The average workstation has at least $405 worth of unlicensed software installed on it.
That may come as a surprise to some I.T. managers. But the use of unlicensed software is actually fairly widespread, according to Micropath Inc. [http://www.micropath.com], an I.T. asset management company. With the increased availability of software over the Internet, keeping track of what’s licensed and what’s not has become a thorny problem.
And it does not end there. Most organizations don’t even have an accurate inventory of their I.T. assets, especially software programs, according to Micropath.
“Many organizations think that they are in compliance with their software license agreements and are surprised when they find out that they are not,” says Bill Holder, president of Micropath Using the $405 figure as a conservative rule of thumb, organizations of all sizes are extremely vulnerable.”
Implementing an I.T. asset management inventory could help, says Holder.
According to Micropath, organizations that use an ongoing asset management program can efficiently track I.T. assets and determine potential vulnerabilities such as piracy, over-buying and under-buying.
In most I.T. asset management projects it undertakes, Micropath uncovers 10 to 20 percent more software applications than the organization thought it had.
White most organizations are not intentionally “pirating” software, by not aggressively tracking what they have, they are leaving themselves highly vulnerable to third-party watchdog groups such as the Software Publishers Association and Business Software Association, both of which randomly audit organizations to ensure compliance with licensing rules. Organizations that have unlicensed software can be subject to excessive fines and penalties.
In addition to piracy issues, companies should know what is being deployed on each workstation in order to avoid over-buying and under-buying. An inventory is also useful when planning a migration to a new platform or implementing new systems.
“Once an organization knows what it has installed on its systems enterprise-wide, it can implement better purchasing controls to take advantage of volume licenses,” says Mr. Holder. “This information is extremely valuable for use in building a comprehensive help desk system, disaster recovery, contingency planning, and migration strategies.”
