A few months ago I read an interesting article by a news writer, Zach Church. I don't remember where I saw the article or what the exact title was. I presume is was something around "software audits," since that article is the motivation of this blog.
In summary, Zach's article was about a CIO from Austin, TX that got slapped with a $10,000 fine on his Microsoft Exchange licenses and a $100,000 fine in non compliant licenses with Autodesk!!! OUCH!!!
From what I have seen, many surveys state that 65% - 87% of IT executives are not prepared for software audits and do not actively manage software licenses, mostly because the task is very time consuming and manual. Most also know that they should invest money into technologies that automate compliance and provide a snapshot of the overall status of IT but consider these technologies as "nice to have" in today's tough economic times. Many also state that they just don't think they will get audited either by the vendor or by a 3rd party software auditing agency like the Business Software Alliance...that they are just playing the odds of, "It won't happen to me."
Simple solution: To avoid software license penalties, INVEST in systems management-related technologies that provide visibility across the entire enterprise with modules, such as, asset management, asset discovery, patch management, and software distribution. Rather than pay hefty fines, which are sunk costs, why not invest the money in preventative technologies and capture a return year after year.
Of the modules listed above, asset management is the most critical as it allows for significant cost savings in direct expenditure on software and related process and infrastructure costs. Asset management enables strategic infrastructure planning, prevents over-licensing and under-licensing and identifies over-deployment of hardware and its associated costs. EX: A company has 300 licenses of Adobe Acrobat but only 100 employees use Adobe Acrobat. Asset management can identify the software under-utilization and make appropriate changes when it comes time to renew the Adobe Acrobat licenses. The flip side can also occur where a company is using 400 licenses but only signed up for 300. With over-utilization, the company would simply buy more licenses to stay in compliance and ultimately avoid software fines.
Asset management also allows the IT department to control exactly what software an employee can access and significantly reduces the opportunity for users to introduce unlicensed software on to networks.
