How to control Data Transfer across your Network
Introduction
The degree to which computing has become a part of everyday life and day-to-day commerce has forced a change in the way management approaches how they manage the money, the tasks and the systems within an organisation. IT is fast becoming an important factor in business.
As computing becomes more widely used within a business and takes a more prominent role within the vital processes of that company, it is important to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is applied to this computing. Technological assets that may have previously been overlooked are now key in the decision making process.
IT capabilities have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as vital parts of any company. As such, they are allocated greater budgets but must also be able to handle a larger amount of work.
But after you have spent a large amount of money on developing an IT system and seen the requirements of your business change, how do you make sure that the IT you are using can keep up with demand? Moreover, how can you achieve this without spending a large amount of money?
This is the function by IT management software and procedures.
Every company and every environment will have different specifications and will offer different problems. To satisfy these requirements there are a range of different technologies and approaches that can be implemented to help control the IT network of your organisation.One of these approaches is discussed below.
Software Asset Management
Software Asset Management (SAM) is built to do exactly what it says on the tin – monitoring and managing the deployment and usage of software programs within your business. It is a business process rather than a distinct discipline and is becoming a more essential part of the modern corporate environment, particularly for businesses operating in the field of Information Technology.
SAM is not simply an aid for technicians rolling out software across a large company network, but can be a crucial tool to help improve performance at all levels of a business. The goals of SAM include managing of the IT infrastructure within a business, negating legal risks 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.
The practice of software asset management is often seen as an unnecessary evil due to the intangible nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the financial case for going with a SAM solution is not always obvious until a broad inspection of the software infrastructure of a company has been done.
Financial benefits are still the most driving commercial factor when deciding to use software asset management technology within an organisation. Every corporation needs to make money after all and expenditure is a very measurable metric. The financial benefits of SAM do certainly exist however.
An increasingly large amount of a business’ IT bank roll is spent on software licensing so there is a vital need to invest to correctly manage this spending. As organisations grow and spread, their software requirements can change radically and hardware and programs can swiftly become outdated. There is no requirement to spend money to maintain the licenses on this outdated software, which is where SAM really delivers an advantage.
software asset management is not limited to simply the IT department of your company either. As a management cycle it will often include many of the departments within a organisation, including Finance Human Resources, to ensure that it runs as efficiently as possible.
IT service staff working for a company named softcat provide a range of IT management solutions including SAM tools. To see their website click here.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the various benefits of utilising a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be appropriate for your company? Each company is different and has its own unique set of problems and advantages, so any strategy you will use needs to be tailored to these specific traits. The benefits of SAM do cover the basic aspects of IT management.
There are more than just financial advantages that can be achieved through the management of licensing and maintenance agreements across a businesses IT system. Productivity can be greatly by ensuring that users have the latest editions of software permitted under current licenses held, and communication inside the business is helped when support staff know exactly what is installed on every workstation under their control. The benefits of SAM are not confined to the technological hardware of your organisation.
Financial Savings
As discussed before, perhaps the most persuading reason to utilise SAM within your business is the potential financial savings that can be achieved. The profitability of your company is always going to be the bottom line so any strategy that can help to increase this profitability by lowering costs is one that should be evaluated. Money can be saved in a number of ways.
The most direct way that software asset management can help to lower costs is by identifying any applications running on your corporate IT system that is no longer needed. The software might not be being used any longer, it may be very outdated to be of use or it may be duplicated on your system. software asset management can be used to remove this unnecessary overhead.
By removing these items of software that are no longer a benefit to the running of your organisation you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT system. Paying for unneeded software licenses and support and maintenance agreements means that more finance can be spent on the critical sections of your IT infrastructure. Focusing your finances on these vital components will improve the overall performance of your IT department.
Mitigate Risk
A surprising proportion of software that is currently used in the business environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Having any amount of uncontrolled software on your IT network is not advised, because when left unchecked it can become incredibly unpredictable. This is becoming an increasingly frustrating factor for IT managers.
Unlicensed 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 originally purchased although the original software licenses may have expired. Without the correct access policies in place, users may also be able to load their own software onto the network.
The risk 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 complicated software system without the correct support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can seriously inhibit your responsiveness to unforeseen events.
