Featured Article from Software Licensing

Software as a service (SaaS (News - Alert)) and other cloud services offer operational efficiencies, but often require an institutional change in thinking when it comes to handling IT and software asset management.

Applications no longer just help the business, they run the business. Yet most companies lack a strategic solution to optimize the usage and spend of software assets throughout the software lifecycle. Few other strategic business assets are as undermanaged or as in need of a strategic solution as enterprise software—a fact that’s exacerbated by the fact that cloud-based services have a procurement model that makes it very easy for a business manager or anyone else to purchase resources to get their job done.

“Really, all it takes is a credit card, and in minutes, a subscription to an ERP, CRM, or other enterprise IT tool can be purchased,” explained Flexera Software’s Eric Feldman, in a blog.

So when it comes to IT asset management (ITAM) and software asset management (SAM), In traditional IT models, assets and their lifecycle from procurement through deployment and disposal are tracked. Software is purchased and utilized according to license agreements to leverage entitlements and mitigate software audit risk.

But the ability for anyone in an enterprise to easily subscribe to IT resources and applications turns this on its ear. Asset managers who must stay in compliance and manage license spend are faced with additional complexity stemming from the "cloud sprawl,” meaning that they’re unable to ensure continuous software license optimization, compliance and overall software spend optimization in an automated, centralized way. So most organizations that have embraced the cloud don't truly know whether they are in compliance or not – the underlying data is suspect at best.

According to Flexera Software, which is offering an on-demand webinar on the cloud market and the role of ITAM and software license optimization (SLO) in cloud IT, modern applications running in today’s complex virtual environments pose unique license management and software asset management challenges, including:

• Discovery of application virtualization, streaming and virtual desktop usage
• Handling license consumption implications for virtual applications, virtual desktops (VDI), virtual machines (VM), hard partitions, and sub-capacity licensing
• Identification of processor, VM and partition characteristics for major hardware and virtualization vendors
• Considering software product use rights and application usage for all license models and all vendors
• Tracking of usage in a product-specific way that aligns with how the software usage is monetized

Keeping this in mind while implementing SLO and ITAM/SAM will allow enterprises to gain visibility and control of IT assets, reduce ongoing software costs, and maintain continuous license compliance.