User based metrics avoid the hardware arithmetic of PVU, but they trade it for a different discipline: knowing exactly who counts and under what rule. Authorized User and Floating User are the two most common user metrics, and the word user in both names hides the fact that they measure different things. One counts named people with access. The other counts how many people use the software at the same time. The license you bought decides which question the auditor asks, and the answer has to match.
Two user metrics, two ways to count.
The simplest way to keep them apart is to ask what the entitlement is attached to. Authorized User attaches to a person. Floating User attaches to simultaneous usage of an installation. That single distinction drives every counting rule that follows, including the single install restriction that makes the Authorized User variant stricter than buyers expect.
Authorized User Single Install, defined.
An Authorized User Single Install license authorizes a specific, named individual to access one particular installation of the program. Two consequences follow that buyers routinely miss:
- Named, not concurrent. Every distinct person with access needs an entitlement, whether or not they are all active at once. Ten occasional users still require ten licenses.
- One installation. The entitlement covers access to a single install. The same user accessing a second installation generally needs a second entitlement, so this metric does not stretch across multiple deployments.
The single install restriction is the trap. A license that felt generous for one environment does not quietly cover a second copy stood up for test, training or a regional site.
Floating User, defined.
A Floating User license is consumed by concurrent use rather than by named identity. A pool of entitlements is shared, and what matters is the maximum number of users accessing the program at the same time. Fifty occasional users sharing a workload that never exceeds ten simultaneous sessions can, in principle, be served by a smaller floating pool than fifty named Authorized User licenses would require. The measurement is the peak of concurrent access, so the discipline shifts from tracking identities to tracking simultaneous usage.
Where audits find the gap.
Most findings on user metrics come from one of a few mismatches:
- Counting concurrency for a named metric. Treating Authorized User as if only active users counted, when every named individual with access needs a license.
- Spreading a single install license across installs. Assuming one Authorized User Single Install entitlement covers test, training or secondary copies.
- Under measuring the floating peak. Sizing a Floating User pool to average usage rather than the true concurrent maximum.
- Stale identity lists. Departed users still provisioned with access, inflating the named count an auditor will pull.
Authorized User counts named people on a single installation, and Floating User counts concurrent usage from a shared pool. The single install restriction is the most common trap, because an Authorized User Single Install entitlement does not stretch across a second deployment. Match each product to its real metric and count the way that metric defines, named identities or concurrent peak, before the auditor does.