There’s a stage in the evolution of many software markets when some players, usually larger or better funded, start buying up others. This might be to take out a competitor, or to short-cut the development of a much needed area of functionality. The result can be an apparently comprehensive catalog of functionality, and the prospective … Continue reading The dangers of amalgamation without integration
I just received an invitation to an Enterprise Management Associates Webinar on “Developing, Deploying, and Managing Custom Applications 2010”. In the pre-amble, it says that their research revealed custom applications outnumbering packaged applications in the enterprise by 10%. I’m not sure how they generated the figures – is MS Office one application or four? – … Continue reading Deploying custom applications in the enterprise
IT Asset Management – foundation for action Vector’s quarterly strategy review was held in our Montreal office over the second half of last week and Saturday, and at a lodge hotel out in the country on Sunday until we had to head for the airport. As usual, we considered short term needs, medium term objectives, … Continue reading ITAM – basis for effective and pro-active control
Software Inventory Analysis with Black and White Lists One of the most basic – and most immediately useful – uses for rich software inventory information, is white list and black list reporting. A white list of applications which every PC should have installed, and a black list of applications that should not be found on … Continue reading White List – Black List – SAM
As an IT professional, how bad do you think the non-compliance situation is in your organization? In very many organizations today, the top brass still hasn’t got the message on the potential cost savings from a strong SAM program, or on the risk reduction, or simply on the organization’s legal obligations to its suppliers as well … Continue reading Non-compliance in licensing – it’s so easy!
iPad as an IT asset: does the iPad make the grade in your organization? Your organization may be one of those in which a section of employees, and users of the IT resource you provide or manage, have decided they could work more productively if they had iPads. Have they been able to present a … Continue reading Should the ITAM office worry about ipads?
IT Asset Management: best success with an agent or without? There was a period in the evolution of PC management products when agent software got something of a reputation for making work for the desktop system administrator. Whether it was agent conflicts, excessive memory footprints or CPU demands, or simply that it had to be … Continue reading Why go with an agent-based ITAM solution?
Software Distribution: who still needs it? One theme we come across often is a need for an automated software distribution method that makes it easy to keep applications deployed and updated, particularly where the target PCs are defined by reference to a combination of characteristics. For an example, an application may be regarded as a companion product … Continue reading Software Distribution: relevant for virtual as well as physical systems.
Software Asset Management: fundamentals for compliance Many organizations are grappling with the twin problems of adequately identifying the software they have installed, and correctly interpreting the usage entitlements defined in the pages and pages of software licenses they hold. New laptops and netbooks will often come pre-loaded with suites of utilities – some of them … Continue reading Pirated software: are you sure you are in the clear?
Software License Management for Compliance Organizations which have successfully tackled the challenges of accurate software inventory often turn their attentions to getting to grips with the wide range of license documents they hold. For compliance, the fundamental question at any point in time is – “Have we got enough documented entitlement to cover the number … Continue reading License Management: Static Recording is not enough