Strategy For Managing Users For Confluence Intranet?

[Bill Napper]

I'm considering using Confluence for our company intranet. One of the first things I need to figure out is how to manage users that will be read only. We currently have a server license for 100 users and we'll need to upgrade our license to accommodate approximately 200 users that will actively add/manage content on the Intranet. The other 1000 users will simply need read only permissions. I'm hoping there is a way around having to pay for 1200 confluence users when 1000 will be read only. I read up on "Anonymous Users" and while this user type would work for all internal intranet access, obviously we can't have anonymous users external accessing a company intranet. 

So, I'm wondering if anyone has a user management strategy for a confluence intranet? If you have any ideas or suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

I'm afraid they either have to be anonymous (no licence) or logged in (taking up a licence).

There are some tricks you can think about - firewalling off the intranet from external access is a popular one, or proxying, so that people log into your proxy, but not Confluence so they remain anonymous.

[JD Noe]

I'm wondering why you couldn't create one master user, with read only permissions, and have everyone login with that user. I did a basic test and it appears that a user can be logged in simultaneously, as long as it's on different browsers. According to this test, theoretically, 1000 people using the same user account, on different browsers, could all be navigating and reading content simultaneously.

Of course, you wouldn't be able to collect granular analytics at the user level, so maybe even consider using department level global user accounts . . . providing there is room in your user license. Still not ideal, but maybe functional/affordable enough?