Hannover Messe 2023: Showcasing CodeMeter innovations and a revolutionary community app store

Wibu-Systems, the protection, licensing, and security specialists from Karlsruhe, are returning to Hannover Messe, the premier industry expo for industrial pioneers. The exhibit in hall 16, booth B09 includes many innovations and new additions to the company’s popular CodeMeter technology as well as a very special partnership venture with Hilscher and the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance that has the potential to change the way modern industrial engineers design and operate the factories of the future.

Hannover Messe remains the headline event in the industrial year and this year’s expo, from 17 to 21 April, will not disappoint. Under the ambitious motto of “the industrial transformation starts here”, the show will not only be welcoming most of the world’s top established enterprises, but will also be covering some of the key issues in modern industry, from AI and machine learning to energy management, and the evergreen Industry 4.0 revisited from a green perspective. With its protection and licensing technology already a staple feature in many industrial engineering use cases and its expertise to drive the most pioneering discussions about AI and ML in Europe, Wibu-Systems has a lot to contribute to many of these issues and is returning to Hannover as a loyal contributor and exhibitor.

The star innovation to be featured at this year’s Wibu-Systems exhibit is CmReady^TM, the new paradigm for CodeMeter-powered protection and licensing on third-party mass storage devices. Combining the lean and small footprint qualities of CmActLicense software-only license containers with the portability and mobility of CmDongle containers, the CmReady memory cards strike the perfect balance between sheer power and fit-for-purpose efficiency. Swissbit’s Data Protection (DP) cards will be the first CmReady devices, available in SD and microSD form factors, to make use of the on-board security capabilities that allow CodeMeter licenses to be bound to a unique ID of the cards themselves – not to the target device, as is the case with CmActLicenses. This affords plug-and-play capabilities to the license holders, enabling them to move licenses around with ease and with minimal implementation effort. For industry users needing portability in service or industrial engineering scenarios, the new CmReady option can be the perfect choice.

Visitors to Hannover Messe will also be able to see innovations to other, more established CodeMeter technologies, including a new flavor of the AxProtector encryption and protection tool, and a revamped CmCloud option.

AxProtector Compile Time Protection (CTP) is available for Windows, Linux, and macOS and introduces a completely new way of protecting software by obfuscating the whole application during the compilation process. Bringing obfuscation technologies to the same security level offered by encryption-based protection tools, AxProtector CTP obfuscates name and the control flow, inserts additional blocks, and hides logical links in the code, to make reverse engineering even tougher.

CodeMeter Cloud was developed with the aim to provide a user-bound mobile CmCloudContainer. In this scenario, users have few devices (usually up to three, such as office computer, home computer, and mobile) on which they use a selection of their licenses. The novel Personal CmCloudContainer meets these requirements. With the latest release of CodeMeter Cloud, a new Enterprise CmCloudContainer has also been introduced, which can be used by multiple users − up to 500, simultaneously. This CmCloudContainer can optionally be operated completely in the cloud instead of a local license server, or in combination with local license servers. The Enterprise CmCloudContainer can be used for on-premise applications as well as for massive simulations in the cloud (e.g. for autonomous driving).

In addition to all of these innovations from the CodeMeter universe, Wibu-Systems will be showing a new vision for smarter, app-driven industrial engineering in its main exhibit with the automation specialists at Hilscher and the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance (OI4). The OI4 Community App Store is a user-friendly one-stop-shop for industrial apps. Built for interoperability in the mixed and heterogeneous landscapes of real-life industry, the store relies on Docker containers to bring new software capabilities to end users in factories everywhere. CodeMeter’s protection and license logistics are integrated deep into the app store concept, making use of Wibu-Systems’ experience with licensing in Docker systems, and provide much-needed security and transparency for monitoring and billing purposes. Hilscher will be at Wibu-Systems’ exhibit during the entire show to demonstrate app management on the edge. On 19 April, at 11 am, OI4 will join the group to answer all possible questions on the store, its capabilities, and the possibility for members to enroll with a new app.

With Wibu-Systems again proving its commitment to keeping its CodeMeter solution at the leading edge of technological advances and enabling new smart industry visions, the Karlsruhe-based licensing and protection specialists have a lot to show and share at this year’s Hannover Messe.

Oliver Winzenried, founder and CEO of Wibu-Systems, is looking forward to Hannover Messe: “It seems like every year at Hannover Messe we see the start of a new age of industry, a new pioneering experience, and a new possibility to express the best of human potential. And every year Wibu-Systems is right there in the mix. We are excited to hear the response from our friends and clients to all of the novel technologies we have on display this time around.”