Flexera Software, the leading provider of next-generation software licensing, compliance, security and installation solutions for application producers and enterprises, announced today they are collaborating with Microsoft Azure to enable Thinkbox Software to add on-demand, usage-based licensing 24/7 in the Cloud for Deadline version 8. This relationship will allow Thinkbox to give customers pay-per-use access to Thinkbox products including Deadline, Krakatoa and Sequoia as well as select third-party applications via the Thinkbox’s e-commerce portal, with minutes consumed only while the Slave application is rendering. The collaboration also reinforces the value which Licensing-as-a-Service (LaaS) affords independent software vendors doing business with Microsoft Azure.

Thinkbox’s Deadline is the foundation on which an organization’s hardware and software tools work together. Compatible across Windows, Linux and Mac OSX render farms, the latest version of Deadline adds usage-based licensing on top of its perpetual license model for cloud-based and on-premise resources – resulting in dramatically new and more flexible ways to work, enabling more simulations and faster iteration. By working with Flexera Software and Microsoft, Deadline render farms can be built entirely or expanded in Azure, permitting Thinkbox customers to add extra machines when demand increases — lowering overhead and saving money.

“Usage-based licensing is a game changer,” said Chris Bond, CEO and Founder at Thinkbox Software. “The freedom to spin up cloud-based instances has been hugely beneficial for our customers and providing per-minute access to integral workflow tools takes that flexibility a step further, providing a streamlined avenue for scaling up on-premise or cloud-based render farms during peak activity periods.”

Today, many enterprises require flexible, hosted offerings but are concerned that deploying their applications to the Cloud will violate their software agreements or result in software audit true-up penalties due to unanticipated overuse. The Azure and FlexNet Licensing-as-a-Service collaboration enables Thinkbox customers to deploy their applications to Azure and be assured they will remain in compliance with software agreements, while at the same time giving them flexibility and scalability in how they monetize and protect their applications.

Microsoft Azure Marketplace is an online applications and services marketplace that allows application producers to offer their solutions to Azure customers around the world. Through collaboration with Microsoft, Flexera Software’s Software Monetization solution, including FlexNet Licensing and FlexNet Operations, empowers application producers with a swift on-ramp to Azure to maximize revenue with Cloud-centric licensing models and seamless bursting.

Flexera Software’s presence in Azure Marketplace makes it easy for application producers or in-house application developers to rapidly and cost-effectively transition their software solutions to Azure, while ensuring their intellectual property is being protected. Moreover, application producers can use Flexera Software’s usage management capabilities to gain insights into how their products are being used and optimize subscription-based revenue-generation.

“We are delighted that Thinkbox chose to work with Flexera Software and implement our Software Monetization solution to automate and manage licenses across all its commercial products,” said Mathieu Baissac, Vice President of Product Management at Flexera Software. “We are also excited to have been chosen as the back-office infrastructure for their Thinkbox Store, and are gratified to drive the flexible licensing and business models Thinkbox wants to deliver to their customers.”

“Microsoft is pleased to collaborate with Flexera Software and Thinkbox to ensure Thinkbox’s customers have the resources they need to get the most out of Deadline,” said Nicole Herskowitz, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Corp. “We look forward to making complex environments easy for our mutual customers, and are eager to showcase our collaboration.”