SMO / Audit Analysis Enterprise

A close look at your software licenses may prevent surprises

Executives in most organizations are sure they have no problems with software license compliance. Until auditors suddenly proclaims a different truth – and then it can be expensive and … do you still sleep well?

License compliance is a real challenge for most organizations.

With customized software asset management services and solution support by SMO documentation of the technical and commercial inventories and reconciliation is easy. Overpayment is no longer an issue and report obligations are automatically fulfilled.

SMO / Audit Analysis Enterprise
SOLUTIONS FOR AUDIT, TRUE-UP, M&A, and more
ALL ADVANTAGES
SMOscan
REQUIREMENTS

SMO / Audit Analysis Enterprise

In brief Software Management Suite is a suite of scan engine, collecting server and user interface.

The server component essentially imports collected scan data from all systems to SQL Server, to provide the best possible inventory information.

The objective is to obtain a complete and realistic picture of your IT environment by processing collected scan data, automation, and processes. For this purpose, all Windows 32bit, 64bit, Itanium, Citrix, VMware, Apple Mac, and Linux (w/ Red Hat Package Manager) systems are scanned. Finally this information is mapped to the relevant documentation of the commercial inventory. Software Management Suite uses Microsoft SQL Server. Currently, SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard is included.

Generally all components will be installed on a single server. Alternatively the services such as SMOscan Server, IIS and SQL Server can be installed on different servers..

Basically, no scan clients will be installed. Usually SMOscan is distributed via Group Policies or login scripts and tasks. Consequently, a project can first get complete results in a real amount of short time and, secondly, data and implementation are already optimized for long-term processing. SMOscan is highly scalable and runs unsurprisingly on low priority. Within Terminal Server-, VPN- and VDI-sessions, SMOscan notes that it runs within a session. Subsequently the accessing-device-analysis occurs. Finally, data for “Microsoft Remote Use” licensing will be collected during the inventory evaluation in order to effectively prevent a maximum licensing in these environments. This increases the efficiency of your license management.

To get the best license and contract data with proof of license Software Management Suite offers an interface to import Microsoft License Statement (MLS) and other license data for the commercial inventory..

Solution for Audit, True-Up, M&A, and more…

You got an audit letter? You need to create an effective license position in no time?

We have the experts!

Audits and True-ups need your attention and high efforts for accurate figures and risk avoidance at short notice high efforts for accurate figures and risk avoidance. Try the way out of maximum licensing. Use SMO Audit and True-Up Services to get the experienced expert and tools aboard.

SMO / AUDIT ANALYSIS ENTERPRISE SMO / AUDIT SAM Services

True-Up or End of contract deadline approaching too fast – now what?

If deadlines are missed, important financial benefits are no longer accessible – e.g by continuation of Software Assurance. The SMO SAM expert team accurately creates relevant documents within a very short time.

SMO True Up SAM services provides analysis of your license compliance, needs and ultimately the True-Up Report. SMO True Up Report Enterprise provides the special software support for the preparation of reports.

SMO / TRUE UP REPORT ENTERPRISE SMO / TRUE UP SAM Services

Not sure the figures are right? Mergers & Acquisitions with less risk!

An investment for a new company could be considerably higher when someone “saved” on licenses. It may be too late for renegotiations.

Minimize your M & A risk and use SMO M&A services before you agree. With certified professionals and tools onboard.

SMO / M&A Analysis ENTERPRISE SMO / M&A SAM Services

Advantages of SMO / Audit Analysis Enterprise at a glance

Accurate and most complete data as a base for IT and IT purchase decisions

The fully qualified SMOscan retrieves data with a focus on software asset management. Data quality has a huge impact on results.

Accurate and complete license compliance report

Reconciliation reports match installations with purchased license rights. During the creation process licensing rights with specific metrics and update and downgrade rights are included. These reports should show only relevant positions. License balance reports may be filtered by cost centers or organizational units.

KPMG certified Software Management Suite

The completeness and accuracy of the documentation and analysis engine and the reconciliation and Effective License Position (ELP) reports is confirmed by KPMG.

LEARN MORE

Savings via "remote use" rights

Access on Terminal Server and VDI systems (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) is automatically documented and mapped to the accessing device. For license compliance the Microsoft Remote Use rules are applied. Therefore Microsoft applications like Office, Visio and Project only need a license when the software is actually accessed. If so a license will be assigned for 90 days. If not, no license is necessary. Additionally the primary user rights are applied.

Automatic documentation of VMware environments

VMware environments are automatically documented and license compliance data is calculated from historic vCenter data. Data center, cluster and virtual machines information is read from the vCenter database via VMware API and imported to Software Management Suite. The 90 day rule is respected and will be applied when shifts of VMs from host to host occur. These are not potential, but purely factual values.

Automation of processes

Software Management Suite processed XML data to automate processes. This means that e.g. the installation of new computers or retirement etc. can be managed by a ticketing system which creates an XML file for Software Management Suite to manage these changes.

