How to control your IT Infrastructure
Introduction
The degree to which computing has become a part of everyday life and everyday commerce has prompted a change in the way business approaches how they manage the money, the tasks and the systems within a business.
As computing becomes more widely used within an organisation and takes a more prominent vital within the critical functions of that business, it is important to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is given to this computing.
IT capabilities have come a long way during the past few years and are now seen as vital parts of any company. As such, they are allocated grander budgets but must also be able to manage a larger amount of responsibility.
But after you have spent a substantial amount of money on developing your IT network and seen the needs 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 systems.
Every business and every situation will have different requirements and will present unique issues. To meet these needs there are a number of different solutions and approaches that can be implemented to help control the IT infrastructure of your organisation.One of these solutions is discussed below.
Software Asset Management
Software Asset Management (SAM) is designed to do exactly what it says on the tin – monitoring and controlling the deployment and usage of software packages within your company. It is a business process rather than a distinct area of expertise and is becoming a more essential part of the modern commercial environment, particularly for companies operating in the field of IT.
SAM is not simply a program for technicians rolling out software across a large company network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at many levels of a company. The aims of SAM include controlling of the IT infrastructure within a business, negating legal risks associated with incorrect software license usage and sustaining high levels of productivity by making sure software is up to date and fit for its purpose. As IT usage in an organisation grows, so do the potential benefits of SAM.
The practice of software asset management is often thought of as an unnecessary evil due to the intangible nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the financial case for going with a SAM solution is not always obvious until a broad audit of the software infrastructure of a company has been carried out.
Monetary benefits remain the most motivating business factor when deciding to operate SAM software within a company. Every corporation needs to make money after all and expenditure is a very measurable figure. The financial benefits of SAM do certainly exist however.
An increasingly large percentage of a organisation’s IT budget is spent on software licensing so there is a real need to invest to correctly monitor this spending. As organisations expand and diversify, their software needs can change radically and hardware and programs can swiftly become outdated. There is no need to spend money to maintain the licenses on this outdated software, which is where SAM really delivers an edge.
SAM is not restricted to simply the IT department of your company either. As a management process it will often include many of the departments within a organisation, including Finance Human Resources, to ensure that it runs as efficiently as possible.
One highly recommend software asset management package claim Centennial resellers has to be SAM.Suite; a modern solution to modern IT licensing challenges.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the multiple advantages of deploying a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be correct for your organisation? Each company is different and has its own separate set of problems and advantages, so any plan you will undertake needs to be catered to these specific characteristics.
There are more than just financial benefits that can be made through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across an organisations IT network. Productivity can be vastly by ensuring that employees have the latest editions of software available under current licenses held, and communication inside the corporation is helped when support staff know exactly what is installed on every workstation under their control.
Cost Savings
As discussed previously, perhaps the most persuading reason to implement software asset management within your business is the potential cost savings that can be achieved. The profitability of your company is always going to be the bottom line so any system that can help to increase this profitability by lowering expenses is one that should be considered.
The most immediate way that SAM can help to lower costs is by identifying any applications running on your corporate network that is no longer necessary. The software might not be being used any longer, it may be too outdated to be of use or it may be duplicated on your system. SAM can help to remove this unnecessary overhead.
By clearing these items of software that are no longer a help to the operation of your company you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT system. Paying for unneeded software licenses and maintenance contracts means that more money can be spent on the critical parts of your IT system. Focusing your finances on these vital components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.
Mitigate Risk
A surprising percentage 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 not advised, because when left unchecked it can become very unpredictable. This is becoming an increasingly frustrating factor for IT managers.
Rogue software applications can be introduced into an uncontrolled IT environment in a number of ways. Software may have been included when your IT hardware was originally bought although the original software licenses may have expired. Without the correct access policies in place, users may also be able to load their own software onto the system.
The risk of running unlicensed software on your network is clear. When anything goes wrong with the hardware or software platform behind your critical processes, how do you handle the situation? Running a complex software system without the correct support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can critically inhibit your responsiveness to unpredictable events. The cost of recovery will forever outweigh the cost of prevention when it comes to data systems.
