Featured Article from Software Licensing

With the old year now a memory, and the new year only a few days old, it's often practice to take a look ahead at what's likely to occur in the upcoming year. Flexera Software was no exception here, and offered up a look at what was to come with a new blog post about what was likely to come in software licensing and software asset management's 2017.

Flexera started off with a softball, noting that the cloud was likely to be huge in 2017's efforts at software asset management. Though even here, there would be changes ahead, as more businesses turned to “multi-cloud” environments. With multiple cloud vendors working, it's actually possible to cut costs as  much as 74 percent over just one cloud provider. That may sound counter-intuitive, but that's the word from 451 Research (News - Alert), who did a study on the topic as well. 

Hybrid cloud environments are also making a push on the market, with some businesses keeping at least some systems in house. This does increase capital expenditure outlay a bit, but it can also help reduce the regular expenses of a cloud-based system as well as provide a level of redundancy that's valuable in almost every system.

Beyond the cloud, cybersecurity is also front of mind for many users, and software licensing here is no exception. Protecting a system against hacking is that much easier when information technology (IT) staffers know what should—and by extension what should not—be on a system. Sticking to software licenses helps ensure that only those tools that have been appropriately vetted are in place, and potentially show where further vulnerabilities in the system may be hiding.

It may be hard to believe that software licensing can have an impact on both cloud operations and cybersecurity, but the point remains. These points fall into software licensing nicely, simplifying systems to make these easier to monitor while at the same time providing notes of redundancy to protect against certain types of attack. The combination of simpler monitoring and improved protection makes software license management a surprisingly useful and particularly vital activity to engage in, and not just for the obvious reasons of protecting against unexpected expenses coming from lack of licenses.

So to not only protect against unexpected expenses but also protect against unexpected system failures and attacks, consider software licensing a little more closely. Knowing what's on the system, and how it relates to what's needed, can be a big part of protecting the system, and that makes software licensing a bigger part of 2017 than some might see coming.