License management for version 13 and higher

In order to prepare NoSpamProxy for hybrid and cloud deployment scenarios, the familiar process of importing and regularly exchanging the license file for maintenance extensions will no longer be necessary from Version 13 on. Instead, all license information is provided in a secure database in a cloud service. NoSpamProxy installations access this cloud service at regular intervals. In this pull procedure, only information on the NoSpamProxy version used and the operating system is transmitted to the manufacturer.

We have introduced various improvements by changing the licensing procedure in preparation for NoSpamProxy Version 13.

• All licenses are managed in a central and secure database and are therefore always available and up-to-date.
• When purchasing via providers such as the ALSO Cloud Marketplace, for example, the monthly and user-specific purchase of NoSpamProxy can now be implemented automatically without the need to repeatedly send and import new licenses.
• Inconsistencies between orders and issued licenses are immediately apparent and can be clarified.
• By sending the unique link to a license certificate that is always available online, no PDF file sent as an attachment can be lost.
• The license certificate now also includes the customer's current maintenance period.
• The licensing of the Sandbox Service is also shown in the certificate.
• The familiar PDF file with the certificate can, for example, be easily generated by the standard "Print to PDF" printer on all Windows clients.

All values are measured over a period of 90 days. The exception here is the value for the Sandbox Service. A period of 30 days is considered here.

All values are aggregated to users, if this is possible. If an assignment to users is not possible, each email address is counted separately. The email addresses stored under Configuration > Email Routing > Corporate email servers are also counted, even if these emails are then sent from outside, but are still sent with the company's own email domain.

• Protection module: Number of outbound emails
• Encryption module: Number of addresses that have signed and/or encrypted at least one email via S/MIME or PGP or have sent PDF Mails
• Disclaimer module: number of addresses with applied disclaimer on emails
• Large Files module : Number of addresses where attachments were processed by large files
• Sandbox Service: Number of addresses whose associated emails contained files that were uploaded to the sandbox

On our GitHub page https://github.com/noSpamProxy/Reports/tree/master/Get-NspLicenseReport we offer a script that gives you an overview of this via PowerShell. Alternatively, you can use the included Powershell CmdLet Get-NspFeatureUsage.

If license problems occur at individual customers of partners after the changeover, these are displayed as warnings via the NoSpamProxy console and are also sent to the administrator as an email. Several warning levels and always sufficient reaction times (several weeks) are taken into account, so that discrepancies can be clarified. Under no circumstances will there be any immediate functional restrictions or downtime in the processing of emails.

Reported licensing problems may be caused by the following:

• Since licensing is based on the number of actual users and NoSpamProxy can only recognize the number of different email addresses from which emails were sent, it can lead to the tolerance of 20% being exceeded if the number of function mailboxes is very high. In this case, the customer must add licenses via the reseller.