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?¢?‚¬?“Software Asset Management can be defined as the treatment and management of software as though it were a physical asset. As such, the following needs to be in place: (a) a means to record software purchases; (b) a means to record software installations and removals; and (c) a periodic reconciliation of recorded values against real values.

Does this mean that we have to go from PC to PC to check out installed software? All people who have done so can attest that manual software inventory processes can be a very tedious endeavor. It can take as much as 5 minutes per machine to gather the software installed on the machine from the Control Panel, multiply this by the number of machines in the corporate network. Of course, their users are not really keen on allowing a 5-minute stoppage from their work to inventory software. Not to mention since a manual inventory most probably is an announced one, chances are illegitimate software are uninstalled prior to the inventory and reinstalled again afterwards, if users have the capability and knowledge to do these.

There is a big difference between physical assets and software assets. It is much easier to manage software assets compared to physical assets, since software lends itself to be inventoried, unlike physical assets that require physically being able to detect and tag the said asset. It is because Microsoft Windows contains a repository of all settings, called the registry. All software that is installed in Windows leave their mark in the registry. Therefore, being able to gather the required information from the registry, it is possible to glean information on software that?¢?‚¬?„¢s installed on a machine. Current software asset management utilities use this to gather software inventory information.?¢?‚¬?

The full post can be read at http://msforums.ph/blogs/jpaloma/archive/2006/02/19/112686.aspx

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Software asset management can also be part of a sound ICT infrastructure security framework. Knowing what software is installed, limiting software installation rights to qualified personnel and preventing the usage of pirated software can help us in ensuring that our software is free from malware like viruses and spyware. As of the moment, Microsoft implemented the Windows Genuine Advantage, where only genuine software is allowed downloads for some Windows XP freebies like Windows MovieMaker or Windows Defender. Plain common sense dictates that it Microsoft may enforce the same on critical patches and security updates.

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Here is a podcast by Tom Buoniello, VP of Product Management at Sybari talking about this issue.

Podcast at http://www.net-security.org/article.php?id=736

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Enterprise solutions are often a crucial part of doing business – containing IP that is crucial to corporate business continuity and often to national security, or sensitive personal data whose exposure would entail serious liability. Thus, internal development organizations require solid protection from internal hacking, reverse engineering, and IP theft.

One solution that enterprise corporations can turn to is SecureLM?¢?‚¬?„¢s dynamic licensing solution.

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Full Article HERE

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The answer is: most definitely! Today, companies offering Dynamic Software Management must provide online solutions for their customers. This can be done via a customer portal to which each customer receives a log in code. The customer then simply logs in to the customer portal and can upgrade/downgrade his software package, or recharge certain functionality.

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