May students access remotely from home using VPN to our campus lab computers configured with SDL?

[javier.giese]

During the COVID pandemia our labs and our campuses are closed, but our students are taking their classes online. Shared Device Licensing is what we use for our labs and because of COVID our students don't have access to those computers. Is it possible (legally) for our students to connect to our lab's computers remotely from home using VPN in order to have access to our Shared Device Licensing? Students would still need to log into those computers and after that they'll have to log into their own Adobe id account. Each lab computer only allow one user to be connected at a time so basically we would have a similar lab access behavior as if the students were going physically to the labs.

Any information on this topic will be appreciated.

[SuJoshi]

If you have named user license in your contract then you can assign it to those users. I highly doubt that the remote access will work for the students if you are using the shared device licenses however you can test that in your environment.

[javier.giese]

Technically, it works. Your monitor, keyboard and mouse now replace the ones on the computer in the remote lab. Everything is processed on the remote computer and this model would work very well during the pandemic.

My question here is: is it legal? Does the Adobe contract allow this kind of "behavior"? There is no computer virtualization as we are connecting to existing computers in our labs that are configured with shared device licenses and I see nothing against remote access to computers with SDL anywhere in the Adobe posts. Having all those licenses paid for, installed, and not being used due to the pandemic is something to think about and maybe it's time to stop paying for that kind. That is why I am looking for information from Adobe that definitely allows it or does not allow it, or perhaps comments from some other institution that already has the answer to this question.

Hope this helps to clarify my question. I'll welcome any comments on this matter. Thanks!

[SuJoshi · Accepted solution]

If it is working for you then I think you can continue using the apps remotely but if your concern is about compliance then I would recommend contacting your Account Manager or Reseller for the confirmation.