We seem to spend so much time focusing on desktop licensing and trying to get that right...but frequently it is our IT backoffice applications that get us into trouble.
Despite change control on our desktops and servers, it seems that we continue to find an abnormally high number of IT management tools that are underlicensed. This is also an area where we find a lot of functionality redundancy.
IT will police the end users, but typically no one is policing IT's software. Here are some common costly issues we see at new customers:
Symantec NetBackup - it may be part of standard operations to automatically cover new servers by the technology but where is the automatic purchasing of the necessary additional licenses? Also we frequently see resellers selling the Express program licenses, even when the customer is already a Rewards program customer - make sure you're getting the benefits of your overall Symantec spend on each purchase.
Development/Test/Disaster Recovery - typically all of these instances require licensing. Make sure your servers are licensed appropriately, don't assume you can build a Test server and not license it!
Imaging/Virus scan/Desktop management - yes these are all standards of doing business but frequently they don't get reviewed to ensure that sufficient licenses exist to cover usage.
Client Access Licenses - if you're running Microsoft Windows server, each user or device requires a CAL. If you then add Sharepoint on that server, you also then need a CAL for that. If you're running SQL server to support Sharepoint, you need a CAL or a processor license for SQL. The list goes on and on...if you're using the resources of the server chances are there is a corresponding license requirement. This typically falls to IT to manage.
In short, make sure you're looking at licensing requirements on your IT management apps as well as your end-user apps.
As always, if you need help - let us know!
1 comment:
Oh, you are so right, Cynthia! A classic mistake many companies make is to limit change management to production and staging environments, but leave the development environments to look after themselves.Aaargh!
Post a Comment