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Adobe Creative Cloud 2019, 2020 and 2021 Shared Device License Requirements and Considerations

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Introduction

In 2019, Adobe released their Shared Device Licensing (SDL) solution for Education institutes. This license is designed to replace the now-legacy Serial Number License (SNL) and Device License (DL) in education lab environments. 

This document is designed to highlight the core changes between SNL/DL and SDL, a high-level migration path as well as any requirements for dataJAR to assist with the process.

Core Changes

There are a number of changes involved with both Creative Cloud 2019 (or newer) and Shared Device Licensing:

Compatibility 

  • The minimum macOS version for all CC2019 is macOS 10.12+
  • The minimum macOS version for all 2020 is macOS 10.14+
  • The minimum macOS version for all 2021 is macOS 10.14+
  • Adobe CC2019+ is not compatible with Serial Number Licensing or Device Licensing (legacy)
  • Adobe Shared Device Licensing is not compatible with CC2018 and older
  • You will not be able to run your Shared Device Licensed CC2019+ Applications alongside CC2018 and older Applications
  • Shared Device Licenses are only available to Education customers

Licensing

  • For Serial Number Licensing, you may need to purchase Shared Device Licenses in order to deploy CC2019+. ETLA Contract customers with Serial Number Licenses should have have access to CC2019+ Shared Device Licenses already
  • Once you click the "Migrate" option to convert to Shared Device Licensing, any existing Device Licensing (legacy) deployments will expire after 30 calendar days
  • The Shared Device License will license the Applications for use, but the user will still need to log into an Adobe ID to use them

Adobe IDs

  • Users will be required to log into an Adobe ID when launching a CC2019+ Application
  • Users will have access to the Adobe Cloud storage by default. The amount will be determined based on the license the Adobe ID has been assigned
  • You can limit which Adobe IDs can log into your Shared Device Licensed devices to only Federated / Enterprise Adobe IDs
  • You can utilise the User Sync Tool (https://blogs.adobe.com/deployment/2017/03/introducing-the-admin-console-user-sync-tool.html) to synchronise your Active Directory accounts into Adobe to automate the creation of Adobe IDs

High-level Migration Path

A high-level migration path to deploy CC2019+to your devices would be:

  1. Install and configure the Adobe User Sync Tool to automate the creation of Adobe IDs for your institute
  2. Use the Adobe Admin console to convert your existing licenses to Shared Device Licenses (SDL). Please note: 30 days from this point, any currently deployed Device Licenses (legacy) will stop functioning.
  3. Create your Adobe CC2019+ Shared Device License installation packages
  4. Remove existing Adobe CC/CS deployments
  5. Deploy out the Adobe CC2019+ Shared Device License installation packages

Requirements

dataJAR can assistant and perform your CC2019+ deployment if desired. This will require the follow dependancies:

  • The Adobe User Sync Tool needs to installed and operational
  • Active Directory needs to be federated with Adobe and operational
  • The license migration must be started (only perform this once advised as part of the project)
  • Access to your Adobe Console with privileges to create and download deployment packages
  • Client devices will need to be running macOS 10.12+ (for CC2019), or macOS 10.14+ (for 2020 and 2021)
  • Access to test device(s)
  • Access to test account(s) 

Adobe 2020

In November 2019, Adobe released a new suite of updated applications. There are some changes that may affect your deployments:

  • It is now possible to deploy Adobe Applications to macOS Catalina
  • Adobe 2020 Applications have mostly dropped the Creative Cloud (or "CC") name
  • The minimum macOS version for all 2020 is macOS 10.13+
  • Adobe After Effects now also installs a copy of the Maxon CINEMA 4D Lite suite. This allows the use of After Effects to work with CINEMA 4D files. Direct use of the CINEMA 4D applications will require a separate license

Adobe 2021

In November 2020, Adobe have released a new suite of updated applications. There are some changes that may affect your deployments:

  • It is now possible to deploy Adobe Applications to macOS Big Sur
  • The minimum macOS version for all 2021 is macOS 10.14+
  • Currently not all Adobe Applications have a 2021 version available
  • Apple Silicon and Intel devices are supported, but need a Shared Device License created Intel and Apple Silicon respectively

Further Information

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