With the increasing move by governments worldwide to use open source software as a means of reducing costs, it has become ever more important to have software management systems in place to prevent unauthorised software being downloaded by users, says Inana Nkanza, MD of iLAYO. These systems also ensure software licence compliance.
If there is no central control mechanism in place in government departments using open source software, people can download all manner of software from the Internet and run it on the IT infrastructure, potentially causing disruption to production systems and leading to performance problems, while introducing security and malware risks.
Government organisations that allow the downloading of open source software need tight control in the form of a software management system that checks for unauthorised software, particularly open source, which may not come with warranties or guarantees, or in some rare cases, may not have undergone significant testing.
A software management system is an effective means of controlling open source software usage.
Even if a government department doesn`t go open source, it should manage its software licences, as this leads to lower total cost of ownership. This is especially important in government, as its assets dwarf those found in the corporate environment.
During recent years, software licence compliance has rapidly evolved into one of the most important initiatives facing IT organisations. Between the need to reduce costs and the growing frequency of software vendor audits through organisations such as the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and Federation Against Software Theft (FAST), managing software licences has become a full-time job.
Licence management is very challenging, and the risk of non-compliance carries with it significant financial penalties. According to Gartner Group research, these penalties can exceed $100 000 for a single infraction, in addition to the even larger potential expense of bringing the licences into compliance.
Three market trends have pushed software licence compliance to the top of most IT organisations` list of priorities.
* While IT is faced with shrinking budgets, Meta Group estimates that software represents about 25% of the IT budget and continues to increase year over year, as the cost of software rises 10-15% annually.
* New licensing models are being developed for many products that may add significant expense to already overburdened software budgets.
* The BSA has increased awareness of software licence compliance, indicating that four of 10 copies of all software programs installed on business systems are not properly licensed.
Faced with the risk of non-compliance, IT departments frequently move in the opposite direction, licensing more than required as a way to mitigate exposure. In fact, Gartner Group estimates that 60% of applications are over-licensed, while another 30% of licensed software is still out of compliance. Rather than solving the problem, over-licensing has a negative effect on the IT organisation`s ability to reduce expenses and meet budget demands.
More and more complex layers are being added to the existing stack of IT infrastructure, including anti-virus software, and ERP and other elaborate business systems. Amid all this complexity, it must be remembered that IT is simply an enabler to help meet strategic needs.
Such an infrastructure doesn`t manage itself and could become so complex we lose sight of what management want to achieve with it: fast, effective systems that deliver a competitive advantage.
There are two vital areas that need to be addressed when it comes to IT infrastructure: service management and asset management.
In the service management arena, it is important to put in place policies, procedures and solutions that enable organisations to manage the effectiveness of their IT infrastructure, from the management of incidents to problem, change and configuration management, ultimately resulting in service level management.
The ultimate test of any solution implemented is the ability to service the needs of its users. An IT organisation must have an effective service desk to take calls and get users back up as soon as possible.
With an implementation problem management system, problems can effectively be tracked, their impact identified, and users affected can be back to operating as soon as possible. Root cause analysis goes further by analysing the problem, understanding it, and repairing it to prevent a recurrence.
To manage change, a change management solution needs to be in place. Defined processes that govern any change made will provide a clear understanding of what may have occurred, and through integration with configuration management, the will provide a clear and accurate view of the entire IT configuration and its various interrelations. Once these various components are understood, what the service is providing can be measured and improved.
Asset management is the management of the lifecycle cost of all IT assets, from their procurement to their disposal. It includes not only the cost of the purchase, but also the cost of maintenance of the asset, including any callouts, and the tracking and management of warranties.
When service and asset management are integrated, an infrastructure can truly be managed. By measuring the assets on an individual basis, government can determine what it is getting for the money it spent and whether IT is of any benefit in terms of strategy.
Asset management links into asset tracking. With an efficient asset management system, government can know on any one day how many assets it has, their value, their effectiveness and how they support strategy.
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iLAYO Software Solutions focuses on the delivery of best-of-breed infrastructure management solutions. Through partnerships with industry leaders, it provides solutions that assist IT organisations in managing the availability, cost, location and the level of service that each IT asset provides, thus helping IT organisations to manage IT according to their business prerogatives, rather than just for the sake of uptime. Its technology solutions, along with its professional services capability, enables it to assist its clients in adding real, measurable quality to business processes and business objectives. iLAYO is synonymous with service excellence and has provided solutions to many leading organisations.
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