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Software assets are historically difficult to manage and optimise, and it's costing businesses millions of pounds every year. The impact on a business associated with employee turnover, mergers acquisitions, divestitures and other organisational changes is well documented – but only recently have we seen the impact these activities have on one of the company's most strategic assets – the software running its business.

Cloudy with a Chance of Clients: 2012 will be a transformative year for our industry as a whole from the machine to user based paradigm from clients to cloud. Regulations and Consumerization of IT have ignited a perfect storm from the client to the cloud. In order to address this swelling paradigm shift – vendors will need to provide solutions to key market barriers that are creating adoption stall from client to cloud. With a blue ocean of opportunity – the market will shift and technology innovation will be paramount to determining who will cross the proverbial chasm to be victorious as dominant market players.

Find answers to questions such as:

• What are software tags?
• What role does software tagging play in software asset management and license optimization?
• How do enterprises benefit by using software tags?

As the industry moves from the PC era to a Cloud era, desktop virtualisation is growing rapidly in popularity, accelerated further by the proliferation of new and unique consumer devices and user demands for mobility. Changing the desktop model to a virtualised and separated set of resources (operating system, applications, and user data and settings) provides the benefit of independently managing each layer and applying it, where needed and as needed, across many technologies. Organisations want Windows 7, virtual desktops, and session-based solutions, but they often lack the knowledge to transform their application portfolio into solutions that meet the needs of a constantly changing IT landscape.

2012 is set to be a year in which new opportunities start to rise for IT professionals, even though budgets are tight, according to the predictions of industry participants.

On Oct 13, 2011, I announced the successful introduction of an amendment to eliminate wasteful software license spending in the House version of the Department of Homeland Security authorization bill. The language of that bill provides, among other things, that the chief information officer of the DHS:

• Conduct a department-wide inventory of all existing software licenses including utilized and unutilized licenses;
• Assess the needs of the department and the components of the department for software licenses for the upcoming two fiscal years; and
• Examine how the department can achieve the greatest possible economies of scale and cost-savings in the procurement of software licenses.

Why did I do this?

"For large enterprises and midsize businesses, many new strategic projects will combine both cloud and mobile functionality. Social media as an IT expense is relatively low, but employee participation in both business and personal domains (of social media) will continue to explode. Enterprise collaboration will continue to expand as a strategic application solution and service. One segment of Big Data is a technology solution for managing massive unstructured content. This segment primarily serves business to consumer SaaS social media providers. Other segments featuring large, data storage-intensive applications remain in high growth mode including mapping, location based services, medical imaging and all forms of video.

The knock on managing Macs in business environments has long been Apple's ambivalent attitude toward providing significant enterprise support. Apple does, of course, offer tools for deploying, configuring, and managing Macs. But to move Macs beyond a departmental setting, IT will often find it necessary to look to third parties for help.

Many companies have made it clear that their end users want applications and data to follow them across any device and any cloud. But failure has been a painful pill to swallow for many talented architects and engineers who have tried to adopt desktop and application virtualization solutions. Many didn't know what they didn't know about the "client clash" in the cloud, with rising mobility, solutions that enable consumerization of IT, and the new generation of digital native users.

This year has seen a rise in software audits to curb piracy. Let's start with the bad news. If you buy too few software licences you risk fines, and if you buy too many you are wasting money, but you are increasingly likely to find yourself doing one or the other.

Bei der Softwarevirtualisierung, die häufig für den Aufbau und den Betrieb von Private-Cloud-Umgebungen genutzt wird, ist das Thema Lizenz-Management noch kniffliger. Anwender müssen die Wahrung der Urheberrechte aufmerksam und ständig kontrollieren. Außerdem ist die Korrektheit der Bestandsdaten wichtig, damit nicht gegen Compliance-Regeln verstoßen wird.

Software-Audits gelten seit langem als notwendiges "Übel", um sicherzustellen, dass Endkunden nicht gegen Lizenzrechte verstoßen. Denn Softwarehersteller setzen nach wie vor hauptsächlich auf diese Methode, damit Kunden nicht irrtümlich oder vorsätzlich mehr Softwarelizenzen nutzen, als sie erworben haben. In manchen Marktsegmenten werden Kunden von den jeweiligen Herstellern allerdings stärker geprüft als von anderen. Schon die Vorstellung, sich einem Audit unterziehen zu müssen, veranlasst die meisten Endkunden dazu, angemessene Vorkehrungen zur Einhaltung der Lizenzbestimmungen zu treffen.

