Software licence management becomes a service

SAM & tools offer more than simply compliance

In response to Andrew Charlesworth?s article (?Software license management becomes a service?? 10/27): Although I do not dispute the potential advantages of a hosted software asset management (SAM) service, I respectfully differ with the article?s representation of SAM as primarily a ?compliance? issue. While license compliance is certainly a critical component of SAM, the terms are all too often used interchangeably. SAM, in fact, entails many important elements beyond simply compliance. According to the ITIL Best Practise Guide on SAM: ?Software Asset Management (SAM) is all of the infrastructure and processes necessary for the effective management, control and protection of the software assets within an organisation, throughout all stages of their lifecycle.? SAM, in its truest sense, is a holistic approach to managing and optimizing the acquisition, deployment, use, and disposal of those assets, resulting in the creation of ongoing organizational advantages. Related to this point, the article states that SAM tools are ?seen as yet another compliance overhead that IT departments have to cope with.? While it is true that SAM tools are often perceived in this manner, it is important to note that when license compliance efforts are combined with other elements of a proper SAM program, this overhead is typically more than offset by reduced software (and hardware) expenditures, greater IT efficiencies, lower support costs, heightened security, and mitigated risk. I also question the author?s statement that ?SAM tools record what software is running on a network, but they don't cross-match this with actual software licenses.? On the contrary: not only do many SAM tools reconcile installed software with licenses owned, but some go much further by offering functionality such as software usage tracking, application control, patch management, incident tracking, and deployment. This is a key point, in that all of these capabilities can be (and for countless organizations are) central elements of a productive and comprehensive SAM program. The author also states that ??automatic identification alone cannot keep pace with all the updates on a typically distributed corporate network.? To be certain, no SAM tool (or hosted service, for that matter) can perform the task of locating, aggregating?and ultimately maintaining?all of an organization?s licensing information from disparate, incompatible sources into a database that can be ?cross-checked? with installed licenses. Whether this process is performed by internal staff or by an outsourced third party, it will continue to be a predominantly manual task that requires dedicated resources and a firm understanding that the efforts will pay off in the long run. Again, my points above are not meant to debate the relative merits of a hosted SAM service versus an internally deployed SAM product. Rather, I wanted to take this opportunity to clarify the ?true? definition of SAM; confirm that many SAM tools can, in fact, perform license reconciliation; and emphasize that many technologies are available that address a set of SAM issues much broader than simply compliance. Jeff Kelsey Vice President of Products and Services Express Metrix

Posted by: Jeff Kelsey 02 Nov 2006