What new features do users consider to be the most valuable?
So far common themes include:

• Automated reconciliation
• Usable business metrics without having to self cleanse data
• Auto Discovery
• More out of the box content and license knowledge
• SAM functionality on IBM and SAP
• Training for users, more customer service
• Integration with accounting programs
• Custom Reporting

25% Considering A Change In Primary ITAM Technology

Are you considering a change to your primary technology in the next 6 to 12 months?

Please take a few minutes to take part in the 2010 Tools Census, an independent analysis of the current use of ITAM Tools and Technology:

• Which is the most popular tool?
• Which tools are users most happy with?
• Which tools are users experiencing the worst results?
• What features are top of the wish list?
• Published results will be anonymised – individual responses will be in the strictest confidence.

Full results will be published in the ITAM Review and emailed to participants. The 2010 Tools Census is open to End User Organisations, Consultants and Partners

COMPLETE THE 2010 TOOLS CENSUS HERE

Thank you in advance for your time.

Half of employees don’t always power down their PC at night according to research by the Alliance to Save Energy (49% in the US, 48% in the UK and 43% in Germany).

IT Asset Management vendors are moving fast to meet the current strong demand for lower carbon emissions and power costs. Implementing power policies and procedures could be a quick win to save energy, lighten the carbon statement and support your company ‘Green’ projects.

This video is an example of some of the features included in a power management tool. PowerStudio from Certero applies policies and profiles across all desktops to save documents and perform standby, hibernation, shutdown and automatic start up for night time maintenance.

This video is best viewed in full screen. Click on the full screen button to view in your whole screen. If you can not see the video please use this link.

Presenter: David Graham from Certero

See also:

• Green IT Budgets on the Rise
• How IT Managers Can Reduce Carbon Emissions and Energy Costs

Below are some of the early findings from the 2010 Tools Census. To complete the census please click here.

Best and Worst Satisfaction Ratings

Which (category) best describes your current role?

The number of tools being used by respondents

Please rate your overall satisfaction for your primary ITAM or SAM tool or technology (1- Not Satisfied, 10- Very Satisfied)

This Quick Guide to Oracle Licensing has been provided by Mark van Wolferen of b-lay.

Introduction
Oracle’s software licensing is seen as complex and treacherous. The number of products and acquisitions made by Oracle over the years has resulted in numerous pricelists and a wide array of licensing possibilities and extended definitions.

Keeping track of the changes that effect your organization might seem like an impossible undertaking.

For Oracle, as for many ICT companies, the technological possibilities today, determine the licensing of tomorrow. At first glance (or review), the perception is that Oracle licensing strategy is steered by commercial gains.  However, when you closely observe the changes made over the last decade, there is logic behind the changes and an ongoing effort to make licensing transparent and accessible.

The aim of this article is to show a quick insight into Oracle’s historic licensing and common licensing for Oracle technology.

Reading this article will not make you an Oracle licensing expert, but will hopefully provide you with enough knowledge to understand the essentials.

Most Common Oracle License Metrics
Oracle has more than three thousand products distributed over a four-layer infrastructure model. These layers are

1. Applications
2. Middleware
3. Database
4. Infrastructure

The licensing associated with each product is related to their position in this infrastructure and how they are deployed. This has led to over 80 license metrics in today’s list of license metrics, but a lot of these are for very specific products or groups of products. This guide provides an introduction in the most common metrics for database and middleware, also called Oracle Technology products.

Database & Application Servers – User based
User based licensing has always been offered by Oracle, or at least since the database version 6 in the late eighties.  Over the years the user definition has significantly changed, often to adjust to new technology. In principle the licensable element remained the same: Oracle user based licensing is about the individuals or devices that have the ability to access the software, regardless the active usage.

Also since the start there has been a pricing in relation to the associated hardware. Initially this was to the specific hardware/OS combinations; today it is to the hardware type in the form a minimum requirement per processor. Per the license agreement, Oracle makes you responsible to ensure these minimums are met. This is a task to take seriously if under-licensing wants to be avoided.

