Question about licensing--

[RoyGBivUV]

Background:
* We plan on running 3 environments--Production, Test, and Dev.
* We have 3 advanced users, who do our development, and 1 admin.
* We plan on serving a handful of canned reports via the content store to about 100 report consumers. 
* We don't have anyone who actively uses tools like Workspace Advanced, or Analysis Studio. 

Question:  Do I need Authorized User Licenses if my Advanced users only do their work in non-production environments?  The way we operate, 3 advanced users work in Dev to develop report views, and then an administrator deploys solutions to Production.  Can we get by with just the following:

1 Non-Production BI Annual SW Subscription license (By PVU)
1 BI  Information Distribution  PVU SW Subscription license (By PVU)
1 BI Analytics Administrator Authorized User license (By User)

Or do I need to get the 3 BI Analytics Explorer Authorized User licenses regardless of the environment in which the developers work? 

[cognostechie]

Hi -

Though your IBM account manager will be the best person to provide answers but I can give you my personal opinion on this. Cognos licenses do not have any relation with number of environments or servers. The licenses are 'named' licenses and apply only to individuals using it. The same individual can work in multiple environments and only one license will be counted for one individual. As I believe, there is no difference between the person who develops the report and the person who runs the report so the users are at the same level as the developers. However, the licenses are specific to the development tool used. As an example, a developer developing a report in Report Studio would need the same type of license as the person running the report (user). A developer making a Framework model would need a different kind of license (Analytics Explorer). The person performing the admin tasks like security would need an Admin license.  Your 100 users would also need 100 licenses though not the ones used for modeling.   

[bdbits]

I am just a guy on an internet site, but... You may be able to use the "information distribution" PVU license for the report recipients. Even though your report developers are not on the production box, I think IBM is going to take the view that they are creating objects for use in production and so you will likely need 3 named report author licenses. And of course the admin license, as you listed.

You really should talk to your IBM account rep, though. They can give you a definitive answer.

I like the name, by the way - very colorful.  ;)

[RoyGBivUV]

Thanks folks, for your 2c.  I concur, the conversation with the IBM rep is definitely the right move to validate this, but I just wanted to see if others had the same take I did, and it does seem that way.  Cheers.  --Joe