ITAM November News Round up - Incl cause of Microsoft Azure failure

Microsoft

ITAM November News Round up - Incl cause of Microsoft Azure failure

To watch our November News Roundup video, please see below.

News

November has been a busy month within the ITAM world! Here we round up the most interesting news stories.

Planning and Design pays out $118k to BSA

Firstly, TechWorld reports that another organisation has been fined by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) for using software without a license. Planning and Design, an architectural drafting firm has been forced to pay out $118,000 for using software products such as Autodesk and Adobe unlicensed since 2009.

TechWorld interviews Filipa Preston who states “SAM projects are saving firms money every single day, yet the industry often fails to shout about this. As a result SAM is suffering from a case of mistaken identity – being seen as a compliance tool first, and a cost reducer second. It is the other way around; SAM is a proactive management tool for saving money on software first, and a compliance tool second”. For the full article, please click here.

Customers say SAP knows too little about their businesses

SAP have come in for criticism from a UK and Ireland user group who believe that SAP doesn’t know enough about their customers businesses to help them with SAP related issues.

Philip Adams, Chairman of SAP UK and Ireland User Group states “SAP can help us, but we need access to the right people. Over 50% of respondents say that SAP account executives don’t have the level of knowledge about our members’ industry or business to help with adopting innovation”. To read more about this story, click here.

EU companies unaware of proposed data protection law

Data protection is a big issue within ITAM, especially in Europe and America. Currently, there are issues around what data can be stored on users that can help with ITAM projects, so the changes in data protection law need to be understood.

As Computer Weekly states that the new law “includes an obligation to protect personal data across the borderless enterprise. IT professionals should review and bolster their data processing policies and practices now, before the regulation comes into effect”. Full story.

Operator error the root cause of Microsoft Azure failure

Microsoft Azure suffered a failure in November, resulting in the service being down for more than 11 hours. This impacted Microsoft users in a number of ways, as Computer Weekly reports “an update Microsoft released effectively created a denial of service, preventing users from accessing Azure Storage services – including those who use OneDrive and store Office365 documents on the Microsoft cloud. Given that cloud and mobile are the two tenets of Microsoft’s strategy, the Azure downtime is clearly more than just a hitch. It is deeply embarrassing for CEO Satya Nadella and undermines the principles he has been pushing for the new Microsoft since he took over earlier in 2014”. Full story.

Office moves to android!

Good news for organisations that supply company android phones as Microsoft has announced Office for Android! This follows in the footsteps of Office for Apple Devices, which was released earlier in the year. For more information, click here.

New IBM service shines a light on mobile device and app performance

We are a big fan of Mobile Device Management (MDM) here at the ITAM Review, so we were excited to read that IBM are releasing a service that will help organisations have visibility on their mobile device and app performance. We believe that MDM is a big part of ITAM’s future, so we like any new technology that is released to help with the management of mobile assets.

As Computer World state “IBM Mobile Infrastructure Analytics Services can show how well mobile applications are performing, both in terms of speed and the user experience. It’s designed to help CIOs make decisions about enterprise IT infrastructure and work with software development teams to make sure users are getting what they need out of each application. It’s packaged as SaaS (software as a service)”. Full story.

Oracle User Group fires back at suggestion that customers have ‘hostile’ relationship with Oracle

The Campaign for Clear Licensing have been ruffling a few feathers in the Oracle world this month, as an Oracle User group suggests that customers don’t in fact have a hostile relationship with Oracle. This is in response to the CCL’s whitepaper highlighting the fact that 92% of customers say that Oracle does not clearly communicate licensing changes. We spoke about the whitepaper in our October roundup, but it seems the whitepaper has hit a nerve!

Computing states “The UKOUG’s Lilley responded by stating that the UKOUG hosted a “special” event earlier this year to help its members to understand the licensing policies better and manage their licence estate in such a way to ensure compliance. She said that although there was frustration from end-users at the event, “there was not the feeling of Oracle are hostile and filled with deep-rooted mistrust that Thompson suggests in his findings”. She added that before the UKOUG-hosted meeting there was a concern that Oracle might be recording who was speaking so delegates only had first names on badges, with no surname or organisation”. You can read the full article here.

BYOD tablets cheaper than corporate-owned devices, says Gartner

Gartner are reporting that BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) tablets are cheaper than corporate-owned devices. Whilst they may be cheaper for the organisation, consideration must be taken for how an organisation will manage BYOD, and if they have the required processes and policies in place to do so.

Computer Weekly states “enterprises benefit more from bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies for employee tablets than to deploy enterprise-owned smartphones and laptops, said Gartner. At a recent Gartner Symposium/ITxpo the analyst firm predicted the cost of a BYOD strategy is nearly half that of implementing a corporately owned, personally enabled (Cope) scheme – but only if the organisation passes some or all of the running costs to the employee”. To read the full article, click here.

Interesting Reads

SAM: Taking Controlled Risks

The article from B.Lay talks about the risks associated with SAM, and how to control said risks. We found the article to be thought provoking and of interest to SAM professionals.

B.Lay states, “for most companies, software is not the core business, it is a necessity to run and optimize their organization. It supports their business. They want control, but at the same time, companies require flexibility; being able to shift quickly enough to follow the market”. To read the full article click here

Managing your Microsoft Licenses in Preparation for a Software Audit

License Dashboard released a really interesting article this month about managing Microsoft licenses when preparing for an audit.

The article states “how you are allowed to use a product will vary with its version, if you sign up to Software Assurance (SA) you will have the rights to upgrade to the latest version. With Software Assurance, if you decide that you do not wish to use the latest version of a product that is fine, but as you own the rights to the most recent version, and therefore, the most recent license you must understand and comply with the rights for that version”. To read the article click here

The role of inventory & SAM in future-proofing the business

Snow Software are speaking about the role of inventory within SAM and how this future proofs the business in this article.

As Snow state “disruption and expense are inevitable when it comes to major operating system and application upgrades; but they are a necessary evil. Employing an effective Software Asset Management (SAM) platform comprising comprehensive inventory and software license optimization technologies can be both a major labour-saver as well as ensure the project is delivered on-time and on-budget”. Read more here

Verifying Asset Accuracy

Martin Thompson from the ITAM Review answers a readers question in a really good article about verifying asset accuracy. This is a tough subject within ITAM, so Martin does his best to answer the question of how to verify accuracy! Read it here

IAITAM 2014 Fall ACE Review

Finally, following on from their trip to America, Mark Flynn and Glenn Thompson have written a review of the IAITAM 2014 Fall event that was held in early November. There is also a video to go with the article, which is well worth a watch! Find it here

and finally…

ITAM Review New York event!

In November we announced that we will be hosting three events in New York in January next year. We are really excited about hosting an event in America and meeting our readers, so make sure you reserve your space now! Interest is already high with seats filling up fast.

For more information or to sign up to the event, please click here.

 

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