Flexera Software, the developer of the InstallShield and InstallAnywhere utilities that guide software installations on practically every PC and server on the planet--including those running IBM i--is ramping up a new software tagging initiative. The plan involves embedding XML-based software tags into the applications installed with Flexera's utilities and then providing software asset management tools to enable customers to more effectively track their application usage and cope with vendor licensing audits.

Datacenter licenses have complex product use rights that govern how organizations can use the software and determine the number of licenses consumed in the process.

Moving to the cloud can be a daunting initiative for Enterprises. What the numerous studies and statistics fail to provide are the reasons such enterprises are struggling with the overall migration of applications to either private or public cloud environments, and how to address those issues.

Asset management in the cloud only works if organisations start in the right place. What are the problems? You know the old joke. A man driving through a sleepy English village stops, winds down the window and asks a local man walking down the street: "Excuse me, can you tell me the best way to Northington Hall?" The local replies: "Yes, I can, but you don't want to start from here."

While there are established processes to manage just about every other IT asset, software, which represents 20 percent of an IT organisation' s spending, is often managed in a manual and fragmented way. Knowing what an organisation is entitled to use compared with what it is actually using is made complex by a combination of historical procurements, changing organisational structures, multiple licensing types and pricing tiers, and disconnects between procurement, legal, finance, and IT.

Today, pay-per-use software licensing and pricing models are hotly debated in both the enterprise and the software vendor community. In theory, these models provide a convenient and cost-effective value proposition to enterprises: pay only for what you use, eliminating the large upfront licence costs and ongoing maintenance fees. These models also provide flexibility, enabling consumers to use software wherever, whenever and however they need.

Apps are everywhere, on desktops, smartphones, laptops, tablets, netbooks and soon to be in cars and TVs as well. So many apps on so many devices lead to a lot of loose ends for enterprises and consumers alike. But the number of zombie apps is on the rise. By that I mean abandoned mobile apps that are still active and therefore a security threat and a resource drain. Will a Buffy the Zombie App Slayer ever materialize or will the zombies have to be slain and uninstalled one tedious app at a time?

Flexera Software is a specialist in software product licensing management. Many key software companies across the world use Flexera's systems to manage downloads and license entitlement and because of this, the company is in a unique position to provide global snapshots of the health of the global software industry (with the exception of SaaS subscriptions; however, despite the rapid growth of on demand, the industry is still dominated by desktop and on premise applications). This report focuses on economic activity in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand; we'll be providing Asian and ROW snapshots in the future. The Flexera system counts new purchases of software in addition to patches and upgrades of software as part of maintenance agreements. As such, these download statistics can be closely correlated with a software provider's revenues from new and existing customers.

A recent survey of IT consumerisation trends by IDC revealed that 95% of respondents self-purchased and used technology for work, but interestingly, 70% of employers want to buy standardised technologies for employees. Clearly, whether the IT department likes it or not, the current trend of IT consumerisation is bringing the more current technologies and applications into the business environment. Employees are expected to be able to work from any location and so utilisation of multiple devices is becoming key. Often staff use personal laptops, tablets and smartphones for work, and so expect consistent access to company applications and data with a good user experience.

As hardware commoditisation takes hold, intelligent device manufacturers are looking to embed software to create value and differentiation. Vincent Smyth, General Manager EMEA at Flexera Software takes a closer look.

Application virtualization is a good way to lower computing and energy costs and become more nimble, but converting to virtual formats and preparing for deployment can be a time-consuming, manual task.

A Melbourne engineering company has settled after being approached for allegedly using Autodesk, Adobe and Microsoft products without a licence, the Business Software Alliance has said.

The company handed over $150,000 as part of the settlement, which the BSA said was the second-largest amount that it had enabled for damages in Australia.

Kontrolle über den Einsatz von IBM-Software: Lösung mit der Unternehmen ihre Softwarelizenz-Compliance in den Griff bekommen können

Kosten von IBM Software-Audits reduzieren: Das "Software License Optimization"-Portfolio bietet automatisierte Tools zur Reduktion von Lizenz- und Auditkosten

Complex licensing policies and increased fees can seems like an insurmountable challenge. These steps can help you get a better grip.

Flexera Software hat InstallShield 2012 angekündigt. Die Lösung zur Entwicklung von Installationsroutinen unterstützt agile Teams mit einem Add-on für Collaboration zwischen Produkt- und Dokumentations-Verantwortlichen. Anwender können verschiedene Programme oder Codeversionen zu Suites bündelt und erhalten einen neuen Editor für Assistentenseiten.

InstallShield 2012, released by Flexera software on Tuesday, adds collaboration for software developers and installation developers, as well as support for the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard for tagging software (ISO 19770-2) and support for suite installation.

Paul Peters, an enterprise architect with the Tesoro Oil Corporation, knows about the challenges of tracking SAP software licenses.

The company recently audited its systems and found it was sitting on a significant number of unused SAP licenses, or seats.

As the device market becomes increasingly commoditised, intelligent device manufacturers face challenges from multiple fronts including increased competition, growing demand for differentiated functionality, the need to respond faster to changing market conditions, and the business imperative to reduce manufacturing costs by decreasing the number of unique physical devices produced.

Softwarelizenzen und Softwarewartung machen bis zu 30 Prozent des IT-Budgets aus. Ein funktionierendes Software Asset Management (SAM) spart nicht nur Kosten, sondern sorgt auch für Rechtssicherheit. Vincent Smyth, General Manager EMEA bei Flexera, erklärt, worauf es bei der Wahl eines SAM-Tools ankommt.

Flexera Software, the makers of a widely used software-installation tool, InstallShield, has been bought by the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan.

The Schaumburg-based company was bought by Chicago-based private-equity fund Thoma Bravo LLC three years ago. Thoma Bravo will retain a minor ownership stake, but other terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan agreed to buy a majority stake in enterprise software company Flexera Software Inc. from Thoma Bravo LLC, in a deal that will net the seller 4.6 times its capital.

'SAM Intelligence'; should these two words even be used in the same sentence? It is surprising just how many implementations of SAM Programmes seek to go from a state of utter non-compliance to one of dynamic omniscience – knowing where all software is installed at all times, with updates and changes being managed in real time….

Softwarelizenzen und Softwarepflege beanspruchen nahezu ein Drittel des IT-Gesamtbudgets. Software ist somit fraglos eine der wichtigsten Ressourcen in Unternehmen. Dieser Artikel beschreibt die häufigsten Fehler, die Unternehmen beim Umgang mit Software-Lizenzen machen

A recently published Bench­marking Report, from Flexera Software; the second installment of its Application Usage Management, highlights trends in the software and high-tech device industry.

I recently interviewed Alan Swahn, VP of Product Management at Flexera Software. We discussed IBM Licensing and the IBM audit program.

With the upcoming American Independence Day celebration, recent software news also has American and independence flavors.

Flexera Software launched FlexNet Manager for IBM, a scalable Software License optimization solution that automates IBM license management and enables enterprises to slash their IBM license, maintenance, and audit costs.

Flexera Software, based in Schaumburg, Ill. has roots dating back to 1987. The company was spun off from Macrovision in early 2008 through acquisition by private equity investment firm Thoma Bravo.

Through a combination of software sales and acquisitions, Flexera is growing quite nicely, thank you: 2010 revenues saw a double-digit increase over the previous year. Worldwide employee count is now more than 400, and the company is hiring.

The University of the Sunshine Coast has moved to streamline its software licensing, reducing thousands of unwanted certifications for its software applications.

Speaking to Computerworld Australia, customer service manager at the fastest growing university in Australia, Perry Dixon, said having excessive licensing agreements was wasting university funds.

Cloud computing appears to be the new buzzword. Some believe cloud computing is a revolution while others consider it to be a nebulous concept or perhaps an upgraded version of utility computing. Unfortunately the "cloud" has been overused and simplified to the point that many IT executives are confused by what it really means and how it can be applied towards meeting their business requirements.

This market overview provides a starting point to SAP customers seeking optimization solutions. The document delivers actionable advice and insights into a proven collection of software solutions. As part of the full series, best practices documents will follow with in- depth success stories and a critical product evaluation of this growing market of SAP optimization solutions.

With software vendors pursuing audits more heavily than ever, according to recent Gartner research, enterprise IT executives must figure out how to get and stay in compliance with their licensing agreements. Toward that end, Gartner recommends that organizations that don't already have asset management processes, procedures, tools and funding in place get them now.