The dominant metric for user based licensing is named user. A named user is an individual that has been authorized by your company to use the Oracle software, regardless of whether the individual is actively using the programs at any given time. Individuals can be employees, contractors, but also customers who can make use of the software direct or through other applications. If there are non-human operated devices in your architecture, such as sensors, these need to be counted as a named user in addition to the individuals, if such devices can access the product.

The license is for an individual for a specific product, regardless of how often this product is used. This means that under one license you can use multiple installations of this specific product, on one or multiple servers. If the individual is licensed once, no additional licenses are required. For example if John has a NUP license for Database Enterprise Edition, he can access a multitude of databases on various machines, all under that one NUP license. These, so called, multi server rights are a standard part of the license grant.

Named User licensing is about the people and devices that can use the software, not about what usernames are in the software or who uses the software. This seems to be simple and can often be determined by looking at the organization, rather than the software. However in multi-tier or technical architectures it can be very hard to determine. Oracle software can be at the bottom of the infrastructure and some users might have access to Oracle software without knowing it. Especially when batching or multiplexing is being used it can be hard to determine. Under named user licensing multiplexing software is not recognized by Oracle, so the numbers needs to be determined at the front end of the multiplexor.

A practical rule that helps you in finding these populations is to track;

1. Where the requests come from
2. Where the information comes from.

To be sure document your architecture and approach a licensing specialist to assist, as mistakes can be costly.

Since 2002 Oracle uses the Named User Plus (NUP) metric.  This metric is available for the majority of products on Oracle’s Technology pricelist; Database products (Oracle database, Options, Enterprise Management), Data Warehousing (Express), Application Server products (Weblogic, iAS, Options, Enterprise Management), Business Intelligence (Oracle BI, Hyperion Essbase), and many Enterprise 2.0 products (Webcenter, Content Management). Although the metric name is unchanged for the last 9 years, the definition has been adjusted to allow for the automatic batching from computer to computer. Under NUP Automatic batching of data from computer to computer is permitted. This means that if data is stored in one relational database and then batched to a datawarehouse on Oracle technology, the individuals who can use the first database are not to be considered as Named users of the datawarehouse. Prior to NUP there were slightly different other license types, such as Named User Single or Multi Server in 2000 or per Named User in the nineties.

Because of the complexity mentioned above, the NUP license metric may only be used in countable populations. Often it is used to license the employees and contractors of a company or the internally used applications. It is also a popular license for development and test environments, as those are often characterized by a low number of users who can access the software (be aware of the minimum requirements which are hardware related!).

When looking at your licensing make sure you look at the exact definition that is in your Oracle License and Service Agreements (OLSA) attached to your order form or offer.

Database & Application Servers – Box based
Since December 1999 with the rise of the internet and the uncountable user populations Oracle introduced box based licensing. As more applications are web based logically this metric has gained popularity and next to the NUP license metric this is a prominent metric on their price list.

The first metric in 1999 was the Power Unit Intel and Risc, later followed by Universal Power Unit metric in 2000. In 2001 Processor licensing was introduced and this metric is still on the pricelist today. Almost all products on the Oracle technology pricelist, including the products that can be licensed by NUP, are offered by Processor licensing. This makes it a very simple all-around metric, often used in larger contracts and Enterprise Agreements. To license the internal usage with NUP and all external / customer facing systems by Processor is a common combination although with larger customers it is not uncommon to license all production machines by processor.

There are a few important nuances that need to be made when dealing with the Processor license metric of Oracle:

• Installed and/or Running; all processors should be licensed were Oracle Software is installed and/or running. This means if the machines are put in a cluster, the entire cluster needs to be licensed that have Oracle installed. For standby or remote mirroring machines this is similar. The exception is for failover machines; you are allowed to run a failover (like Oracle Failsafe or Veritas, HP Service Guard, HACMP, Linux HA – Heartbeat) if the machine is live for less than 10 separate days per year. Legacy systems, also those powered off, require licensing if Oracle software is installed.
• Processor Calculation; a processor license is calculated by multiplying the total number of cores of the processor by a core processor licensing factor specified on the Oracle Processor Core Factor Table which can be accessed here . All cores on all multi-core chips for each licensed program are to be aggregated before multiplying by the appropriate core processor-licensing factor and all fractions of a number are to be rounded up to the next whole number.
• There are some nuances per product as well. For example when licensing Oracle Database Standard Edition a processor is counted equivalent to an occupied socket; however, in the case of multi-chip modules, each chip in the multi-chip module is counted as one occupied socket.
• Virtualization Software & Partitioning; Oracle distinguishes between two types of partitioning; hard- and soft partitioning. If partitioning methodologies, including virtualization software, is part of hard partitioning, only the partitions with Oracle software need to be licensed. Soft partitioned servers need to be completely licensed. All third party (like VM Ware) is considered soft partitioning and requires the full environment to be licensed. Oracle VM, a free open source VM, is can be set up as hard partitioning. If set up correctly, this is the only virtualization software that classifies as hard partitioning.
• The partitioning categorization depends on the ease of managing the data processing resources (CPU capacity). Hard partitioning is where a server is physically segmented taking; a single large server and separating it into distinct smaller systems. Each separated system acts as a physically independent, self-contained server, typically with its own CPUs, operating system, separate boot area, memory, input/output subsystem and network resources.

As the minimum licensing requirements for NUP are also based on the Processor licensing it is good practice to start your licensing needs by determining the requirement number of Processor licenses. To be safe, always start with licensing the widest architecture (especially in case partitioning or virtualization software is used) and restrict your licensing by carefully following Oracle guidelines (i.e. mark failover machines or ‘hard’ partitioned systems). Of course, for your existing box based metrics, always check your contract for exact definitions.

Software on Desktops
Most people do not associate Oracle with desktop products, but since the early days Oracle software has been deployed on PC’s. The majority are tools used by the technical staff involved in Oracle to design, develop, or maintain Oracle Software – such as Internet Developer Suite and Programmer – however a few are more aimed at a wider population – like Discoverer Desktop Edition and the Personal Edition Database -, and even some server products – such as the Standard Edition Database – can be found on desktops.

The licensing of these products has been very consistent over the last 15 years; there is no separate licensing model for this, it was always available under the same definitions as the user based licensing as used for their database & Application Server product range.

Over the last 9 years there has been Named User Plus (NUP). Prior to that there were slightly different other license types, such as Named User Single or Multi Server or in the nineties per Developer, however the definitions of these license types have always been an exact copy of the user based database product licensing. This means you need to license all individuals authorized by you to use the software, regardless of whether these individuals are actively using the software at any given time. In other words: if it is installed on a desktop, all people that are allowed to use that desktop need to be licensed.

What does Support have to do with it?
Lifetime Licensing
Under a perpetual license, a customer purchases the license to use the software and then pays annual support.  This support fee gives you the right to contact Oracle for support and the right to use the latest version of the product, including all supported previous versions. For example: you buy internet Application Server (iAS) version 11, and install version 10, or have bought version 9, but now run version 11.

Each release could contain functionality that was previously licensed separately. The grant you have is for the latest version of the product you are entitled to under your support agreement. The new product could include all new features and functionality that you are now entitled to use or, often when it is larger bundle, you are not allowed to use. The version on the CD is often considered as the ‘new’ version by technical staff. When in reality the new version could be the new product, with the restricted functionality of the licensed product.

The other complexity support adds to understanding your licensing is that all historically agreed licensing terms & conditions, are still applicable today. Often user will rely on their support invoices to understand their license grant. This is not complete, as the support invoice does not hold all the nuances in terms and definitions. Keep a good record of your original order and OLSA. You will not be the first to add up licenses, especially buying additional licenses, which seem to be for the same product but not have the same definitions and restrictions.

Wrap up
Oracle has spent many efforts in simplifying their licensing. They publish their licensing and rules on their website and the online purchasing systems like the Oracle Store.  However due to their acquisitions, the number of product and flexibility in usage, it has become complex for the end-user to understand.

On top of that Oracle offers lifetime support (including updates) on almost all products. This has resulted in a wide number of the number of licensing definitions, rules and interpretations, all still valid today, if they are in your agreement.  Overall Oracle licensing is not complex; there is just a lot of it. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch with a licensing specialist.

