Experts in software licensing are warning users against wholly adopting new tools Oracle promises will help map and size on-prem installations in preparation for a move to the cloud.

Adviors at Palisade Compliance said data from the tools, which an Oracle executive said were months away from launch, could be used by Big Red to sell more cloud instances than customers want or need, launch a software audit, and be used against customers in an audit process.

Last month, Felicia Parilo, senior manager with Oracle Global Partner Advisory, told a webinar hosted by the International Business Software Managers Association (IBSMA) – attended by The Reg – that Oracle is working with third-party tool vendors and developing its own tools “to be able to capture the actual usage” of on-premises software in preparation for its customers’ move to the cloud.

“There’s the contractual mapping exercise, and then there’s also a sizing exercise for actual usage,” she said.

Parilo said she did not have a release date for the tools, only that they would be available in “future months.”

Craig Guarente, Palisade Compliance founder and CEO, warned that any data from the tools shared with Oracle could be used by its license management services (LMS) audit team to help sell Oracle cloud.

But the former Oracle executive said users should not feel pressured into using the tools or sharing data outside their contractual obligations.

“Oracle users do not have to use any tools or provide any information to Oracle that is not spelled out in their contracts. If the tools allow customers to gain insight into their environment without providing data back to Oracle, or any other firm, then they could be beneficial. We will have to wait and see what Oracle comes up with,” he said.

Customers moving to Oracle’s cloud would have to provide some information to Oracle so it can price, size, and configure the environment properly. “It’s best that you know this information and tell Oracle what you need,” he said.

Sharing data with Oracle without careful oversight could lead to unforeseen consequences, he cautioned.

“Unfortunately, you need to be very careful when working with Oracle because their LMS audit teams work very closely with their sales teams. Anything you say to Oracle may be used against you in a compliance dispute. For example, if you tell Oracle you are using VMWare they may make a claim of non-compliance. I wish it wasn’t this way.”

Scott Jensen, Oracle practise lead at software licensing advisors Anglepoint, said customers have good reason to be concerned about running Oracle-provided measurement tools and returning the data to Oracle. “After all, Oracle has been known to share customer usage data between sales teams and even to their audit division, while the original intent for sharing the data was to undergo a scoping exercise similar to what Oracle is now offering for Cloud migrations.”

However, Jensen pointed out Oracle is offering substantial financial incentives for their existing on-premises customers to move to Oracle Cloud, including credits of up to 50 percent towards existing Oracle Support spending.

The Register has asked Oracle to comment.

Block64 are the market leaders in agent-less inventory. The benefits of which are many but include quick and easy access to an inventory of your network, with a low touch, low resource requirement.

Agent based tools can take up to a year to be fully deployed and often can’t be deployed to sensitive environments.  Whether you are looking for something to produce some quick answers or whether you are in need of something to supplement your existing discovery/inventory infrastructure, this demonstration will be well worth the watch!

There are a plethora of SAM tools on the market. Some use third party inventory sources, such as SCCM, whilst others rely on the fidelity of their own data collection technology to deliver the SAM experience. In this article, I will provide an insight into the 5 best “Must Haves” for an inventory/discovery tool.

Every organisation assessing Software Asset Management software will have individual needs and drivers. In some cases, SAM software underpinned by agentless discovery is a requirement. However, in almost all cases, the benefits of an agent-based SAM solution far outweigh the short-term convenience of agentless SAM software.

The difference between a discovery tool and an inventory tool is that a discovery tool is usually a network scanner that will pick up all network devices at moment of scan, known or unknown, such as routers, switches and printers. It also provides patchy overview of software installations. An inventory tool is usually agent based and will provide granular detail of software installed and used on any given device.

So, here are my top 5 functions to look for in an inventory/discovery tool:

Microsoft yesterday announced a slew of Teams features available now, coming later this year, and even arriving in 2021. The standout features are focused on mental health, including virtual commutes, meditation breaks, and work habits. Other new additions span Together Mode, Dynamic View, Breakout Rooms, recaps, presentation, calling, and new devices.

At its Build 2020 developers conference in May, Microsoft gave business developers new tools to build Teams apps. At its Inspire 2020 partners conference in July, Microsoft doubled down on helping businesses transition to a hybrid remote work approach. This week, at its Ignite 2020 IT Pros conference, the company is talking about mental health.

Since 2018, Microsoft Teams has been the company’s fastest-growing business app ever, long before lockdowns started juicing up remote work and learning numbers. In April, Teams hit 75 million daily active users, and in May Microsoft’s Jeff Teper told VentureBeat Teams “will be even bigger than Windows.” While the pandemic has resulted in impressive growth, Microsoft is realizing it has a responsibility to make sure companies using its platform in an increasing WFH and remote work world can offer mental health tools.

Xensam are a Software Asset Management solution provider rocking the SAM boat at the moment with their excellent support SLAs and improved usage monitoring to further enhance software purchase efficiency.

For those of you that haven’t heard of them yet, this quick intro to their offerings is a must.

Xensam are a disrupter in the legacy SAM tools space, displacing existing tools and gaining market share because of the following key features”

A recent software asset management survey reported that almost half of participants do not have a software asset management (SAM)  tool in place.

The SAM Charter – Global Report 2018 found that 49% of the organisations that took part in the study did not use any SAM tools to track software licence usage.

According to Rory Canavan, who wrote the report, the organisations that tend not to have SAM tools are generally those that tend to use a complex Excel spreadsheet, which often requires many hours running to process macros. A huge amount of effort is then needed to massage the data so that senior management are presented with SAM data in a format they understand.

“Some people have their head in the sand and do not manage SAM at all,” he said.

The report noted: “These will also be the same companies that view software vendor audits as an occupational hazard, and can’t progress with IT projects because meagre resources are diverted to answering numerous questions from those same audits.”

Analyst Gartner described SAM tools as software management entitlements from enterprise licence agreements, purchases and other records to automatically determine and optimise licence position against discovered software.

In its latest Magic Quadrant, Gartner said IT departments tend to use SAM tools for managing software entitlement, instead of using spreadsheets, because of the rising complexity of software-licensing schemes. But it warned: “SAM tools are evolving rapidly and offer a broad spectrum of features and functionality.”

For instance, as software providers adopt licensing models that account for infrastructure as a service (IaaS), software as a service (SaaS), virtualisation and mobility, many SAM tool suppliers, such as Flexera and Snow, now support browser-based SaaS and web applications, such as Microsoft Office 365, Salesforce or Workday.