Understanding License Compliance

Stellar Cyber is committed to helping you monitor the data you need to maximize your security while staying within the limits of your platform license. This topic helps you understand how Stellar Cyber keeps track of license compliance, the consequences of being out of compliance, and how to return to compliance should you find yourself outside the limits of your license.

In addition, the topic also provides guidance on how to implement connectors, sensors, and data filtering strategies that achieve your security goals while also keeping you within the limits of your license. See the following sections for details:

License States

Stellar Cyber runs a daily license report to evaluate compliance for your organization based on the previous day's activities. For both asset and volume-based licenses, your compliance state after this report is run is one of the following:

  • In Compliance – Activity is within license limits

  • Warning – Initial notification that license limit has been exceeded

  • Violation – Notification that license limit has been severely exceeded

  • Out of Compliance – Multiple license violations requiring a new license request

The specifics on each of these states are provided in the table below:

License State

Trigger

Result

Returning to Compliance

Example
In Compliance Activity is within license limits, remaining below 110% of the limit. Normal operations.

N/A

A user with a 100GB daily ingestion license does not ingest over 110GB per day.
Warning License limit has been exceeded by more than 10% on average for three days. Removable warning banner appears in the user interface, informing you that the license has been exceeded.

Return to compliance after staying under 110% of license limit on average for three consecutive days.

A user with a 100GB daily ingestion license ingests over 110GB per day on average for three days.
Violation License limit has been exceeded by more than 10% on average for seven days. Non-removable violation banner. Email sent to account admin.

Banner is removed after returning to compliance by staying under 110% of the license limit on average for seven consecutive days.

A user with a 100GB daily ingestion license ingests over 110GB per day on average for seven days.
Out of Compliance License limit has been in a violation state for more than 14 days. Services cease. License bill sent to cover ingestion trends since first violation. Refer to Understanding License Compliance for details on bill calculation.

License bill paid. Refer to Additional Billing to Cover License Violations for a description of how the bill is calculated.

A user with a 100GB daily ingestion license ingests on average 110GB or more for 21 days (7 to trigger the violation, followed by an additional 14 days in a state of violation).

The figure below summarizes how this cycle works:

Who Can See License Warning/Violation Banners?

Notification banners for license warnings and violations are visible only to users with Root scope and either the Super Admin or Platform Admin role assigned.

Additional Billing to Cover License Violations

If your organization's platform license reaches Out of Compliance status, Stellar Cyber will submit to you a prorated invoice for the remainder of the license term. The invoice covers the gap between your current usage since the start of the first Violation and the licensed limits. Your current usage is defined as the average daily ingestion since the start of the first Violation.

For example, consider the following example:

  • Organization with a 100GB daily ingestion license that started its annual term on January 1, 2022.

  • Organization reaches Out of Compliance status on July 1, 2022, after remaining in a Violation state for 21 days.

  • First Violation occurred on June 10, 2022. This is a total of 21 days before July 1, 2022 – 7 days to enter the Violation state and 14 days in a Violation state to reach Out of Compliance.

  • Average daily ingestion during this 21 day period since first Violation was 150GB/day.

  • Resulting bill covers additional 50GB of daily ingestion, prorated from June 10, 2022 to the end of the annual term on December 31, 2022.

  • Next license term reflects 150GB/day of daily ingestion, assuming no further license violations.

Tips to Help Stay in Compliance

You can use the following resources to help you adjust the data you are collecting and stay within your license limits: