Sponsor: Flexera

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 will reach its end-of-life by July 2015, servers will no longer be receiving security updates, leaving critical business systems vulnerable to attacks. The server operating system has run for many years and there are many customers, who have Windows Server 2003 in production today and some will continue to do so until end-of life of Windows Server 2003 for different reasons. If you are still using Windows Server 2003, now is the time to consider your options. The place to start is to develop a business case around operating system migration. A migration project requires many resources and will take some time and planning.

Driven by the trends of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), Bring Your Own App (BYOA), and the consumerization of IT, the mobile device tsunami is inundating enterprises around the world. In many organizations IT is responding by giving employees unfettered access to these apps. But that can expose the organization to considerable risk.

Imagine that you’re a production line manager in a manufacturing company and you’re under pressure to deliver an increasing number of products that are rapidly growing in complexity. You also have to deliver an increasing number of versions of each product. And you have to speed up the production line substantially. If you can’t meet these requirements, your company’s customers will find what they need elsewhere.

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.

The 2013-14 Key trends in Software Pricing and Licensing survey was conducted by Flexera Software with input from IDC’s Software Pricing and Licensing Research division under the direction of Amy Konary, research vice president - software licensing and provisioning at IDC. This annual research project looks at software licensing, pricing and enforcement trends and best practices. The survey reaches out to executives at application producers (Software vendors and intelligent device manufacturers) and enterprises who use and manage software and devices. Now in its ninth year, the survey is made available to the industry at large each year.

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.