Sponsor: Flexera

One of the biggest reasons why organizations have largely held off on migrating their enterprises to Windows 8 is that operating system migrations are a complex, costly, and risky undertaking. Not only are there costs associated with application compatibility testing and remediation, but there are also potential negative impact to end users and critical business processes.

With the rapid infusion of mobile devices within the enterprise and the growing adoption of company-issued and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) – mobility is a focal point for containing security risk. As is understanding the risks introduced by mobile applications to sensitive data and company reputation.

Consider a seemingly innocuous mobile phone flashlight app. A Federal Trade Commission lawsuit revealed that a flashlight app maker was illegally transmitting users’ precise locations and unique device identifiers to third parties, including advertising networks.

L’accumulation des applications est l’un des principaux défis auxquels sont confrontés les DSI dans les entreprises. Il n’est pas rare, en effet, que ces dernières accumulent des milliers d’applications qui requièrent une maintenance et une prise en charge quotidiennes. Bien souvent pourtant, seul un faible pourcentage de ces applications est utilisé régulièrement de manière active. Lorsqu’une entreprise possède dans son portefeuille des applications inutilisées ou sous-utilisées, cela est généralement dû à un manque de communication entre les utilisateurs métiers et le service informatique

Optimized license management is a necessity for all software licenses owned by the enterprise, from desktop to datacenter and beyond. While many organizations understand their license position for the desktop estate, the reality is that licensing in the datacenter still presents a daunting set of challenges that require a robust, automated Software License Optimization solution. Compounding this, it is difficult to take the same set of processes, technologies, and remediation techniques used to manage desktop licenses and apply them to datacenter license management. Organizations need a solution to address the unique license management requirements of enterprise IT environments including the desktop, datacenter and private and/or hybrid clouds.

Technology trends impacting network equipment providers include increasing software intellectual property (IP) component in physical products, mainstreaming of virtualization technology, the ability to decouple software from hardware and an increasing desire for service providers and enterprises to transition from using custom hardware to generic, commercial off the shelf (COTS) hardware powered by software.

The first industrial revolution ushered in a global transformation as the means of production transitioned from human labor to machine driven automation. The second industrial revolution accelerated change through the growth of the railroads, iron and steel production, manufacturing automation, the use of steam power, oil, electricity, and electrical communications.

Flexera Software is the established global leader in Software License Optimization solutions focused on software governance, compliance risk mitigation, and cost control. Our products and services allow you to stop worrying about software audits and compliance – while helping you to optimize your software estate and focus on getting more value from those assets. Is this something you should look at?

Managing the software licensing landscape within most companies is a complex task, which is made more complicated by the sheer number of contracts to be managed (hundreds, if not thousands) as well as the different types of licenses that must be administered. Industry trends such as virtualization, cloud, and increased flexibility in software licensing have added to this challenge, ensuring that the complexities associated with understanding and managing software assets continue to increase.

In today's economic climate, there is significant pressure on CIOs to control costs and reduce risks while finding ways to fund new business initiatives. Software is a strategic asset that is typically under-managed in most organizations. It should therefore be a priority for CIOs to find ways to automate and optimize software asset management in order to uncover cost savings and minimize license liability risk.

This study provides organizations with a framework of stages, critical measures, outcomes, and actions required for the effective management of software license assets for the purposes of spend optimization. IDC's Software License Optimization MaturityScape can be used to assess current competencies and maturity and identify steps for improvement as well as help identify the critical people, process, and technology strategies that help drive effective software license optimization.

In today's economic climate, there is significant pressure on CIOs to control costs and reduce risks while finding ways to fund new business initiatives. Software is a strategic asset that is typically under-managed in most organizations. It should therefore be a priority for CIOs to find ways to automate and optimize software asset management in order to uncover cost savings and minimize license liability risk.

Software vendors are continuing their aggressive practices of auditing their customers for software license compliance. 63% of respondents report having been audited in the last 18-24 months. This high level of auditing is a continuation of existing practices reported in last year’s Key Trends in Software Pricing and Licensing Report on this topic, at which times 64% of respondents reported having been audited.

Software vendors are increasing the number and scope of their software license audit activities. IDC recommends that customers deploy software license optimization to self-audit in advance of an audit and identify and fix the underlying issues that can cause noncompliance.

Enterprise software counts among an organization’s most strategic assets. Therefore it is not surprising that software comprises one of the largest line-items in most organizations’ IT budgets. As enterprises rebound from the “great recession,” they continue to look for ways to be agile, lean and efficient. In furtherance of those goals, software budgets are being examined closely, with an eye towards ferreting out waste, and ensuring acceptable ROI. As confirmed in this Report, organizations are evolving in their quest to derive more value from their software spend. And as application producers accommodate this trend, they are realizing greater value as well.

App-V 5.0 is a pivotal upgrade to Microsoft’s application virtualization technology. With this upgrade comes a reworked App-V package format, improved streaming, easier connectivity among virtualized applications and side-by-side support for existing 4.5/4.6 packages. Other key features include mounting of App-V applications to folders instead of the Q: drive, removal of size limitations and streamlined integration of virtualized applications with other desktop applications via extensions.