This page provides information for Technical Service Providers (TSP) at Cornell University about how to assign Adobe licenses to Cornell University personnel, and how to deploy centrally-licensed Adobe products to Cornell-owned computers.

If you are not a Technical Service Provider, please see our general Adobe Licensing Summary page.

Adobe Individual License Assignment  

Adobe products can be assigned to active Cornell employees who have a University business need for the software. Adobe products are licensed on an individual (Named-User) basis.

Starting in January 2024, local IT Service Groups now have the ability to grant Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Acrobat Pro licenses to Cornell employees in their areas. CU Software Licensing ran training sessions and provided internal documentation for assigning these licenses. The internal documentation is at this site. (Requires individual permission to view.)

CU Software Licensing is responsible for assigning individual licenses for Adobe products other than Creative Cloud and Acrobat Pro, and also for assigning Adobe student educational licenses.

Request Other Adobe license for Cornell employee

Request Creative Cloud for Students license

Fees

Adobe charges Cornell University a per-user annual fee for each product assigned. At this time, these fees are paid centrally by CIT with no direct charge-back to departments. We are reevaluating the feasibility of the current funding model.

Shared Device Licensing 

Shared Device Licensing (SDL) is another licensing option for Adobe Creative Cloud (only) that can be used in classrooms and student instructional labs. SDL licensing assigns the license to a specific, Cornell-owned computer that has a static IP address on the Cornell network and is physically present on University property. Other restrictions apply. Adobe products activated with SDL are only authorized for use in instructional or educational purposes, and may NOT be used for academic research or University administrative or business purposes.

If your use-case meets Adobe's requirements, CU Software can set up a local SDL product profile on the Adobe Admin Console for you, and assign local administrators to manage it.

For more information about SDL, please contact the CU Software Licensing  Office via the IT Service Desk.

Installing Adobe Software via Certified Desktop

Cornell TSPs may deploy Adobe software to Cornell University devices via Certified Desktop. Local Adobe license administrators may request access to create installation packages via the Adobe Admin Console. These packages can then be deployed via Certified Desktop. You will have the option to create packages for use by individual Named-User licensees, or for use on computers registered for Shared Device Licensing.

If you have any questions, please contact the CU Software Licensing Office via the IT Service Desk.