How to control Data Transfer across your Network
Monday, February 22nd, 2010 | Great Sites
Introduction
The degree to which computing has become a part of normal life and everyday commerce has prompted a change in the way management approaches how they manage the money, the tasks and the systems within a business. IT is becoming an increasing factor in business.
As computing becomes more widely used within a company and takes a more prominent critical within the critical processes of that organisation, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is applied to this computing.
Technology have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as critical parts of any business. As such, they are allocated greater budgets but must also be able to manage a larger amount of work.
But once you have spent a substantial amount of your budget on developing an IT infrastructure and seen the requirements of your business change, how do you make sure that the IT you are using can keep up with demand?
This is the function by IT management software and procedures.
Every organisation and every situation will have different needs and will offer unique problems. To meet these requirements there are a range of different technologies and approaches that can be implemented to help manage the IT assets of your business.One of these solutions is discussed below.
Software Asset Management
Software Asset Management (SAM) is built to do exactly what it says on the tin - monitoring and managing the deployment and usage of software programs within your company. It is a business process rather than a distinct area of expertise and is becoming a more critical part of the modern commercial environment, particularly for businesses operating in the field of IT.
SAM is not simply a tool for technicians rolling out software across a large corporate network, but can be a critical tool to help improve performance at multiple levels of a organisation. The aims of SAM include controlling of the IT infrastructure within a business, negating legal threats associated with incorrect software license usage and preserving high levels of productivity by making sure software is up to date and fit for its purpose. As IT usage in a company grows, so do the potential benefits of SAM.
The practice of software asset management is often viewed as an unnecessary evil due to the abstract nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the commercial case for employing a SAM solution is not always obvious until a broad inspection of the software infrastructure of a company has been carried out.
Financial benefits are still the most driving commercial factor when deciding to use software asset management software within an organisation. Every business needs to make money after all and revenue is a very measurable metric. The financial benefits of SAM do certainly exist however.
An increasingly large percentage of a business’ IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a real need to invest to correctly manage this spending. As companies expand and spread, their software requirements can change greatly and equipment and software can swiftly become outdated. There is no requirement to spend money to maintain the licenses on this outdated software, which is where SAM really delivers an advantage.
SAM is not restricted to simply the technology of your business either. As a management process it will often include many of the departments within a company, including Finance Human Resources, to make sure that it runs as efficiently as possible. It is a process that does not need to follow standard.
Some of the most experienced SAM technicians work for Centennial specialists where their skills are put to good use.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the various advantages of employing a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be right for your business? Each company is different and has its own separate set of problems and advantages, so any strategy you will undertake needs to be catered to these specific traits.
There are more than just cost benefits that can be achieved through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across a companies IT network. Productivity can be hugely improved by ensuring that employees have the newest editions of software available under current licenses held, and communication within the company is aided when support staff know exactly what is installed on every workstation under their control. The benefits of SAM are not confined to the technological hardware of your organisation.
Financial Savings
As discussed before, perhaps the most persuading reason to utilise software asset management within your company is the potential cost savings that can be made. The profitability of your business is always going to be the bottom line so any plan that can help to increase this profitability by descreasing costs is one that should be considered.
The most direct way that software asset management can help to lower costs is by targeting any applications running on your corporate network that is no longer necessary. The software might not be being used anymore, it may be too outdated to be of use or it may be duplicated on your system.
By removing these items of software that are no longer a help to the running of your business you are streamlining a large portion of your IT network. Paying for unneeded software licenses and maintenance contracts means that more finance can be spent on the critical parts of your IT system.
Mitigate Risk
A surprising amount of software that is currently used in the business environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Running any amount of uncontrolled software on your IT system is ill advised, because when left unchecked it can become very unpredictable.
Rogue software applications can be introduced into an uncontrolled IT system in a number of ways. Software may have been bundled when your IT hardware was first purchased although the original software licenses may have expired. Without the correct access policies in place, users may also be able to install their own software onto the system.
