Solutions / License Harvesting

License Harvesting

Reclaim idle licenses automatically and keep teams productive.

NYBS License Harvesting releases idle and unused licenses back to the pool, so more users can work with the same number of licenses. Reduce denial events, prevent license hogging, and cut unnecessary spend — without disrupting engineers.

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Optimize license usage and reduce employee downtime

Software licenses are frequently checked out but remain idle during breaks, meetings, or background sessions. These unused sessions block high-value assets, preventing other team members from working and creating unnecessary bottlenecks in the development pipeline.

NYBS License Harvesting identifies inactivity and automatically returns idle seats to the pool, making them immediately available to others. This process maximizes software utilization, reduces denial events, and eliminates employee downtime without requiring additional license spend.

Features

Customized harvesting parameters

Set harvesting thresholds that match your organization’s policies, including idle time, utilization level, and usage patterns.

Harvest idle licenses the way you want

Manual

Admins identify idle sessions in the admin portal.
Release a license with one click, works remotely across sites.

Save & Close

Define what ‘idle’ means based on your requirements.
Safely save the user’s work (when supported) and close the idle application.
Automatically return the license to the pool.

Configurable for selected engineering applications (examples: CAD/GIS/Simulation tools).

Suspend & Resume

When an idle session is detected, reclaim the license and ‘freeze’ the application.
Users can resume when the license is reclaimed.
Best for environments where suspend/resume is supported by the licensing model.

Custom

General-purpose, script-based retrieval for environments with unique needs.
Flexible configuration to match different license servers and workflows.

Benefits

Determine real inactivity

Harvest only when there’s no user activity or meaningful background processing.

Improve productivity

Reduce denial events so teams aren’t blocked waiting for a license.

Optimize license-to-user ratios

Use real behavior data to right-size pools and plan renewals confidently.

Eliminate license hogging

Prevent ‘all-day’ checkouts that keep licenses unavailable for others.

Save on costs

Improve availability with fewer seats — reduce spend without reducing capability.

Automatically eliminate idle sessions

NYBS License Harvesting can run automatically based on predefined logic, ensuring that your software assets are always available to the users who need them most. By removing the manual burden of monitoring, administrators can enforce multi-level policies that scale across global teams without interference.

Policy Inputs

Idle time threshold
Usage/utilization percentage

Optional resource signals

CPU/processor activity
I/O / data operations

These signals integrate with your specific environment to help ensure the reclaim action is both safe and accurate, preventing data loss or disruption of complex background calculations.

FAQ

Answers to common questions about license harvesting.

What’s considered ‘idle’?

Idle means the application is checked out but not actively used for a defined period. NYBS identifies idle sessions based on your policy settings (for example: no user input, low activity signals, or other configurable indicators). You decide the idle threshold and which applications it applies to.

Is harvesting manual or automatic?

Both. NYBS supports manual harvesting for admin-controlled actions and automated harvesting that runs continuously based on your rules. You can start with manual harvesting for safety, then enable automation once policies are validated.

Will users lose work when a license is reclaimed?

NYBS is designed to minimize disruption. You can configure warning notifications and grace periods before reclaiming a license. Where supported, harvesting methods can safely close or suspend sessions based on your selected approach. Policies are configurable per application so you can choose conservative settings for sensitive tools.

How do we control policies per app/team?

You can set policies by application, feature, group, department, or team. This lets you apply different idle thresholds, notifications, and harvesting methods depending on how each tool is used. Admins can also exclude specific users, hosts, or projects when needed.

Ready to reclaim idle licenses?

Book a demo to see how NYBS License Harvesting can increase availability, reduce downtime, and lower license costs.