Following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of our working practices have changed. One of the biggest changes has been a greater trend towards both home and hybrid working practices. As a result, one of the most frequent requests from our customers through these changing times has been to have a flexible virtual keying system, moving away from Physical Keys (Dongles and iKeys) and the complexities they cause when working between multiple locations.

In response to this demand, we are proud to announce AVA Cloud Keys. Cloud Keys are a virtual keying system allowing far greater flexibility of working location and machine. If that means working from the studio on a desktop workstation one day, and then from your sofa the next on a laptop, Cloud Keys will allow you to do so without any pre-planning or remembering to take your Physical Key home with you.

When using a Cloud Key, all you’ll need to do is enter your key into the AVA Keying Utility application (replacing Set Install Code) on first use with any particular machine, and then launch your AVA application like normal. Once set up on more than one machine, to swap between machines just quit from the first one and then launch on the second, no other steps are required. There are no limits on how many machines each key can be associated with, although the maximum number of simultaneous users will be determined by what you have purchased/leased from AVA.

Cloud Keys are an internet-enabled keying system. This means that, in order to launch and continue using AVA applications, we will periodically connect to our server to validate your keying information. This has been designed to facilitate as flexible a way of working as possible, whilst being non-intrusive, requiring a connection to our server only a handful of times a day (allowing you to work even if your remote internet connection is not perfect).

Further information, including how you can transfer your Physical Keys to Cloud Keys, will be provided closer to launch later this year. However, you will begin to see references to them in AVA 5.6.

If you have any questions, or if you would be interested in becoming an early adopter, please get in touch with AVA support.