Summary
Software license compliance requires knowledge of where software is installed, what is running, and where information is managed. ITAM and SAM professionals report that the organizations they work with struggle to manage this information, especially when tracking software usage across teams or between on-premises and cloud platforms, leading to the increasing importance of their roles.
In this post you will learn:
- 29% say tracking software use across environments is difficult
- 27% Spend more than $500,000 a year on resolving licensing issuesfor non-compliance
- Only 3% of ITAM/SAM teams do not engage in activities that support security initiatives
It’s little wonder that organizations struggle to achieve compliance with the myriad software and business laws and regulations from various countries, regions, and organizations. Often an organization’s industry, services, and where they do business, can mean addressing several regulations simultaneously. At a minimum, compliance requires knowledge of where software is installed, what is running and where information is managed.
The ITAM Forum is a global trade body for the advancement of the IT Asset Management industry and a not-for-profit membership organization led by ITAM professionals. Together with the ITAM Forum, we surveyed 500 ITAM/SAM leaders who use open-source software and Java, and published the findings in a new co-written report, The ITAM/SAM Survey & Report.
ITAM and SAM professionals report that the organizations they work with struggle to manage this information, especially when tracking software usage across teams or between on-premises and cloud platforms, leading to the increasing importance of their roles [Figure 1]. While license compliance was the most selected challenge in this survey, several other challenges received significant traction.
Complex software configurations make tracking application usage more difficult [Figure 2]. Resource-strapped teams struggle to keep their collective heads above water as it is. ITAM/SAM professionals cite a variety of critical challenges: 29% – Tracking license usage across different environments, including on-premises, cloud, and remote workers. 25% – Tracking complex licensing metrics such as per core, per user, and per instance. 21% – Lack of automated license tracking tools. These challenges are exacerbated by internal limitations including resource constraints, poor alignment of teams, and escalating prices for renewals, additional licenses and maintenance.
Software license non-compliance is expensive
Organizations are right to enlist experts in licensing. Non-compliance can carry steep penalties, and breaking vendor agreements by retaining unpaid licenses or breaking SLAs can be costly [Figure 3]. That’s not even counting the fully-loaded expenditures which include audits, hours spent on remediation, purchasing additional licenses, and reputational damage from publicly disclosed non-compliance. 54% of survey participants say their organization spends more than $100,000 a year on resolving licensing non-compliance issues, and 27% say they spend more than $500,000 a year.
Other ramifications of non-compliance include the hours worked to remediate, which takes time away from core development functions [Figure 4]. Software development teams are impacted the most through their deep involvement in managing compliance risk in their application stacks than either compliance or legal teams.
ITAM and SAM teams are usually associated with expertise in software licensing, organization, price optimization, vendor negotiation and overall licensing compliance. In this survey, they are also heavily involved in security. In fact, 44% say they are involved in cloud security monitoring, and only 3% are exempt from security initiatives altogether [Figure 5].
Companies struggle with licensing and compliance issues, and the impact of making even a small mistake can be costly and exasperating. Organizations have invested in ITAM/SAM professionals, software and processes to more carefully track software inventories.
Learn more about software license non-compliance
Most organizations are still trying to go at it largely on their own when conducting software
audits, but the challenges they identify in the audit process are significant and costly. More
than a quarter of the participants in this survey spend more than $500,000 a year on resolving
licensing issues.
This survey focuses on Oracle Java compliance because it has escalated in recent years as one
of the most pressing priorities for organizations today. Java is nearly ubiquitous in business-critical enterprise applications, and many organizations find Oracle’s pricing and licensing
model deeply troubling. 66% of participants who use Oracle Java estimate they could save at
least 40% with open-source Java. This represents a tremendous opportunity.
As the financial and operational burdens of software licensing grow, organizations recognize the need for smarter, more collaborative approaches to managing risk and reducing spend. With the right tools and ITAM/SAM support, companies can successfully optimize costs and strengthen compliance — without disrupting critical departmental priorities, including those of engineering and development teams whose time is better spent building great customer experiences and driving business growth. Read the full results in The ITAM/SAM Survey & Report.
