Virtual Licence Management - Licensing in the Virtualised Environment

1. Virtual Licence Management (Presentation)
2. Virtual Licence Management – Licensing in a Virtualised Environment (Report)
3. Virtual Licence Management – Licensing in a Virtualised Environment (Executive Summary)
4. Virtual Licence Management – Licensing in a Virtualised Environment (Top Tips)

A sizeable majority of respondents to our Cloud Computing Reality Checker rated 'minimising capital / operational costs and reducing TCO' a key business goal, and a comparable number were deploying virtualisation as a key strategy to support that aim. It's clear that understanding the cost and putting in place effective management of licences is a priority for members today, yet already The Forum has received complaints that virtualisation 'makes licensing significantly more complicated' with others experiencing 'increased licensing costs'.

'Software Licensing is a traditional pain point for user organisations in their relationships with vendors - and that hasn't changed with virtualisation. Indeed, when it comes to virtualisation, there are claims many vendors don't understand their own licensing policies" - from 'Desktop Virtualisation & VDI' - a Corporate IT Forum member workshop, 28/01/10.

The Corporate IT Forum is pleased to announce that we have secured a third party licence specialist who is going to do a brief presentation in the morning and then will be around for a Q&A session in order to best cover all of your issues - if you have any specific questions that you wish to ask, please contact Rebecca Barnard and we will do our best to include them in the day.

• Better understand the differences between different vendors' approaches to virtual licensing (apply this to ongoing / future decision -making)
• Learn 'tricks of the trade' in terms of how to licence most (cost) effectively (apply this to own orgs)
• Expand current asset management registers / programmes / processes to take account of virtual licences (aligning these with required 'physical' licences as needs be) and agree how best to manage virtual licensing

1) Key suppliers and their Licensing models (experience sharing)

•  Deals available and achieved ( - size & influence: mitigating the obvious challenges)

2) Negotiation skills and approaches

•  Translating models into actual charges experienced by organisations (above or below expectations?)

3) Potential impact on virtualisation benefits realisation

4) Minimising costs; optimising opportunities

• Dealing with the complexities of a virtualised environment

5) Controlling / monitoring the creation and deployment of virtual machines

• Managing Virtual Licences - good practice and key recommendations

6) Implementing toolsets for virtual licence management

7) Using third parties to help negotiate and manage your licensing