Strategic Software Asset Management means Server Software Asset Management
Jason Keogh - 10:46 am - February 28, 2011
I’ve just returned from the 6th Annual Strategic Software Asset Management conference in Berlin. I think the key message I’d bring back to the office, is that SAM now has visibility and support at the highest levels, especially within larger enterprises.The industry as a whole has made good progress in implementing SAM strategies.
Desktop systems seem to be especially well managed and, from speaking with the attendees, desktop SAM would often seem to have been the first thing implemented as SAM strategies were being formed. Almost all of the attendees were senior IT decision makers and SAM implementers from large corporations (10,000 – 250,000 desktop estates).
I found the event very informative and several of the attendees shared some interesting figures with me relating to their software spend. When speaking with them about the percentage of spend split between desktop and server, three representatives from Fortune 500 companies (including an iQuate customer) said they spent 12%, 15% and 18% respectively on desktop software.
Server licenses from Oracle, VMware, IBM, Microsoft, SAP and others accounted on average for 85% of expenditure within large enterprises. While most organizations had their desktop SAM well in place and under control (mostly using Microsoft SCCM), relatively few had a solid grip of their server estate.
Attendees described issues with managing different ad-hoc scripts they had created to manage their Unix estates. The details they needed to identify license requirements for software like Oracle, Siebel, WebLogic, DB2, VMware, SAP, etc. were difficult to gather (or even to identify) and essentially desktops seemed to be easier to get a handle on.
The reaction to iQuate and iQSonar was massively positive. Most companies have tools and methodologies in place to manage contracts and establish compliance positions, what they lack is the detailed technical information from their server hardware and software which they need to establish deployment and license requirements.
Luckily for the industry, iQSonar is changing this situation as it gives organizations the ability to gather detailed metrics (on installation and usage of options, modules, applications, partitioning and virtualization etc.) from complex server technologies.
With an increasing appetite from Senior management for license optimization and cost reductions across the board, Software Asset Management at the server estate has come of age – enabled by iQSonar’s integration with existing SAM and CMDB tools such as HP Asset Center, Asset Manager, Aspera, License Dashboard, Flexera and others.
iQSonar provides the detailed technical information needed to maximize value from SAM and reduce IT costs.
