Software licensing audits are a standard practice for many software vendors. There was a time when they occurred primarily when the vendor had reason to suspect a customer of non-compliance, but randomly conducted audits have become increasingly common as vendors [...]
Windows® as a Subscription
Jul 2016There has been a great deal of speculation about whether Microsoft® would offer Windows® on a per-user, subscription basis, and it appears to finally be on the horizon. While the offering, expected this fall, will only be available to businesses, [...]
Few would dispute that cloud computing is one of the most significant IT paradigm shifts during recent years. Huge server farms are replacing traditional on-prem datacenters and the economies of scale enable third parties to replace, or at least supplement, [...]
Microsoft® Planner
Jun 2016Microsoft® recently released a new project management application called Planner. Microsoft Planner is a component of Office 365™ Enterprise E1-E5, Business Essentials, Premium and Education, and is intended to compete with Trello™, Slack and Asana™. Project management software is nothing [...]
SQL Server® 2016 Released
Jun 2016The highly anticipated release of Microsoft’s® newest flagship database product is now available. SQL Server® 2016 is the eleventh major version of the popular operational database and by some accounts, it’s the most significant. SQL Server 2016 was designed [...]
We are all painfully aware of the seemingly endless threats to our digital data, security and privacy. Predicting, identifying and defending against these threats requires a major, cooperative effort on the part of people, organizations and governments around the world. [...]
I have often written about how to prepare for or mitigate after a software licensing audit. We work with clients every day who are being audited, but I would obviously never share the details or outcome of specific client engagements. [...]
Microsoft® now reports that there are more than 300 million devices running Windows® 10. That’s an impressive number after only ten months since its debut last summer, but there are still millions of users running Windows 8.x, 7, and previous [...]
I often find myself engaged in discussions about proactive Software Asset Management (SAM). Many organizations fail to make it a priority until it’s time to true-up/renew their software licenses or when they receive an audit notification. While there is no [...]
The Dangers to Come in Cloud Privacy
Apr 2016Most would agree that technology has improved our lives and societies. Consider the changes we have experienced since the advent of personal computing when Apple™ brought us affordable computers less than 40 years ago (and IBM® shortly thereafter). In a [...]
