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!
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 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
Many of our customers are becoming more pro-active in the management of their software assets, driven by the twin concerns of shelf-ware and escalating vendor audit activity. No two organizations take precisely the same approach to the topic. Those just emerging from an expensive audit cycle are looking primarily to ensure that a repeat event will not be so … Continue reading Software License Compliance and ISO 19770-1
‘Software Development Times’ is not a journal I normally read, but I was fortunate to be alerted to this article which provides more useful contribution to the debate and increasing awareness of the pressures for licensing options from software vendors. The article contains some useful information from IDC’s Amy Konary (follow her on Twitter at @mizkonary) about specific instances of the financial impact for organizations moving … Continue reading The drive for software licensing flexibility
I’ve just read through an article on this topic posted today by Tony Lock of Freeform Dynamics. It does a good job of highlighting areas that need to be considered by anyone already involved in, or contemplating, moving ahead with either server or desktop virtualization. In particular he points to the ease with which VMs … Continue reading Software Licensing and Virtualization
I’ve been exploring a very informative article on IT Audit techniques by Robert E Davis. It dives into a level of sophistication around the choices of testing methodologies that I am naive in, so kept me occupied for more than the regulation one mug of coffee per blog read. It also gave me a link … Continue reading Software License Compliance – is it part of IT GRC?
In a new blog post , Randy Littleson, a Senior VP at Flexera (Accresso Software until renamed a few weeks ago) refers to survey findings around the growth of usage-based licensing. There are some interesting figures in here, such as the very low percentage of organizations that have robust application usage measurement tools in place. … Continue reading Usage-based licensing survey
Just a quick note to encourage anyone who has had an unfortunate experience with a software license compliance audit in the last two years to complete the online survey posted by Forrester. They promise to share their results, which will include measures taken to deal with out-of-compliance situations. I hope they’ll make it available to a larger … Continue reading Forrester Survey on Software License Audits