To plan and carry out a successful SAM strategy, making CITHS buying framework distributors top of your list of priorities will be a key factor.
Implementing SAM in your Organisation
As previously mentioned, there are numerous potential benefits to utilising a good SAM strategy within your organisation, both monetary and otherwise. It is therefore important to consider which elements of SAM you should deploy first since certain benefits will be achieved more quickly than others. Some may take a period of years to be fully felt.
The discovery process can be viewed as three basic areas that have to be performed to truly develop an accurate picture of the deployment of IT assets within your organisation. These are:
Inventory
Inventory is the most fundamental stage of the discovery cycle. It is vital that an accurate audit of IT assets within your business is created to help your IT department to maintain baselines for your IT system. This inventory process must be performed before continuing with discovery.
Fortunately, this process can now be made automatic and even the largest of infrastructures can be searched and analysed in a reasonably short period of time. Inventory must be able to identify your software assets regardless of their geographical location or computing characteristics. Modern inventory processes are capable of this.
Capture
The next step in the discovery cycle is the capture of the license entitlements that concern the software assets identified in the inventory. The capture process should collect entitlements regarding all of the software that exists on your network, even if the software is not currently used. Without this information the inventory may be nearly useless.
The element of human error can be avoided by using automated tools that are specifically designed to build a library of license entitlements. Packages that are currently available are incredibly efficient at capturing accurate information.
Identification & Validation
The next step is to match up the software inventory to the repository of licensing data that were built in the last two stages. Errors may have occurred anywhere from the original paperwork for software to the latest audits undertaken on your IT network.
One critical factor in the validation step is the ability to associate the license entitlements on your system to your company’s proof of entitlement. This will be essential if any disputes with software resellers arise as a consequence of the discovery process.
Once these three steps have been performed you will have created an incredibly rich image of how your IT system is delivering software programs to its users. It will be much simpler to identify particular trouble spots on your system, or sections of software usage that are no longer of any practical benefit to your operations.
You can now start a period of reconciliation upon your system. You can compare the software programs that are actually used on your network against the licensing and support entitlements that you are paying for and close any divides 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 restrictions that may be involved with the licensing contracts you have in place. It is therefore a necessity to automate the reconciliation stage, utilising one or more tools to apply smart rules to the process.
The advantages of working with a contract Centennial reseller are greater than than ever before. You can find one such Centennial specialist at this website.
Compliancy and Flexibility with SAM
Many of the fundamental principles of a successful SAM strategy are based upon the concepts set out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library details a number of ideas and best practices that should be adopted for successful control of IT operations.
This library is a changing entity 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 flexible enough to comply with the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst matching the changing needs of the business within which it is actively utilised.
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has created a standard that applies directly to software asset management practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an incredibly comprehensive collection of suggestions that are built to ensure that SAM is utilised in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”. Standards of this kind play an important role in achieving standardisation across an industry.
The ISO standard should really be adhered to when designing a SAM strategy for your own company, although the level of detail included within can easily become a daunting prospect. It is important to remember that no matter what recommendations you follow when planning a SAM strategy, whatever plan you decide to implement must help your business rather than hinder it. Industry standards cannot simply be copied when it comes to applying them to your organisation.
Creating a full and comprehensive SAM strategy for your own business may actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible enough to adapt and mature as your organisation does, and it must allow for modifications to your daily tasks, no matter how trivial or fundamental they might be.
Conclusion
It is easy to see that as the extent and importance of computer systems within your company grow, so does the requirement for good and effective management of these systems. Gone are the days when an IT branch was a bonus that would sometimes forward the business. Computer systems are now vital to the modern company. Crucial systems need to be monitored to an appropriate level.
As with other branches of any business, a number of different strategies should be evaluated and utilised in order to ensure the smooth running of daily tasks. software asset management should not be the only tactic used to manage technological assets within your company, but rather one of a multitude of complimentary policies used to control the system as a unit.
So if you think that your organisation is currently suffering from a lack of structured monitoring and management over its IT network, or that the possible advantages outlined in this article could manufacture a critical market edge over your competitors, then it would be worth investigating how SAM could be employed within your organisation. There might be no time to spare.
This entry was posted on Monday, February 28th, 2011 at 4:40 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.