Finding the right software license management technology is hard enough. It’s even more challenging if your network environment includes servers running Citrix or Windows Terminal Server (WTS), as precious few tools provide usage statistics or management capabilities for applications delivered through these platforms.

To manage software in a Citrix or WTS environment, you need technology that collects software usage data not only at the server level, but also at the end-user and machine level.  And in order to effectively manage license compliance, you’ll want to explore capabilities that allow you to control in an automated fashion which end users and/or machines can run those licensed applications.

There are three software license types you need to consider in Citrix or WTS environments, each of which requires a different approach to license management. (more…)

If your organization has adopted a “Go Green” initiative and you’re evaluating ways to get IT involved with the effort, check out this article, “Retiring IT Assets for Green Reasons,” by Steve Suesens, of Staples Inc. Though not exhaustive, the column offers helpful advice for using IT asset management best practices to get more out of your deployed assets and determine when retiring those assets makes sense.   

As with any IT asset management initiative, whether it be license compliance, reduction of software costs, or planning for an organization-wide OS migration, developing a green policy for IT requires, at its most basic level, detailed computer inventory data revealing what assets exist and their capabilities, and software usage statistics showing what’s being used and what’s sitting idle. Once you’ve blended this information with key considerations such as power consumption, purchase and maintenance costs, recyclability, and more, you can begin to weigh the trade-offs related to various options such as upgrading, replacing, refurbishing, recycling, or donating it the dinosaur exhibit at the Museum of Science and Technology. 

Express Software Manager delivers the “discoverable” IT asset data mentioned above that can be used as the foundation of any green IT policy.  After that, the hard part begins.  Of course, nobody said it was easy being green – but if you do your homework and apply your learning thoughtfully, you’ll receive dividends both in terms of reducing your carbon footprint and strengthening your bottom line.

Ouch!  A New York-based brokerage company, Euro Brokers, is being sued by IBM for an undisclosed amount for allegedly downloading unlicensed software valued at more than $1.7 million.  According to an InformationWeek article, Euro Brokers was once a legitimate IBM customer, having purchased licenses for Informix database software. But a software audit performed by KPMG revealed that over the course of several years the company had installed additional copies that it hadn’t paid for. 

Here’s the chronology of events as described by IBM in the lawsuit: (more…)

If you Google the term “software vendor audit,” you’ll find no shortage of information on the topic, particularly related to how to avoid and/or survive them. Frankly, though I try to stay on top of all the current research and frequently talk to customers who provide good anecdotal insight, I’ve seen very little recent material that sheds any new light on the matter.  But I confess I was taken aback by some of the information revealed in Forrester’s software licensing report, released January 4^th. 

First, Forrester reports a year-over-year increase in software audit activity during 2009.  This comes as no surprise; as software sales slumped during the economic downturn, vendors sought new ways to bolster their revenue streams; one way of doing so is to more aggressively audit their customers and force them to correct their license deficits.

What did surprise me, however, were some of the anecdotes Forrester cited in which vendors required customers to pony up, apparently in a single-minded attempt to extract extra revenue. According to Forrester, “In addition to spotting genuine under-licensing, many vendors’ audit teams seemed to want to meet their revenue targets by exploiting technicalities and loopholes.”

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[Warning: Those who know me know that I’m somewhat prone to hyperbole; this post is no exception.]

I woke up this morning feeling something like Bill Murray in “Groundhog Day.” On NPR: yet more bad economic news from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. Despite forecasts predicting a December turnaround in the employment market, the economy actually shed another 85,000 jobs. Seriously? Again?

You may recall in the economic downturn of 2001, George Bush famously pleaded for consumers to “go shopping” as a patriotic duty that would help lift the nation out of recession. Well, if, like me, you’re not inclined to go spend your recently decimated nest egg, given the tepid “jobless recovery” that seems to be underway.  But maybe you’re more inclined to spend a little of your company’s money as a patriotic act of economic stimulus known as “software license management.”

Still with me?  If so, hear me out:

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