Revisit Existing Technology Choices
Technology has evolved over the last decades, and that evolution is accelerating. Highly redundant virtual infrastructure is commonplace; hyper-converged infrastructure and cloud options represent opportunities to alternate paths of success heretofore not considered. Now is the time to evaluate those decisions made more than a decade ago against your existing business requirements.
The most crucial aspect of any IT department’s focus under these conditions is to understand business requirements thoroughly. New storage arrays, hyper-converged infrastructure, and cloud-to-virtualization platforms such as VMware vSphere+ provide new ways to provide efficiencies, redundancy, and fault tolerance to your existing applications.
The Oracle enterprise edition of the relational database management system is an excellent technology. It deserves the premium price it demands, but perhaps your application could be run on less expensive versions such as Oracle Standard Edition.
All IT departments should consider virtualized infrastructure that meets all modern business requirements. Virtualization was not an option for business-critical applications and databases 20 years ago, but today, it is the best of all possible options.
Avoid Ticking Time Bombs
What if we told you that your business had a ticking time bomb inside of it which could quickly cost your business millions of dollars when a threshold is reached? How would your CEO or CFO react when they learn they need to write a seven-plus-digit check unexpectedly?
Software license compliance issues can quickly run into tens of millions of dollars and represent that ticking time bomb for most companies. When Dean Bolton, the chief architect of LicenseFortress, was asked, “How likely is a company going to have a software license compliance issue?” he answered, “In the decade I have been helping companies with software license compliance, I have yet to find a company 100% license compliant. I know they have a problem; I don’t know if it’s a $1 million issue or a $25 million compliance gap.”
This is not a surprise, given the complexity of software licensing rules. A Unisphere Research survey, “Managing The Software Audit: 2022 Survey on Enterprise Software Licensing and Audit Trends” (www.dbta.com/Editorial/News-Flashes/Latest-Unisphere-Research-Survey-Reveals-Software-Audits-are-on-the-Rise-155399.aspx), reveals that software audits are on the rise. This is a direct result of vendors such as Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM adopting different methods of revenue generation.
Consider hiring an outside software asset manager to perform a software license compliance review. Just as most organizations perform a financial audit every year, it’s essential, given the high cost of software compliance mistakes, to make a software license compliance review a high-action item. Take proactive steps to maintain software license compliance.
According to the same survey, you have a greater than 60% chance of being audited within 2 years. This represents a substantial business risk for most organizations. Maintaining software license compliance is crucial to avoid costly penalties and legal issues.
Software License Optimization
The cost of the software your organization uses far outweighs the cost of the infrastructure. Oracle recently announced that it reserves the right to increase software maintenance up to 8% annually, from the predictable 2%–3% each year, and many other vendors are following suit. This just made the cost of software more expensive.
Given how expensive software has become, it’s important to use it efficiently and effectively. Too often, companies have costly shelfware that remains unused. Yet with many vendors, it’s not as simple as dropping support for unused software. Vendors have created licensing rules that make it difficult to understand the proper way to license the software and even more difficult to drop support on unused software.
One would think the best way to learn how to license software is to ask the vendor, but too often, vendors cite policy as if that policy is a contractual obligation. This is often not the case. Many vendor policies artificially raise the cost of the software. Given the complexity, it’s important to seek outside expertise when optimizing your software licenses. A favorite example we use is, “You don’t want to face Major League pitching with anyone other than a Major League hitter.” The vendors have personnel whose entire careers, along with their compensation, is totally focused on the nuances of that particular vendor’s software compliance’s nuances and loopholes.
You need a focused and experienced professional to combat this onslaught.
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
Too often the left hand of the company needs to learn what the right hand is doing. Different business units are using software and paying for it when that software could be shared with other business units that are doing the same thing. Collaboration and communication are crucial during times of uncertainty. Foster strong relationships between the IT department and all business units. Regularly engage with stakeholders to understand their needs, align IT initiatives with strategic objectives, and communicate the value delivered by the IT team. Building trust and credibility with other departments increases the likelihood of continued support and resource allocation during a recession.