Many of the biggest software makers are known for their expensive, but nevertheless popular purchase programs. Yet many of these companies also offer free software with some surprisingly useful features. Yes, even giants like Adobe and Microsoft! This article will introduce you to these mostly unknown free gems.

It’s important to note that the free programs from Adobe and Ashampoo are best downloaded via their own software platforms — Adobe Creative Cloud and Ashampoo Connect, respectively — which require you to create an account before you’re given access to the freebies. For even more no-cost stunners, be sure to check out our roundup of the best free software for your PC.

Oracle customers can only use its licensing tools after the company has started to talk to them about software audits or offered license advice. Meanwhile, third-party tools that have been verified by Oracle do not help users in terms of license compliance.

In what may seem a double bind for users in the complex and often costly business of Oracle licensing, Garrick Brivkalns, program manager for Oracle Global Licensing and Advisory Services, made plain Big Red’s position during a recent webinar held by the International Business Software Managers Association (IBSMA).

He described a set of software tools customers can employ to better understand their position in terms of software usage and licensing compliance.

They include the Oracle Collection Tool, which detects and collects usage data on a broad range of Oracle products like E-Business Suite enterprise applications, databases, Fusion middleware, application server WebLogic, and BI tools. It also offers standalone scripts specific to the product and an Oracle Server Worksheet to declare all the Oracle products customers have installed.

But these tools are not available unless a conversation has already started with Oracle’s Global Licensing and Advisory Services (Glas) team, he said.

“Glas in-house tools… [are] not made generally available to the public; they’re provided to customers and partners, only when strictly necessary, in connection with a Glas engagement of some sort,” he said.

He added that when the “engagement” was over, customers were “free to keep [them] post-engagement and many users do leverage them to become a bit of an internal management tool.”

Oracle has vetted third-party tools, but these also do not help Oracle customers understand their compliance position before the ominous conversation begins.

Big Red has run a third-party verification program since 2010, and ramped it up from 2019. Vendors on the list include ServiceNow, Micro Focus, Aspera, Certero, Eracent, Flexera, Snow, and Matrix42. While these tools might offer insight into compliance, that does not mean it is a version of reality Oracle will accept.

Brivkalns said: “When we work with a tool vendor to verify the accuracy of their tool, we’re only looking at the raw usage data. I just want to be clear about that. We’re not working to verify any other aspects that the tool might possess such as entitlements tracking, matching entitlements, the usage, and compliance position determinations.”

Craig Guarente, founder and CEO of Oracle licensing advisory firm Palisade Compliance, said: “You can’t get access to Oracle’s tools unless you work with their audit team. What does that say about Oracle wanting customers to stay in compliance on their own?

“Second, there is a list of third-party tools that Oracle endorses. Unfortunately, none of these tools are endorsed by Oracle to give you a compliance position. What’s the point?”

A ITWeb’s Software Asset Management Survey conducted in partnership with Deloitte and Snow Software survey examined the state of software asset management in local businesses and how some of the software asset management challenges – ensuring compliance; reducing software and licensing costs; and reducing complexity – are being addressed.

While the majority (78%) of respondents have a defined IT strategy in place, more than a third (35%) admitted being concerned about the limited or lack of software asset management tools deployed in their organisation. A further 27% were concerned about software non-compliance, while 22% were concerned about limited visibility of software deployments.

Managing assets effectively is the key to achieving production targets, controlling costs, and meeting corporate and organisational goals.
One would expect every business to have defined an IT strategy, yet about 14% of respondents said they do not have one in place. The picture is better though, when it comes to defined organisational structure, roles and responsibilities for software asset management, with 91% saying they do have these, and only 7% saying they do not.

Not having an effective software asset management strategy can result in a higher liability with vendor software licensing compliance; therefore a dedicated software asset management team that fully understands the risks and benefits of having an efficient software asset management system in place is essential.

While many organisations see a move to the cloud as a key component to their digital transformation strategy, 27% of professionals surveyed admitted to not yet making the move to cloud, while 63% had migrated. Another 83% said they are adequately prepared for the risks associated with moving to cloud, and 14% were not sure of their ability to mitigate risks.

Furthermore, a third of respondents said their organisation had not been audited by a software vendor in the past three years. Out of the 46% organisations that have been audited by a software vendor, 29% said they had identified licence deficiencies.

According to industry research, companies who do not manage their software effectively tend to unknowingly over-purchase software licences or inadvertently be out of compliance. They also fail to negotiate their software licence agreements.

With SAP’s indirect usage licensing, companies are struggling to make sense of the guidelines and stay on the right side of SAP.

For enterprises overwhelmed with the idea of cataloguing every point of access in their SAP systems, using third-party software license management tools can help identify possible areas of concern about indirect licensing, as well as prevent unpleasant surprises during an audit. Companies can also use compliance management tools or asset management tools to perform similar audits of their SAP environments.

However, experts caution against relying on any one piece of software to alleviate problems, as they should be used as a part of an overall strategy to handle the indirect access licensing structure.

“The tool is really there to enable a process, and the process is the real issue,” said Joshua Greenbaum, principal at Enterprise Applications Consulting.

Companies need to understand the contract they have with SAP and set up the system around it, as well as monitor potential issues, Greenbaum said.

One of the problems with monitoring and managing indirect usage is that internal departments tend to pass the buck. Much like cybersecurity, all the tools in the world won’t help prevent problems unless every stakeholder and user understands the importance of complying with contract terms surrounding indirect usage, according to Greenbaum.

Microsoft has announced a number of additions to its Azure platform at its main developer event in New York, including a cloud analytics platform based on Apache Spark called Azure Databricks Preview, as well AI, IoT and machine learning tools for the developer community.

Microsoft has been very busy of late updating its Azure offerings. Earlier this month for example  officially completed its next generation hyperscale cloud hardware design codenamed ‘Project Olympus’.