March 2011
Virtual Harmony
John Lunt, managing director of Certero looks at how organisations can maintain effective software asset management in virtualised environments.
With cost reduction and efficiency high on the corporate agenda in 2011, the business case for virtualisation is stronger than ever. In March 2010, research firm Forrester highlighted the continuing growth for virtualised IT environments and in a more recent survey, reported that 69 per cent of the companies questioned said that virtualisation would be a major part of their IT strategy in the next 12 months.
There has been a huge focus on server virtualisation in recent years, with businesses consolidating their servers to reduce the hardware needed to run the software the business needs. Companies have also seen that virtualisation helps to realise further cost savings through the reduction of the physical space that a company needs for its servers or data centres. Undoubtedly, the virtualisation model presents a credible solution to many of the IT cost reduction challenges.
But what is next? Many industry pundits see desktop virtualisation taking centre stage in 2011, and this has no doubt been fuelled by the widespread corporate acceptance and uptake we are seeing for Microsoft Windows 7. In line with this, it has been widely reported that many companies failed to deploy Windows Vista, with them opting to remain with Windows XP. For these organisations and even those running Windows Vista, desktop virtualisation can save a lot of money and prove a very attractive option.
This increasing shift towards both server and desktop virtualisation for IT departments across all industries raises a number of questions. One such vital question that they have to address is how they plan to deal with software licence management in a virtualised environment.
Software licensing can be a complex area due to the fact that software is licensed and not owned, and it is a complexity that is compounded in a virtualised environment, where there is an increased probability that organisations will violate their existing licence agreements. Such violations are not taken lightly by software publishers, and could prove very costly. With such an uptake in server virtualisation and now desktop virtualisation, the size and frequency of large fines being issued for breaching licence terms and conditions, are set to rise.
It is essential that companies address the state of their software license real estate. One way to address the licence challenge is to deploy a Software Asset Management (SAM) solution. While solutions do exist that claim to help with establishing an Effective Licence Position (ELP), few have been designed specifically for the task. While their feature set looks impressive, their provenance calls into question their actual suitability for the job.
To address this, recent SAM products such as Certero’s AssetStudio™ have made significant advances in their functionality and suitability specifically for the purpose of establishing an automated Effective Licence Position, while accommodating dynamic virtualised infrastructures. Building on this functionality – and addressing the challenges of a ‘Thin Client’ environment with its additional complexities for License Management and Compliance – is Certero’s SoftwareMetering for Decision Makers™. It provides all the required information to enable an auditable licence compatibility process, and enforces access policies to ensure licensing rules, a function that is also valuable for PCs.
Many software contracts are complex and varied, from concurrent usage to named user and, increasingly, subscription based models. This complexity often means that negotiations with software vendors can be difficult, as there is little measurement information to hand to negotiate with, resulting typically in over-spending. This capability is imperative to prevent organisations from wasting money and purchasing software licenses unnecessarily.
For many organisations, products like SoftwareMetering for Decision Makers™ will also mean that they are able to detect and end duplicate and unnecessary licenses. Recently, The Co-operative Group was interviewed* in connection with a major desktop virtualisation project which formed an integral component of an £180m corporate HQ move. The move to a virtualised desktop environment will see it migrate over 1,400 applications, supporting some 3,000 staff. As the Co-operative Group began the process of rationalising applications, it had the added advantage of identifying some significant and unnecessary licence costs. One department, for example, had triplicate licenses for Adobe’s image-processing software.
With organisations across all sectors facing a wide range of challenges centred around controlling costs and diminishing budgets - particularly in IT departments – solutions that are powerful yet simple to use can help play a role in driving new efficiencies. While the move to a virtualised environment will drive hardware, software and energy savings, it must be carried out in conjunction with an effective process for ensuring software licence compliance.
For more information contact Certero - www.certero.co.uk
Sources:
