Managing on-premise software from the cloud

SaaS delivery may now be able to remove one of the little ironies that the IT industry – and software in particular – can be prone to. That is the need to buy a licenced application licence management system in order to see how much a company is paying, or indeed wasting, on applications software licences.

Now Flexera Software has done the obvious thing. It has taken its existing FlexNet Manager Suite and created a SaaS version of it, called FlexNet Manager Suite On-Demand.

The thinking behind the development is quite simple: on-premise applications are likely to be an on-going part of the IT mix for the foreseeable future. Many say that there are some applications which will never be suitable for transition to delivery as a cloud service. That, however, does not mean that the software needed to monitor the existence and use of such applications has to be on-premise as well.

This is a task that can be readily moved to SaaS delivery , and many organisations can see savings in OPEX and CAPEX by purchasing software through a SaaS-based delivery model. This means Flexera can provide software licence management functionality to enterprises seeking to reduce software spend, and maintain licence compliance, through a low overhead SaaS offering.

 “FlexNet Manager Suite On-Demand will enable these organisations to implement best-in-class Software Licence Optimisation, while enjoying the benefits of reduced infrastructure requirements, accelerated deployment times, lower learning curves, and a lower initial investment,” said Alan Swahn, Vice President of Product Management at Flexera Software. 

The On- Demand Suite’s web-based user-interface provides anytime, anywhere access to critical Software Licence Optimisation functionality. For example, to ensure an organisation can determine how many licences it is consuming, Flexera Software’s Inventory Beacon provides cross-platform (Windows, Linux, UNIX, and MAC OS) discovery, inventory, and application usage data collection at the customer site and securely uploads this data to the cloud. It also performs discovery and inventory of virtual machines for VMware ESX/vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V servers, and supports Citrix XenApp application virtualisation environments.

One of the biggest problems with on-premise software licencing is the seemingly inevitable accumulation of shelfware. So understanding how many licences an organisation is entitled to use is vital. It is also challenging, for a variety of reasons, such as having a multiplicity of purchase dates, product versions, renewals, support and maintenance metrics. FlexNet Manager Suite On-Demand automates the process of reconciling softwarepurchases against software installed on computers and virtual machines within an enterprise, and derives an accurate, auditable licence position. 

To continuously optimise an enterprise's software licence position, a solution must be capable of leveraging the “product use rights” found in licensing agreements – such as the right of second use, multiple use, roaming use, virtual use, and licence mobility – to minimise licence consumption.  Optimisation ensures new licences aren’t purchased unless they’re required, and existing licences are fully utilised in compliance with vendors’ licence terms. 

Finally,IT Asset Managers need a real-time window into their software estate to ensure continuous software licence compliance and optimisation.  FlexNet Manager Suite On-Demand provides an intuitive management dashboard enabling an administrator to understand the current licence position, receive alerts on issues, and review key events such as data imports.  A compliance overview report summarises an organisation’s exposure, such as its financial liability and the number of licences in breach per publisher, with the ability to drill down deeper into individual vendors. 

“With the addition of FlexNet Manager Suite On-Demand, organisations can identify and recover wasted software spend by leveraging our industry standard solution through the delivery model of their choice – on-premises or in the cloud,” said Swahn.