See also ‘Trouble Finding Oracle On Your Network‘, Oracle LMS, Oracle Price List.

Mark van Wolferen, of b.lay is an entrepreneur in compliance related administration solutions and knowledge sharing and uses the knowledge of 11 years in Oracle License Management Services to make software licensing and managing compliance more transparent.  b.lay provides subscription, solutions and services to software vendors, their end-users, and third parties. b.lay’s deliverables distinguish by easy of use, simplicity and accuracy. Recently b.lay was the first to obtain the official Oracle LMS trusted Advisor status.

I have started to receive feedback for ‘Negotiating with Microsoft’ by Daryl Ullman:

An excellent overview on how to prepare to negotiate with Microsoft and what your options are, with guidance on what can (should!) be negotiated.

Richard Weigel
Pfizer

I found the book extremely insightful. It will definite be a great tool for anyone preparing for negotiation. From getting all your upfront information in order to what to expect in the negotiation process, this book covers it.

The strategies outlined in the book will definitely help to reduce cost. I believe anyone could incoorporate them in to their negotiation process. With the tools provided, they could even be used for others negotiations besides Microsoft. Nothing comes to mind. As is, this is a great starting point for anyone getting ready to start the negotiation process.

Joseph Armenteros
Baptist Health

A nicely structured roadmap for preparing for and conducting a major agreement negotiation with Microsoft. Going back to my first Microsoft negotiation, every aspect of it was “learn as you go, on your own”. This book can guide the “first timer” through and “remind the veteran” of the many aspects to Microsoft licensing and contracts. Having this information in one place, presented by a subject matter expert with a “peer” approach, validates what I do and gives me new ideas for approaching Microsoft licensing.

One of the very useful items was a clear layout of virtualisation rights. I plan to employ the “uplift” option to move some Windows Server licenses to DataCenter versions to have ability to deploy unlimited VM’s.

Regardless of (your) experience level, Microsoft (either via your rep or their websites) doesn’t do enough to provide training on their licensing.

Bill Felice
Temple University

Read your book in a couple of hours. I think it has a lot of valuable tips and best practices from your many years on the field. Outstanding work!

Jacobo Senior
Solosoft

Further details can be found here.

I had the pleasure to meet with Paul Baum and Ed Stukane from PlanITROI at IAITAM last year. Here they share their GSK case study.

It is good to see how Armin Jahromi, Service Development Manager at GlaxoSmithKline ’sold the green’ and recruited a small crew of volunteers to salvage 6 tons of e-waste.  The project enabled recycling and refurbishing of equipment – allowing GSK to reclaim $1.8M dollars (Not to mention electricity savings and reduction in carbon consumption). Responsible disposal ensured their equipment would not end up in a landfill.

The ITAM industry as a whole needs a lot more of these case studies!

If you have any additional resources to help build a business case for an iniative like this that you want to share please let me know.

• EVENTS
  • Directions on Microsoft – Five Essential Resources for Microsoft Licensing
  • LicenseWatch -  Version 7 Webinar
  • Miro – Open Q&A Forum on Oracle Licensing, Procurement & Compliance
  • RFCode – Dispelling the Myths About Active RFID

• INDUSTRY NEWS
  • Case study – AstraZeneca manages lifecycle of 90,000 Assets
  • Dell buys KACE
  • IAITAM Launch ITAM 360 (More Details Coming Soon)
  • Redemtech – Offers free database to help users navigate regulations
  • Snow Software – 2010 Release

If you have some news to share for the monthly Industry News Round-Up please contact me.

There have been a few discussions on LinkedIn recently regarding ITAM SaaS.

That is, ITAM software and services delivered as a service via the internet.

Delivering an ITAM tool via the web is not a new concept but I believe it is definitely gaining traction.

Why is that? Perhaps it is due to increased bandwidth or overcoming security concerns. However my money is on the fact that end users have realised that SAM done properly and continually is such a cumbersome labour intensive beast to deal with that it makes sense to off load some or parts of the process.

