So – we’ve created a new acronym for Software Asset Management (SAM) in 1E. We’re calling it SAO – Software Asset Optimization. Why yet another acronym? And why “Software Asset Optimization”?
- Because ITAM and SAM have always, to some degree, frustrated me. It is crucial to manage your IT Assets (which is the stated aim of ITAM and as a subset – SAM). Often ITAM and SAM tools vendors equate “manage” with “count” – that’s just not good enough. 1E is not developing a new suite of tools which merely count installs or licenses – SAO is about active optimization – making changes that make things better.
- Software License Optimization “SLO” as a phrase also frustrates me. The concept of optimizing a license or optimizing for licensing seems incredibly basic and limited to me. If you optimize for licensing, other elements, Availability, Performance or Capacity must, therefore, be sub-optimal. The goal should be to optimize the asset itself – to balance performance, availability, capacity and other operational elements with cost, with licensing – hence SAO. Software Asset Optimization.
- SLO sounds like slow – I don’t think our customers want slow solutions…
Software Asset Optimization is a new vision that will change how IT operates, it will interconnect disparate pieces of IT (Operations, Security, Compliance, etc.) to deliver information, intelligence, change and positive impact.
It aligns perfectly with the Analyze Optimize Realise (AOR) methodology which 1E has used for several years.
Analyze is about information and understanding, gathering the right data and analysing it to identify inefficiencies. SAO recognizes that different software needs different data points – the information needed to properly calculate license requirements for Oracle is very different than the data for Adobe license demand requirements.
Optimize is about taking action, performing the changes which remove those inefficiencies. SAO is focused on driving change and delivering quantifiable benefits to customers.
Realize is about recognizing the impact – measuring and quantifying the result of the change – closing the loop.
SLO and ITAM tools to date have typically stopped at the A in AOR. The primary concern of ITAM, SAM, and SLO tooling is typically compliance. Once they can identify that sufficient licenses are available for the license demand of the installed software, they consider their job done.
Don’t get me wrong, I consider compliance mandatory, and difficult to achieve. In increasingly complex environments understanding what licenses are required for specific software deployments is a challenge. Especially in a large organization, understanding what licenses you own across different countries, business units and departments is a real challenge. Now we see more and more “Shadow IT”; software being acquired within different lines of business, rather than from within corporate IT. This massively exacerbates the challenge.
SAO will help customers meet these challenges – but the vision 1E has goes much further. We won’t get there in a single bound, it will take several progressive steps – but we have the expertise and resources to get there. More importantly, as we move forwards on the broader vision, we will deliver capabilities to our customers which make compliance in complex environment achievable. We are solving those challenges right now and will be delivering the first capabilities in these areas in Q2 2015.
Our vision goes beyond compliance and ITAM. We will help customers improve the security of their IT environments. We will help customers leverage their data to identify and implement changes that can be made to HOW software is deployed in order to reduce risk and cost while delivering faster than ever before to the demands of business – providing more value from IT to the overall company.
Software Asset Optimization is part of the 1E vision for Software Lifecycle Automation. 1E helps customers implement IT faster, improves endpoint security, involves the user in a more responsive way and ensures spend is lean and optimized. I look forward to bringing 1E SAO solutions to market – developing the AppClarity product into a suite of products which will showcase how much more value “SAM” can deliver to the business.
