the entitlement, and where the entitlement, when deactivated for the particular computational instance, prevents the particular computational instance from using the one or more features.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
one or more hardware processors; and
a non-transitory memory, the non-transitory memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more hardware processors, causes the one or more hardware processors to perform actions comprising:
receiving a representation of software licensing information for a software application installed within the system, wherein the software application comprises a plurality of features configured to use a plurality of database tables of the software application that are stored on the memory, and wherein the representation indicates one or more deactivated entitlements of a plurality of entitlements corresponding to one or more deactivated features of the plurality of features;
determining one or more database tables of the plurality of database tables used by the one or more deactivated features and to which access is not permitted based on the representation; and
preventing, via an access handler, access to the one or more database tables of the plurality of database tables used by the one or more deactivated features.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein preventing access to the one or more database tables comprises preventing read access, preventing write access, preventing create access, preventing delete access, or any combination thereof.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor executes a particular computational instance, wherein the software application is installed within the particular computational instance, and wherein the representation of software licensing information is received from a central computational instance.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein each entitlement of the plurality of entitlements is represented as one or more rules interpretable by the one or more hardware processors, and wherein the actions comprise applying the rules to at least some attempts to access the plurality of database tables.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions comprise a subscription administrator module and a license enforcement module, wherein the subscription administrator module is configured to receive the representation of the software application licensing information and provide the software application licensing information to the license enforcement module, and wherein the license enforcement module prevents access to the one or more database tables based on the software application licensing information.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the representation indicates one or more activated entitlements of the plurality of entitlements corresponding to one or more activated features of the plurality of features, and wherein the actions comprise enabling access to one or more additional database tables of the plurality of database tables used by the one or more activated features in response to receiving the representation.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the actions comprise receiving the representation of software licensing information once per day, in response to a request to access a database table of the plurality of database tables, in response to a change to the software licensing information, or any combination thereof.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the software application comprises a plurality of graphical user interfaces (GUIs), wherein the actions comprise preventing access to one or more GUIs of the plurality of GUIs used by the one or more deactivated features in response to receiving the representation.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein preventing access to the one or more GUIs comprises preventing read access, preventing write access, preventing create access, preventing delete access, or any combination thereof.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the software application is installed within a computational instance, and wherein the access handler is configured to prevent access to the one or more database tables from within the computational instance.

11. A method for managing access to a plurality of database tables of a software application, the method comprising:
receiving a representation of software licensing information for the software application, wherein the software application comprises a plurality of features configured to use a plurality of database tables of the software application, and wherein the representation indicates one or more deactivated entitlements of a plurality of entitlements corresponding to one or more deactivated features of the plurality of features;
determining one or more database tables of the plurality of database tables used by the one or more deactivated features and to which access is not permitted based on the representation; and
preventing, via an access handler, access to the one or more database tables of the plurality of database tables used by the one or more deactivated features.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein preventing access to the one or more database tables comprises preventing read access, preventing write access, preventing create access, preventing delete access, or any combination thereof.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the representation indicates one or more activated entitlements of the plurality of entitlements corresponding to one or more activated features of the plurality of features, and wherein the method comprises enabling access to one or more additional database tables of the plurality of database tables used by the one or more activated features in response to receiving the representation.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the method comprises receiving the representation of software licensing information once per day, in response to a request to access a database table of the plurality of database tables, in response to a change to the software licensing information, or any combination thereof.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the software application comprises a plurality of graphical user interfaces (GUIs), wherein the method comprises preventing access to one or more GUIs of the plurality of GUIs used by the one or more deactivated features in response to receiving the representation.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer readable code, that when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
receiving a representation of software licensing information for a software application, wherein the software application comprises a plurality of features configured to use a plurality of database tables of the software application, and wherein the representation indicates one or more deactivated entitlements of a plurality of entitlements corresponding to one or more deactivated features of the plurality of features;
determining one or more database tables of the plurality of database tables used by the one or more deactivated features and to which access is not permitted based on the representation; and
preventing, via an access handler, access to the one or more database tables of the plurality of database tables used by the one or more deactivated features.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein preventing access to the one or more database tables comprises preventing read access, preventing write access, preventing create access, preventing delete access, or any combination thereof.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the representation indicates one or more activated entitlements of the plurality of entitlements corresponding to one or more activated features of the plurality of features, an

Assignees

• Servicenow Inc

Inventors

• Terry David
• Dube Neha
• Khetan Saurabh
• Shankaranarayanan Parvathavardhini

Classifications

• H04L63/20

  for managing network security; network security policies in general (filtering policies H04L63/0227) · CPC title

• H04L63/0272

  Virtual private networks · CPC title

• G06F21/105 Primary

  Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level · CPC title

• H04L63/0281

  Proxies · CPC title