The danger of running unlicensed software on your network is clear. When anything goes wrong with the hardware or software platform behind your vital processes, how do you handle the situation? Operating a complicated software system without the proper support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can seriously inhibit your responsiveness to unforeseen events. The cost of recovery will forever outweigh the cost of mitigation when it comes to data systems.
Many businesses have reported increases in efficiency after Centennial consultants worked alongside their current IT support staff.
Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation
As previously mentioned, there are numerous potential advantages to using a good software asset management strategy within your organisation, both financial and otherwise. It is therefore important to determine which parts of SAM you should deploy first since some benefits will be achieved more quickly than others. Some may take a period of years to be fully felt.
The discovery process can be seen as three primary stages that have to be undertaken to really develop an accurate picture of the deployment of IT assets within your business.
Inventory
Inventory is the most basic stage of the discovery process. It is vital that an accurate audit of IT assets within your organisation is created to help your IT department to maintain baselines regarding your IT system.
Thankfully, this process can now be made automatic and even the largest of networks can be searched and analysed in a relatively short period. Inventory should be able to identify your software assets regardless of their geographical location or computing characteristics.
Capture
The next step in the discovery cycle is the capture of the license entitlements that cover the software programs discovered in the inventory. The capture stage should collect entitlements regarding all of the software that exists on your system, even if the software is not currently in use.
The factor of human error can be mitigated by using automated tools that are specifically created to build a library of license entitlements. Packages that are currently available are very efficient at gathering accurate data. These tools will also maintain databases containing up to date information from software vendors.
Identification & Validation
The next process is to match up your software audit to the repository of licensing information that were built in the last two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original paperwork for software to the latest audits performed on your IT system. These errors can now be rectified.
One crucial factor in the validation stage is the ability to associate the license entitlements within your network to your organisation’s proof of entitlement. This will be vital if any disputes with software resellers arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle.
Once these steps have been undertaken you will have created an incredibly detailed image of how your IT network is serving software assets to its users. It will be a lot easier to identify any trouble areas on your network, or sections of software use that are no longer of any practical benefit to your operations.
You can now commence a period of reconciliation on your network. You can compare the software programs that are actually used on your network against the licensing and support contracts that you are paying for and bridge any gaps between the two.
The software distribution in your system may include many hundreds or perhaps thousands of individual instances, and there are any number of rules that may be involved with the licensing agreements you have in place. It is therefore essential to automate the reconciliation process, using one or more programs to apply intelligent rules to the process.
There is a growing respect in the computing industry for Centennial vendors since they can provide critical services for a modern business.
Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM
Many of the fundamental principles of a successful SAM strategy are based upon the principles set out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library details a number of ideas and best practices that should be adopted for successful control of IT functions.
This library is a changing publication and is often updated with new concepts and policies that cater to the ever changing IT environment of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be flexible enough to follow the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing needs of the business within which it is actively used. This is an essential requirement of successful software asset management
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has created a standard that applies directly to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an exceptionally comprehensive set of suggestions that are built to ensure that software asset management is used in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”.
The ISO standard should certainly be followed when planning a SAM strategy for your own organisation, although the level of detail included within can quickly become a daunting challenge. It is vital to remember that no matter what recommendations you follow when planning a SAM strategy, whatever you decide to implement needs to aid your organisation rather than stifle it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them to your organisation.
Creating a complete and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own company may actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible enough to change and grow as your business does, and it should allow for modifications to your daily tasks, no matter how small or fundamental they might be.
Conclusion
It is easy to see that as the scope and importance of IT systems within your organisation grow, so does the need for correct and effective management of these systems. Gone are the times when an IT department was a luxury that would occasionally progress the business. IT networks are now critical to the modern company. Critical systems need to be monitored to an appropriate standard.
As with other branches of any organisation, a number of separate plans should be evaluated and used in order to ensure the smooth running of day to day activities. software asset management should not be the only tactic used to manage technological resources within your organisation, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary techniques used to control the system as a unit.
So if you think that your organisation is currently suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and management over its IT infrastructure, or that the potential benefits described in this article could manufacture a critical market advantage over your competitors, then it would be well worth researching how SAM could be used within your business.