How to control Data Transfer across a Corporate Network

Introduction

The degree to which computing has become a part of everyday life and day-to-day business has prompted a change in the way business approaches how they manage the money, the processes and the systems within a business. Computing becoming an important factor in business.

As technology becomes more widely used within a company and takes a more prominent critical within the vital functions of that business, it is important to make sure that an appropriate amount of attention is given to this computing.

Technology have come a long way during the past few years and are now seen as essential elements of any business. As such, they are allocated greater 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 company change, how do you ensure that the technology you are using can keep up with demand? Moreover, how can you achieve this without spending a large amount of money?

This is the role carried out by IT management software and systems.

Every business and every situation will have different specifications and will present different challenges. To satisfy these requirements there are a range of different solutions and approaches that can be used to help manage the IT infrastructure of your organisation.

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 organisation. It is a business process rather than a distinct discipline and is becoming a more essential part of the modern corporate environment, particularly for corporations operating in the field of IT.

SAM is not simply an aid for technicians rolling out software across a large corporate network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at multiple levels of a company. The goals of SAM include controlling of the IT infrastructure within a organisation, negating legal threats associated with incorrect software license usage and maintaining high levels of productivity by making sure software is up to date and fit for its purpose.

The practice of software asset management is often viewed as an unnecessary evil due to the intangible nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the commercial case for using a SAM solution is not always obvious until a broad audit of the software infrastructure of a company has been done.

Monetary benefits are still the most driving commercial factor when deciding to employ software asset management software within an organisation. Every business needs to make profit after all and profitability is a very measurable metric.

An increasingly large percentage of a business’ IT budget is spent on software licensing so there is a critical need to invest to correctly monitor this spending. As businesses expand and spread, their software requirements can change radically and hardware and software can swiftly become outdated. There is no requirement to spend money to maintain the licenses on this outdated software, which is where software asset management really delivers an advantage.

SAM is not limited to simply the technology of your company either. As a management operation it will often involve many of the branches within a company, including Finance Human Resources, to make sure that it runs as cost-effectively as possible. It is a process that does not need to follow standard.

The forward thinking technology services firm selling Centennial Discovery noticed the need for good software asset management services a very long time ago.

Why follow a SAM Strategy?

Having heard the multiple advantages of employing a software asset management solution, how do you know that it would be appropriate for your company? Each company is different and has its own unique set of challenges and advantages, so any strategy you will use needs to be tailored to these specific traits.

There are more than just cost benefits that can be made through the control of licensing and maintenance agreements across an organisations IT network. Productivity can be greatly by ensuring that users have the newest versions of software permitted under current licenses held, and communication within the business is helped when support staff know exactly what is installed on every workstation under their control.

Cost Savings

As discussed before, perhaps the most convincing reason to implement SAM within your business is the potential financial savings that can be made. The profitability of your company is always going to be the bottom line so any strategy that can help to increase this profitability by reducing expenses is one that should be evaluated. Money can be saved in a number of ways.

The most immediate 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 benefit to the running of your organisation you are streamlining a large portion of your IT infrastructure. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and support and maintenance agreements means that more finance can be spent on the essential sections of your IT system. Focusing your finances on these critical components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.

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 network is ill advised, because when left unchecked it can become very unpredictable. This is becoming an increasingly frustrating factor for network 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 purchased although the original software licenses may have expired. Without the correct control policies in place, users may also be able to install their own software onto the system.

The risk of running unlicensed software on your network is clear. When something goes wrong with the hardware or software platform supporting your critical processes, how do you manage the situation? Operating a complex software system without the correct support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can seriously inhibit your responsiveness to unpredictable events.

To plan and carry out a successful software asset management campaign, keeping Centennial distributors high in your list of priorities will be a key factor.

Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation

As previously mentioned, there are many potential advantages to using a good SAM strategy within your business, both financial and otherwise. It is vitally important to determine which parts of SAM you should deploy first since certain benefits will be achieved more speedily than others. Some may take a period of years to be fully felt.

This discovery process can be viewed as three fundamental phases that have to be performed to truly develop an accurate picture of the usage of IT assets within your company. These are:

Inventory

Inventory is the most fundamental stage of the discovery process. It is important that an accurate inventory of IT assets within your business is created to aid your IT managers to maintain baselines regarding your IT network.
Fortunately, this process can now be automated and even the largest of infrastructures can be investigated and analysed in a relatively short period. Inventory should be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their geographical location or computing characteristics. Modern inventory processes are capable of this.

Capture

The next step in the discovery cycle involves the capture of the software license entitlements that cover the software programs identified in the inventory. The capture process should gather entitlements for all of the software that exists on your system, even when the software is not currently used.

The element of human error can be mitigated by using automatic tools that are specifically designed to build a library of license entitlements. Tools that are currently employed are incredibly efficient at capturing accurate data. These tools will also maintain databases containing up to date information from IT vendors.

Identification & Validation

The next step is to match up your software audit to the repository of licensing data that were created in the previous two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original paperwork for software to the most recent audits performed on your IT network. These errors can now be rectified.

One critical factor in the validation stage is the ability to combine the license entitlements within your network to your company’s proof of entitlement. This will be vital if any arguments with software resellers arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle. You want to be as informed as possible in these circumstances.

Once these three steps have been performed you will have built an incredibly rich picture of how your IT network is serving software programs to its users. It will be a lot simpler to identify particular trouble areas on your network, or sections of software use that are no longer of any practical benefit to your activites. This detailed image can be used for future strategies as well.

You can now commence a period of reconciliation upon your network. You should compare the software programs that are actually employed on your network against the licensing and support entitlements that you are paying for and close any gaps between the two.

The software distribution in your network may include many hundreds or even thousands of individual instances, and there are 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 process, using one or more tools to apply intelligent rules to the process. These rules can be catered to the specific needs of your business

More about deploying software asset management within your company is available via Centennial vendors which can be located around the country.

Compliancy and Flexibility with Software Asset Management

Many of the basic practices 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 followed for successful management of IT functions. The ITIL can be found online.

This library is a dynamic publication and is often updated with new concepts and techniques that cater to the constantly changing IT environment of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be fluid enough to comply with the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing needs of the business 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 exceptionally comprehensive set of guidelines that are built to ensure that software asset management is used in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”. Standards of this kind play an important part in realising standardisation across an industry.

The ISO standard should really be adhered to when designing a SAM strategy for your own business, although the level of detail included within can quickly become a daunting prospect. It is vital to remember that no matter what recommendations you follow when planning a SAM strategy, whatever plan you decide to employ must aid your organisation rather than hinder it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them within your business.

Designing a complete and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own business may actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible enough to change and mature as your organisation does, and it should allow for modifications to your daily tasks, no matter how small or underlying they might be. This really is the key to a successful SAM strategy.

Conclusion

It is clear to see that as the scope and importance of IT systems within your organisation grow, so does the requirement for correct and effective management of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT branch was a bonus that would sometimes progress the business. Computer networks are now critical to the modern organisation. Crucial systems need to be monitored to an appropriate level.

As with other parts of any business, a number of separate strategies should be considered and used in order to ensure the smooth running of day to day tasks. SAM should not be the only tool used to manage computing resources within your company, but rather one of a number of complimentary techniques used to manage the system as a whole. software asset management can go a long way toward aiding your company but should be helped by other techniques.

So if you think that your company is currently suffering from a lack of structured monitoring and management over its IT network, or that the possible benefits described in this article could provide a critical market advantage over your competitors, then it would be worth investigating how software asset management could be employed within your business. There might be no time to lose.