Many partners are offering SAM business process outsourcing services (Example).  I think this can represent a good deal for end users but only if the balance of risk and reward is set right (See  ‘Profit Motives in Software Asset Management‘)

I believe some vendors are gaining competitive edge by providing value added services around their core tool offerings. So it’s not just about providing the software in the cloud but also taking away some of the heavy lifting. Software recognition and software reconciliation data crunching are arguably the largest tasks. Nobody has the holy grail in terms of these tasks – but casting a human eye over results combined with the economies of scale that the web brings might see us come close.  See BDNA, Snow and ManageSoft for vendors doing some good work in this area. I have also heard good things about ComplianceConsole from several different sources but can’t vouch for it myself.

Early results from the 2010 tools census show the industry demanding more automation and out of the box functionality. The cloud appears to be the perfect environment to deliver this.

Finally, one of the future benefits of doing ITAM work in the cloud is the anonymised aggregation of data. For example – I have 5,000 desktops, am I getting a good deal on my antivirus contract compared to other companies of the same size in my industry? There is not much mention of this from ITAM Vendors at the moment but I am sure it will surface as volumes increase.

See also R ‘Ray’ Wang, “The Hidden Value In SaaS Deployments” and Computerworld “Amazon EC2’s model is a solution for shelfware, says IDC”

Some other SaaS offerings:

• Dell
• InControl Technology
• SAManage
• Triactive
• Xassets

And some systems management tools that include SaaS inventory

• Kaseya
• KACE (now Dell)
• Level Platforms
• Service Now
• Staff and Line

If you know of any other tools that should be on the list please contact me.

Please take a few minutes to take part in the 2010 Tools Census, an independent analysis of the current use of ITAM Tools and Technology:

• Which is the most popular tool?
• Which tools are users most happy with?
• Which tools are users experiencing the worst results?
• What features are top of the wish list?
• Published results will be anonymised – individual responses will be in the strictest confidence.

Full results will be published in the ITAM Review and emailed to participants. The 2010 Tools Census is open to End User Organisations, Consultants and Partners

COMPLETE THE 2010 TOOLS CENSUS HERE

Thank you in advance for your time.

This article series has been contributed by John Emmitt at ManageSoft.

Software Asset Management (SAM) is a complex process that enables organizations to gain control of their software estate from both a license compliance and financial standpoint.

But, where do these cost savings come from? Reharvesting unused licenses and recycling licenses from retired hardware are techniques that yield significant savings. Another approach that is often overlooked is the application of product use rights (PUR) to reduce initial license purchase, true-up and renewal costs.

• Part 1 – License Agreements and Types
• Part 2 – Common Product Use Rights
• Part 3 – License Reharvesting & Recycling
• Part 4 – Sample Scenario
• Part 5 – SAM Automation

Part 5 – SAM Automation

The SAM process involves the collection and tracking of a multitude of pieces of data—from hardware and software inventory, to purchase orders, license agreements, and maintenance contracts.

In addition, there are huge libraries of information that must be created and maintained to make sense of the collected data. For example, an “application recognition library” (ARL) is required to translate raw inventory data (file evidence, installer evidence, registry data, etc.) into a list of recognized software applications per computer.

John Emmitt, ManageSoft

A Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) library helps normalize purchase order data so that licenses bought can accurately be matched to licenses in use (i.e. installed software). The SKUs on purchase orders identify not only the application title, version and edition, but also the type of license agreement under which it was purchased. A “product use rights library” (PURL) is needed to understand all the license types, terms and conditions, and correctly apply product use rights to calculate an accurate license position.

Even with this cursory look at the complexity involved it becomes obvious that a SAM tool is required to effectively manage the SAM process. Microsoft provides quarterly updates to their product use rights document for volume licensing; the latest edition is 117 pages long. It’s simply not feasible to attack this problem without an automated solution.

Very few SAM tools on the market today provide the extensive set of built-in libraries and license optimization functionality necessary to automate such a complex set of tasks and reap the maximum IT cost savings. Look for tools that provide a comprehensive and continuously updated ARL, a stock keeping unit (SKU) library that ties purchase data to software installations, and a product use rights library (PURL) that automates the process of applying use rights to determine an accurate vendor license position.

This article series has been contributed by John Emmitt at ManageSoft.