SMO / Audit Analysis Enterprise – Prerequisite for efficiency

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To obtain most complete results, Inventory data must be collected. Software Management Suite will not use data from third systems like SCCM, Altiris etc. These tools are excellent! However, they are designed for system management or software distribution not for Software Asset Management. Almost always these tools lack important information you need for Software Asset Management. A minimum is to get a short list of installed software which is really license relevant. Instead of getting long lists of installed software which in part are not relevant. The data collected from SMOscan meet the highest quality standards and are absolutely focused on Software Asset Management. One example is the collection of data from remote systems. SMOscan gets data from Terminal Server, VPN and VDI sessions and applies Microsoft Remote Use rights to ask a license only when a software product is really used – not if it is available. Furthermore the primary user is retrieved. This opens more options to save on licensing.

In addition to that, virtual environment is read and virtual machines are assigned to hosts, clusters, and data centers. The last 90 day history is retrieved to get relevant VM movement information between hosts. SMOscan reads and imports ISO 19770-II Software Tags. Information on ISO-19770-II tags are also available for Microsoft, Adobe, Symantec and other publishers. SWID Tags might be important to recognize certain software titles.

In addition much more information is collected from the systems to safely identify software products. Among other editions of Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange, IBM DB2 and many other products can be reliably detected. Consequently SMOscan is a “full-Qualified Scan”.

The product ID of Software Management Suite uses a reference database to perfect recognition.

The Implementation of Software Management Suite and the SMOscans is carried out in a few minutes. However, adjustments may take up to several hours depending on the complexity of the IT environment. In particular, when many offices and/or complex network structures and reporting requirements are involved.

Basically, no scan client will be installed unless it is required. SMOscan runs by Group Policies / Login Scripts (workstations) and GPO / tasks (Server). Thus, the solution is very reliable, flexible and quick to implement.

SMOscan only runs on low priority. The scan period as the scan itself is scalable and set to your operational needs. Thus, high-availability systems can be inventoried without performance loss.

As additional information for System specialists we recommend SMOscan – Introduction in 15 Minutes.

Requirements

The hardware requirements for Software Management Suite are very moderate.

Database System: Microsoft SQL Server

The database system for Software Management Suite is Microsoft SQL Server 2012 or later. Support is currently ensured for SQL Server 2008 R2 to SQL Server 2014. Microsoft SQL Server 2016 is currently not supported. The bundled Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Standard license is a “Microsoft SQL Server Runtime License” and therefore solely dedicated to Software Management Suite. The license suspends Microsoft multiplexing rules for unified solutions like Software Management Suite. This implies that besides the admin users/devices no additional SQL CALs are needed.

Virtualization

If the installation of Software Management Suite is planned on a virtualized server, please specify the number of physical hosts in the cluster when ordering to make sure vMotion resp. License Mobility is covered.

Requirements for processing capacity

All processes running on SQL Server claim performance, main memory, and the I/O system. Software asset management systems continuously transfer data from the file system to the database. Consequently, Software Management Suite gets the most out of fast I/O systems. Therefore, please attach importance to the I/O processing capacity. SQL Server uses the available main memory to execute tasks faster. Therefore, RAM capacity below 16GB is recommended only for installations with less than 1000 assets. If memory is a bottleneck, please provide RAM from 4GB, then watch the SQL server utilization and system performance.

Monitoring

The use of monitoring increases I/O load and space required on hard drives. A statement about the actual space required depends on the number of assets and the data provision period. The needed space may grow with a data collection of one year to approximately 150% of the database size with no monitoring enabled. Important is the used monitoring operation mode – Logging start and stop of programs versus solely log starts.

Dedicated Server for Software Management Suite

Installations of Software Management Suite on non-dedicated systems may well pull unplanned time and cost. Therefore, such an installation must be ordered separately and will be charged based on actual used time and resources.

Microsoft SQL Server Cluster

Installations on a SQL Clusters basically are not supported.

Operating System and Required Server Roles

Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Server 64 bit Standard, Enterprise or Datacenter or later is recommended.

The activation of the following roles is required during installation:

.NET 3.5 (complete) and Microsoft IIS (complete except for the following:. WebDAV Publishing, Logging Tools, IIS 6 Compatibility Content, FTP Server, IIS Host Able Web Core)

.NET 4.5 is required.

Based on our experience we recommend:

CPU: Multi-core CPU with 64-bit implementation, from 2.0 GHz, from 4 cores. When working with virtualization please provide performance accordingly. With less than 1000 scanned and managed assets less CPU power is possible.

RAM: From 16 GB. In case of virtualization please dedicate RAM to the system. With less than 1000 scanned and managed assets less RAM allocation is possible. If memory is a bottleneck – and it well might be – , please adjust as needed from 4GB then watch SQL Server load and system performance.

HDD: From 100 GB, Raid 1+0, RAID 5 or RAID Level suitable for databases. Recommended is a storage solution with very high I/O density.

Software: MS Windows from 2008 R2 Server 64 Bit Standard, Enterprise or Datacenter Edition, MSSQL from 2008R2 64 Bit (Bundled w/ SMOsuite), Microsoft IIS, .NET 3.51, .NET 4.5