Software asset management (SAM) has always been a balancing act between controlling costs, solving compliance challenges, and enabling business agility. But in 2025, the stakes are higher than ever. Recent survey findings highlight the top challenges SAM professionals face and how peers are adapting to shifting realities.
In this post you will learn:
- 33% struggle to track software usage across different teams, projects, and environments
- 74% say their organization manages license discovery and software audits primarily or entirely in-house
- SAM can deliver strategic impact with the right tools
Roles for IT Asset Management and Software Asset Management are a vital part of corporate vernacular and play a critical role in IT cost management and company risk.
The ITAM Forum, a not-for-profit global trade body for the advancement of the IT Asset Management industry, and Azul conducted a survey of ITAM and SAM professionals in 2025 to produce an authoritative look at the expanding role of IT Asset Management and Software Asset Management in today’s enterprise landscape, where managing software usage, risk, and cost has never been more critical. As ITAM and SAM continue to mature, their influence now extends beyond traditional asset tracking into areas such as software license compliance and audit readiness.
Tracking software inventory proves challenging
According to the 2025 ITAM/SAM Survey Report, 33% struggle to track software usage across different teams, projects, and environments. 33% also have trouble keeping up with regulatory requirements (compliance, data security, etc.). Vendors continue to introduce intricate terms, product bundling, and hybrid licensing models that stretch SAM teams thin [Figure 1].
ITAM and SAM professionals help organizations translate ambiguous terms into actionable policy across sprawling IT estates.
Organizations go it alone for software audits
Even with complex licenses and resource constraints, many organizations choose to conduct license discovery and software audits in-house. In fact, 74% say their organization manages license discovery and software audits primarily or entirely in-house. A mere 6% outsource these processes completely to an expert third party.
So how’s all that in-house auditing working out? Predictably, organizations have several challenges [Figure 2].
- 26% – Maintaining accurate software usage records
- 23% – Knowing licensing terms and conditions
- 23% – Providing accurate and complex licensing metrics
- 23% – Leveraging adequate internal resources
- 23% – Mitigating disruptions to daily operations
How ITAM and SAM professionals can help organizations
According to The ITAM Java Licensing Playbook (Azul, 2024), If your organization is considering whether to migrate from Oracle Java to a non-Oracle OpenJDK alternative distribution, ITAM and SAM professionals can lead you through six considerations:
- Your organization’s size
- The amount of Oracle Java in your software estate
- Java license data you should collect
- Risk of an Oracle Java audit
- ISV applications that Oracle says only they support
- The skill and availability of your migration resources
Asset and license managers should work with Java migration experts within their own developer teams and their OpenJDK distribution provider to build a basic migration plan and then establish a framework for communication to the main stakeholders. If necessary, they should bring in external experts. Key essential skills for a quick and successful migration plan are Java architecture, Java development, and project management. For example, you need to consider when and how long a mission-critical application important to revenue generation can be offline to complete the replacement and subsequent verification testing.
Get more details from The ITAM Java Licensing Playbook, and review the full survey results in The ITAM/SAM Survey Report.
