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Software Asset Management – it’s not rocket science!

OK – SAM is complicated. It’s too often over simplified as just comparing entitlements to deployment to – voila! (and a roll of drums) – produce a compliance position you can use to start dealing with the issues. The fact is that we (those of us who have been involved in this area for more than a few months) know that the tricky part is understanding what your deployment REALLY is, and understanding what your entitlements REALLY are.

There are two key words when it comes to identifying the reality of both deployment and entitlement – these are completeness and accuracy. If you lack either element, you’re not dealing with all of the data you need to understand your actual position.

However, 100% is a very high target to hit. If you’re starting down the road of implementing Software Asset Management – where do you start?

I get asked this question all the time. Here is my general take on the answer:

First understand where your spend is, by vendor and by product. Compare that with where you think your largest risk is (in terms of vendor audit). That should give you the list of vendors and technologies you need to get a handle on in order of priority (high risk and high cost, followed by medium risk, high cost, etc.).  Then you need to understand the license metrics involved for each of those “key” products.

You will also need to identify your contracts and proof of purchases, in other words, identify your entitlements.

The last step is to choose a tool which can help you identify your deployment. When considering what type of data you require (which is dictated by identifying the metrics you need for your key software list) , virtual to physical machine mapping  is critical for many high cost applications. e.g. it is important for different aspects of Oracle, IBM and Microsoft (server) licensing. If you have multiple platforms, ensure your tool of choice covers all of them, if you have Oracle database, DB2, MS SQL Server, WebLogic, WebSphere, etc. on your list – make sure you can get the details required for the license metrics for options, packs, modules, etc.

To state the (hopefully!) obvious, iQSonar covers all of the items I mentioned above. It is aimed at large enterprise and handles complex networks well. No tool can give you 100%, no tool can just “do” SAM. You need to devise sensible processes and a step by step approach that allows you to ensure your company is optimizing (reducing!) spend while tackling high risk areas. iQSonar can provide you with low-level measurement of difficult to find metrics from many of the key software spends in your organization.