The business case for working with a part-time Centennial vendor during your IT audit process has never been stronger.
Implementing SAM in your Organisation
As previously mentioned, there are numerous potential benefits to employing a good software asset management strategy within your business, both monetary and otherwise. It is vitally important to determine which branches of SAM you should implement first since some benefits will be achieved more speedily than others. Some may take a period of years to be fully felt.
The discovery process can be seen as three basic phases that have to be performed to truly develop an informative picture of the usage of software assets within your company.
Inventory
Inventory is the most basic function of the discovery cycle. It is crucial that an accurate inventory of IT assets within your business is created to help your IT managers to maintain baselines for your IT system.
Fortunately, this process can now be automated and even the largest of networks can be investigated and analysed in a reasonably short period of time. Inventory must be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their geographical location or technological characteristics. Modern inventory processes are capable of this.
Capture
The second step in the discovery process is the capture of the license entitlements that manage the software assets discovered in the inventory. The capture stage should gather entitlements regarding all of the software that exists on your network, even when the software is not currently in use. Without this information the inventory may be nearly useless.
The factor of human error can be mitigated by using automated tools that are specifically created to create a library of license entitlements. Tools that are currently employed are very efficient at capturing accurate information.
Identification & Validation
The third process is to match up the software audit to the repository of licensing information that were created in the previous two stages. Errors may have been made anywhere from the original invoices for software to the latest audits undertaken on your IT system.
One crucial factor in the validation stage is the ability to associate the license entitlements on your network to your company’s proof of entitlement. This will be essential if any disputes with software resellers arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle.
After these three steps have been performed you will have built an incredibly rich image of how your IT system is serving software assets to its users. It will be much easier to identify particular trouble areas on your network, or sections of software usage that are no longer of any practical benefit to your activites.
You can now begin a period of reconciliation on your system. You should compare the software programs that are actually used on your system against the licensing and support contracts that you are paying for and bridge any divides between the two. This is when the financial benefits of SAM start to take effect.
The software spread in your system may include many hundreds or perhaps thousands of individual installations, and there may be any number of restrictions that may be associated with the licensing contracts you have in place. It is therefore a necessity to automate the reconciliation period, using one or more programs to apply intelligent rules to the process.
To learn more about the software asset management process you could utilise Centennial reseller information via the Internet.
Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM
Many of the fundamental practices of a successful software asset management strategy are based upon the concepts laid out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library defines a number of principles and best practices that should be followed for successful control of IT operations.
This library is a dynamic entity and is often updated with new ideas and techniques that cater to the ever changing IT backdrop of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be flexible enough to comply with the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing requirements of the company within which it is actively utilised.
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has published a standard that applies directly to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an incredibly comprehensive collection of guidelines that are designed to ensure that software asset management is used in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”. Standards of this kind play an essential part in achieving standardisation across an industry.
The ISO standard should certainly be followed when planning a software asset management strategy for your own business, although the level of detail included within can quickly become a daunting prospect. It is important to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when creating a software asset management strategy, whatever you decide to implement needs to aid your organisation rather than stifle it.
Creating a full and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own business might actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible enough to change and grow as your organisation does, and it must allow for updates to your daily activities, no matter how small or underlying they might be.
Conclusion
It is clear to see that as the extent and importance of IT systems within your organisation grow, so does the need for good and efficient 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 vital to the modern company.
As with other branches of any business, a number of different plans should be considered and used in order to ensure the smooth running of daily tasks. software asset management should not be the only tool used to manage computing resources within your organisation, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary techniques used to manage the system as a whole. SAM can go a long way toward aiding your business but should be supported by other strategies.
So if you think that your organisation is really suffering from a lack of structured monitoring and control over its IT network, or that the potential advantages outlined in this article could manufacture a critical market advantage over your competitors, then it would be worth researching how software asset management could be used within your business. There might be no time to spare.