ITAM industry news roundup - January 2020

ITAM News & Analysis

ITAM industry news roundup - January 2020

There is always something happening somewhere and keeping track of it all can be, to say the least, difficult! Our ITAM industry news round ups aim to cover some of the important and interesting developments you may have missed, to help keep you informed and up-to-date.

Oracle’s Spatial awareness

 

 

 

 

 

Seemingly as an early Christmas present, Oracle announced on December 5th 2019 that three features of Oracle Database:

• Machine Learning
• Graph
• Spatial

will no longer require additional licenses. It was confirmed in the comments that this change applies to “all licensed users of Oracle Database under Premier or Extended Support”.

Oracle take Java direct

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A note on the Oracle Partner Network site appears to indicate that Java products are now only available to purchase directly from Oracle:

The more cynical among you may say it seems that Oracle have realised the potential sales revenue available via their Java licensing changes and decided to take it all for themselves! Whether this will make any difference to Oracle’s auditing tactics around the product remains to be seen.

IBM ILMT and Microsoft End of Support

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I’m sure you’ve seen (!) – Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008/R2 both went out of support on January 14, 2020. What you might not be aware of is the knock-on effect this can have for IBM customers.

Footnote number 20, at the very bottom of page 13 of IBM’s “Eligible Virtualization Technology & Eligible Operating System Technology” document tells us:
“On January 14, 2020 Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7 will reach End Of Support/End Of Life. You have up to 180 days to move to supported operating system/virtualization technology.”

You now need to identify any and all Windows Server 2008/R2 servers that are running IBM software governed by ILMT, and work with the relevant teams to have them all upgraded by July 12th, 2020.

One question I’d like to get confirmed by IBM is whether Microsoft Extended Support Updates (ESU) – which give a further 3 years of support from Microsoft for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008/R2 – also extend the IBM ILMT support cycle for the same length of period? I have a feeling I know the answer but I’d like to see it confirmed either way by Big Blue (Purple?) – let me know if you can help!

Microsoft support costs German government Uber-money

 

 

 

 

 

 

Talking of ESUs…it’s been reported that the German government is paying around €800,000 to keep their existing Windows 7 machines supported by purchasing Microsoft’s Extended Support Updates.
ESUs are an annual purchase and give you up to 3 additional years of support. For Windows 7 they cost:

And can be purchased just for the machines you need to cover. In this case, it looks like there are approx. 33,000 devices still running the (almost) 11 years old Operating System.

Under licensing = theft

 

 

 

 

 

A long-running case over a software contract between two French companies has recently been decided and may well have major implications for software audits.
While the case between software provider ‘IT Development’ and French mobile operator ‘Free Mobile’ the customer making unauthorized modifications to the software they’d licensed from IT Development, the question put before the Court of Justice was:

“Does a software licensee’s non-compliance with the terms of a software licence agreement (by expiry of a trial period, by exceeding the number of authorised users or some other limit, such as the number of processors which may be used to execute the software instructions, or by modifying the source code of the software where the licence reserves that right to the initial right holder) constitute: [emphasis mine]

• an infringement (for the purposes of Directive [2004/48]) of a right of the author of the software that is reserved by Article 4 of Directive [2009/24] on the legal protection of computer programs,
• or may it comply with a separate system of legal rules, such as the system of rules on contractual liability under ordinary law?’

The court determined that such a case:

“must be interpreted as meaning that the breach of a clause in a licence agreement for a computer program relating to the intellectual property rights of the owner of the copyright of that program falls within the concept of ‘infringement of intellectual property rights”

This seems to indicate that being under-licensed can be considered as IP theft by the courts.

This may well give vendors another route of attack when it comes to software audits. Copyright infringement is often listed in cases I’ve seen, and this judgment will surely give them more ammunition when it comes to applying pressure around license non-compliance, even without it going to court.

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