Currently, there's not a convenient way to license Desktop or Engine with a single-use license in the cloud (e.g., Azure VMs, Amazon WorkSpaces). The user has to de-authorize before shutting down the cloud VM, otherwise, the single-use license enters an "untrusted" state (because the hardware IDs change when the machine is restarted).
This is vitally important for small organizations who use cloud services as part of their DevOps. For example, in order for a third-party solution to support multiple releases of ArcGIS Desktop, the implementer will want to build and run unit tests against each release. The choices to do this are:
- a separate physical machine for each release;
- a separate VM for each release running on a local server; or
- a separate cloud VM for each release.
The most cost-efficient option will usually be #3, and the automation tools available on cloud platforms can be used to automate build, test, and deploy.
However, the lack of a single-use licensing solution for the cloud for developers essentially precludes #3 as an option.
