IT Infrastructure Monitoring
Introduction
The extent to which computing has become a part of normal life and day-to-day business has forced a change in the way management approaches how they manage the money, the tasks and the assets within an organisation. Technology becoming an important factor in business.
As computing becomes more widely used within a company and takes a more prominent critical within the vital processes of that business, it is necessary to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is applied to this technology. Technological assets that may have once been overlooked are now important factors in the decision making process.
Technology have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as vital elements of any business. As such, they are allocated greater budgets but must also be able to manage a greater amount of responsibility.
But once you have spent a substantial amount of your budget on developing your IT network and seen the circumstances of your company change, how do you ensure that the systems 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 company and every environment will have different needs and will offer unique challenges. To satisfy these needs there are a range of different technologies and approaches that can be used to help control the IT infrastructure of your company.
Software Asset Management
SAM ( Software Asset Management) is designed to do exactly what it says on the tin – monitoring and controlling the deployment and usage of software programs within your business. It is a business process rather than a distinct skill and is becoming a more critical part of the modern business environment, particularly for companies operating in the field of IT. Despite the many benefits of SAM, there are still a great many companies that are not utilising it to its full potential.
SAM is not simply an aid for technicians installing software across a large company network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at multiple levels of a business. The aims of SAM include controlling of the IT infrastructure within a business, negating legal threats 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 a business grows, so do the potential benefits of SAM.
The practice of SAM is often thought of as an unnecessary evil due to the abstract nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the financial case for employing a SAM solution is not always obvious until a full of the software infrastructure of a company has been done.
Monetary benefits are still the most driving business factor when deciding to employ SAM technology within a business. Every company needs to make money after all and expenditure is a very measurable metric.
An increasingly large amount of a company’s IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a critical need to invest to correctly handle this spending. As companies expand and spread, their software needs can change radically and equipment 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 technology of your business either. As a management cycle it will often include many of the departments within a company, including Finance Human Resources, to make sure that it runs as cost-effectively as possible.
When choosing an appropriate provider of a software asset management solution for your system Centennial Discovery must be a solution that is considered amongst many.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having seen the multiple benefits of employing a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be correct for your organisation? Every business is different and has its own separate set of challenges and advantages, so any strategy you will undertake needs to be catered to these specific traits.
There are more than simply monetary benefits that can be made through the management of licensing and maintenance agreements across an organisations IT network. Productivity can be hugely boosted by ensuring that employees have the newest editions of software available under current licenses held, and communication within the corporation is aided when support staff know exactly what is deployed on every computer under their control.
Financial Savings
As discussed before, perhaps the most persuading reason to utilise software asset management within your company is the potential financial savings that can be made. The profitability of your company is always going to be the bottom line so any plan that can help to improve this profitability by lowering costs is one that should be evaluated. Money can be saved in a multitude of ways.
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 needed. 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.
By removing these items of software that are no longer a help to the running of your business you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT infrastructure. Paying for unnecessary software licenses and support and maintenance agreements means that more finance can be spent on the critical parts of your IT system.
Mitigate Risk Factors
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 not advised, because when left unchecked it can become incredibly unpredictable.
Rogue software applications can be introduced into an unmonitored IT system in a number of ways. Software may have been bundled when your IT hardware was first purchased although the initial software licenses may have expired. Without the correct control policies in place, users may also be able to load their own software onto the network. Operating a corporate IT system in this wild way will almost certainly lead to trouble.
The danger of running unlicensed software on your system 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 critically limit your responsiveness to unpredictable events. The cost of recovery will always outweigh the cost of mitigation when it comes to IT systems.
There are a great deal of adaptable Centennial distributors focusing on SAM who can create the ideal solution for your company.
Implementing Software Asset Management in your Organisation
As previously mentioned, there are many potential benefits to using a good software asset management strategy within your organisation, both financial and otherwise. It is vitally important to determine which branches of software asset management you should implement first since certain benefits will be achieved more quickly than others.
This discovery process can be viewed as three fundamental phases that have to be undertaken to truly build an accurate picture of the deployment of software assets within your organisation.
Inventory
Inventory is the most fundamental function of the discovery process. It is crucial that an accurate audit of software assets within your organisation is created to aid your IT department to maintain baselines for your IT system.
Fortunately, this process can now be automated and even the largest of networks can be searched and analysed in a relatively short period. Inventory should be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their geographical location or technological characteristics. Modern inventory processes are capable of this.
Capture
The next step in the discovery cycle involves the capture of the license entitlements that manage the software programs discovered in the inventory. The capture process should collect entitlements for all of the software that exists on your network, even if the software is not currently in use.
The element of human error can be avoided by using automated tools that are specifically created to build a library of license entitlements. Packages that are currently available are incredibly efficient at gathering accurate information.
Identification & Validation
The third step is to match up the software inventory to the repository of licensing data that were created in the previous two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original invoices for software to the most recent audits undertaken on your IT system.
One crucial factor in the validation step is the ability to combine the license entitlements within your network to your organisation’s proof of entitlement. This will be essential if any arguments with software resellers arise as a consequence of the discovery process.
After these steps have been undertaken you will have created an incredibly rich picture of how your IT system is delivering software packages to its users. It will be a lot simpler to identify particular trouble areas on your system, or areas of software usage that are no longer of any practical benefit to your activites. This detailed map can be used for future reference as well.
You can now start a period of reconciliation upon your network. You can compare the software programs that are actually employed on your network against the licensing and support entitlements that you are paying for and bridge any gaps between the two. This is when the financial benefits of software asset management start to take effect.
The software distribution in your system may include many hundreds or perhaps thousands of individual installations, and there may be any number of rules that may be associated with the licensing agreements you have in place. It is therefore a necessity to automate the reconciliation stage, utilising one or more programs to apply smart rules to the process.
If you are able to locate a particular Centennial reseller knowledgeable about your particular organisation you will reap the benefits, one such specialist is Softcat, click here to view their website.
Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM
Many of the basic principles of a modern SAM strategy are based upon the concepts laid out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library details a number of principles and best practices that should be adopted for successful management of IT functions. The ITIL can be found online.
This library is a changing publication and is often updated with new concepts and policies that reflect the constantly changing IT environment of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be fluid enough to follow the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst matching the changing requirements of the business within which it is actively utilised. This is an essential requirement of successful software asset management
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has created a standard that applies specifically to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an incredibly comprehensive set 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 important part in realising standardisation across an industry.
The ISO standard should really be adhered to when designing a software asset management strategy for your own organisation, although the level of detail covered within can easily become a daunting prospect. It is vital to remember that no matter what recommendations you follow when creating a SAM strategy, whatever you decide to employ needs to help your organisation rather than stifle it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them to your business.
Creating a complete and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own business might actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible to change and mature as your business does, and it should allow for modifications to your daily tasks, no matter how small or fundamental they might be. This really is the key to a successful software asset management plan.
Conclusion
It is easy to see that as the scope and importance of computer systems within your company grow, so does the requirement for good and efficient management of these systems. Gone are the times when an IT department was a bonus that would sometimes progress the business. Computer networks are now vital to the modern business.
As with other branches of any business, a number of different strategies should be considered and utilised in order to ensure the efficient running of daily activities. SAM should not be the only tool used to manage technological assets within your organisation, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary policies used to control the system as a whole. software asset management can go a long way toward helping your business but should be helped by other strategies.
So if you think that your organisation is currently suffering from a lack of planned monitoring and management over its IT network, or that the possible benefits described in this article could provide a critical market edge over your competitors, then it would be well worth researching how SAM could be employed within your company. There may be no time to lose.