ManageSoft tackles virtual licences

An upgrade to software from software asset management company, ManageSoft, offers tools for possibly reducing the cost of software licenses on virtual systems and addresses the issues raised.

Launched on Wednesday, Enterprise Compliance Manager version 8.0 focuses on three areas, the company said, “reducing new software purchase, squeezing maintenance renewals and compliance [testing] before audit”.

For virtualisation the software now automates the discovery of virtual machines and the inventory allowing IT managers to assess how many virtual machines they have running and their what license fees they are liable for.

“Virtualisation creates many licensing issues because people will often not know what they have running in their infrastructure and what they should be paying,” Stephen Butler, the chief executive of ManageSoft, told ZDNet UK.

“Virtualisation is becoming very popular but people set up these virtual machines without really thinking of the liability.”

Enterprise Compliance Manager has a VMware feature that works with ESX and VirtualCenter servers, but according to ManageSoft’s vice president for Europe, Patrick Gunn, it works with other virtualisation environments including Microsoft’s Hyper-V and Enterprise Desktop and Citrix’s Xen.

The software includes collects inventory for all the related virtual machines, and applies license entitlement rules. The SKU Library included in the software records the purchase order data so that each line item is recognised as a specific version or edition of a software application or suite. According to Gunn the software is clever enough to find “hidden” software.

ManageSoft’s virtualisation software costs $10 to $20 per device the large systems that are the company’s target marker, those with 2,000 devices installed and upwards. Their typical sale is $250,000 to $500,000.