Cloud bursting is seen as a convenient way to get instant compute power but the move can have licence implications.

Software licensing and pricing is not currently customer-friendly enough, according to a recent report by Forrester (News - Alert), and the only way that can change is if the current structure is modified.

Managing and migrating 3,500 machines running some 75 applications all with an IT staff of five people required the city to explore automated application-packaging solutions to ease the pain and speed the process. The results? Savings of about $1,300 in staff time per application, and about $97,000 in total for the project.

CPU Tech, a manufacturer of secure processors, faced customer demand for different levels of functionality, operations, and Security at different lifecycle phases. As Vikram notes here, in the process of working with a third-party software licensing and entitlement management vendor, CPU Tech developed a list of criteria for meeting its customers' licensing and pricing Model needs.

Today, Symantec is the world's largest provider of computer-security software, with brands under its umbrella including Veritas, Altiris, MessageLabs, PGP and VeriSign, amongst others. While managing licences for most major software vendors is challenging, managing licence entitlements for Symantec poses a set of unique challenges due to the vast array of products in its portfolio as a result of the company's acquisitions.

Leaving aside the software licensing problem, surely no-one reading this will have problems finding out what software they use!

Software licence management is a painful exercise for most enterprises - the challenges are never the same across software vendors, and organisations have to painstakingly adhere to the complexities of licensing models of the individual software vendors to be in an 'overall' state of compliance.

Between 2007 and 2010, the number of blocked software downloads in Asia increased by three-fold compared to pre-2007, according to a new report from software licensing solutions provider Flexera Software.

Symantec is currently the world's largest computer security software publisher, standing head and shoulders above the rest in terms of market share and revenues. Their popular brands include a wide variety of acquisitions that have been occurring at an impressive rate since just before Norton back in 1990. Today, the list of brands under the Symantec umbrella also includes Veritas, Altiris, MessageLabs, PGP, VeriSign, and many others.

Applications usage management vendor Flexera Software is introducing a suite of software applications that it says can simplify the process of migrating businesses to Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system from Windows XP. AdminStudio Suite 10, available Tuesday, automates the transition project with a six-step process that includes inventorying apps, assessing compatibility, fixing compatibility issues and deploying the new OS.

Flexera Software, the leading provider of strategic Application Usage Management solutions for application producers and their customers, today announced the launch of AdminStudio Suite 10. The new release, optimally priced for enterprises of all sizes, is the industry's first comprehensive Application Readiness solution enabling organizations to strategically manage application packaging and remediation across their entire software estate, mitigating Windows 7 and application virtualization migration risks.

Flexera has launched a new version of its AdminStudioSuite, an application readiness management system. The upgrade contains a module specifically aimed at businesses looking to migrate to the Microsoft Windows 7 operating system.

Software Asset Management (SAM) is a set of processes that enables organisations to gain control of their software estate from both a licence compliance and financial perspective. The most effective SAM licence management and optimisation will enable organisations to achieve the highest possible return on their software investment at the lowest cost. In many organisatsions, SAM represents one of the few remaining ways that substantial IT savings can be realised.

Online customer communities are everywhere -- you just have to look for them -- sometimes in unlikely places. Because they are dedicated to serving customers, often they are not evangelized to the general public or consumer audiences. But they are alive, well and thriving within many enterprises.

The theft of software from Oracle by SAP takes top billing in recent software industry crime news. In November, a federal jury found copyright infringement damages of $1.3 billion against SAP for stealing software from Oracle to try to win over its customers.

During SoftSummit Amy Konary of IDC talked about some of the recent findings from the jointly sponsored IDC/Flexera Software Key Trends in Software Licensing and Pricing survey.

Vendors have been assessed against our 'Enterprise SAM' criteria.

Flexera Software has released a new version of FlexNet Producer Suite for High-Tech Manufacturers with enhanced versions of FlexNet Embedded and FlexNet Operations.

As part of a major cost cutting measure, the Department of Health has decided not to renew its software licence contract with Microsoft, ending its 12-year deal worth £500 million. This means the renewal of the software agreement for nearly 900,000 PCs due to take place in the NHS will not happen. This development is a concerted move by the Department to move away from a single supplier and allows individual health Trusts and hospitals to make their own software supply decisions.

A holistic approach to application readiness.