Are SAM tools oversold?
SAM or more accurately, License Management, tooling is quite prevalent in larger IT organizations yet audits continue at a far greater pace – why?
The truth is that installation of SAM tooling without adequate human understanding of its meaning and output actually attracts an audit. The large accounting firms, spurred on by their zealous vendors actually target known installs of even the best SAM tooling if its not supported by people with real vendor expertise.
Ever since the software buying bubble burst in 2008, vendors have targeted audits at the lowest hanging fruit. That has been virtualized or sub capacity environments where unwitting customers have installed on single cores and the machine has access to many more.
Cloud based systems have been particular targets as failure to install the vendor discovery tooling often means you owe the license for the entire cloud. That’s quite a sum if you run on AWS!
But customers have gotten smarter in the last few years and good tooling like Flexera Software and SNOW has meant the large audit firms have to do a little work and dig deeper to return the investment in their healthy fees.
Vendors such as Microsoft are well behaved and they openly disclose their new metrics but others are complex and secretive, their metrics are often undiscovered, even by the best tooling or study of publicly announced function.
So if you have installed a SAM tool there will usually be a large vendors audit firm out there looking at the metrics the tool cannot scan and planning an audit of this product leaving the low hanging fruit alone.
Be especially aware of metrics that are outside the traditional, CPU, core and user based types. If an auditor knows you have these installed then you will more than likely be asked for highly confidential internal reporting such as the products log file to establish high water mark concurrency.
But for an expert trained in the vendors software offerings, tools such as Flexera and SNOW can be augmented by manual scans of new metrics performed by a competent SAM such as examination of data from log files.
Put simply, even the best tooling is GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out) and every SAM toolset needs to be bolstered with strong vendor trained but independent experience.
Needless to say, Fisher Australia has been formulated to offer meaningful audit defense by making the major tool sets work. We offer personnel not only certified in the tool set but with years of vendor trained experience designed to defeat even the most searching of audits.
31 Comments
It’s hard to find knowledgeable people on this topic, but you seem like you know what you’re talking about! Thanks
Thanks for every other fantastic article. Where else may anybody get that type of info in such a perfect way of writing? I have a presentation subsequent week, and I am on the look for such information.
Spot on with this write-up, I honestly believe that this site needs a lot more attention. I’ll probably be back again to read through more, thanks for the advice!
Peculiar article, totally what I was looking for.
Hi everybody, here every person is sharing such familiarity, thus it’s pleasant to read this website, and I used to pay a quick visit this webpage every day.
Hi there every one, here every person is sharing such know-how, thus it’s good to read this web site, and I used to visit this weblog everyday.
This is a topic that’s close to my heart… Thank you! Where are your contact details though?
I know this website presents quality depending content and other data, is there any other website which gives these kinds of things in quality?
Very good info. Lucky me I came across your site by accident (stumbleupon). I’ve saved it for later!
It’s really a nice and helpful piece of info. I’m satisfied that you shared this helpful info with us. Please keep us informed like this. Thank you for sharing.
Its fantastic as your other blog posts : D, thankyou for posting. “Talent does what it can genius does what it must.” by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton.
I am so happy to read this. This is the kind of manual that needs to be given and not the random misinformation that’s at the other blogs. Appreciate your sharing this greatest doc.
Can I just say thats a relief to seek out someone that actually knows what theyre referring to on the net. You actually realize how to bring a challenge to light and work out it critical. Lots more people ought to check out this and see why side on the story. I cant believe youre no more common simply because you absolutely develop the gift.
Thanks. We only started sharing in a more public way. Feel free to recommend our blog and web site that more people can benefit.
wow, awesome blog post.Really looking forward to read more. Fantastic.
Keep looking. We will have a lot more to share.
I got what you іntend, appreciate it for posting .Woh
I amm happy to find this website through google. “Don’t be afraid of opposition. Remember, a kite rises against not with the wind.” by Hamilton Mabie.
I was wondering if you ever considered changing the page layout of your website? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having 1 or two pictures. Maybe you could space it out better?
If you wish for to grow your familiarity only keep visiting this website and be updated with the most up-to-date news update posted here.
Thanks for the praise, we try to bring attention to issues and challenges in the SAM area. Always appreciating feedback and suggestions to improve.
I like the valuable info you provide in your articles. I will bookmark your weblog and check again here regularly. I’m quite sure I’ll learn many new stuff right here! Best of luck for the next!
Thanks. Feel free to make suggestion on topics we should address.
Hi there, You have done an incredible job. I’ll certainly digg it and individually suggest to my friends. I’m confident they will be benefited from this site.
Our pleasure. Thanks for reading and recommending us.
An impressive share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a coworker who has been conducting a little homework on this. And he actually ordered me dinner because I stumbled upon it for him… lol. So let me reword this…. Thank YOU for the meal!! But yeah, thanks for spending time to talk about this subject here on your web site.
Hm, a bit late to share the dinner with us but maybe you would mention to your co-workers that we can do a lot more to help with SAM. Feel free to contact us.
Thanks, we appreciate the praise and suggestions.
Our pleasure, we like sharing.
We don’t understand that either. We’ll keep trying though.
Thanks. That’s what we hope.
Great article – Watch for the triggers that might spawn a vendor audit; mergers and acquisitions, or a large spike in company-reported profits. If your IT spend hasn’t grown in proportion to the profit reported, then this can act as a flag to a key software vendor.