Virtual Licence Management – Licensing in a Virtualised Environment

While there are many advances in enterprise computing accredited to the use of virtualisation technologies, many organisations are wrestling with the difficulties in verifying that they are operating within the criteria of their software licensing. Prior to the widespread adoption of virtual servers, managing server licences was a fairly straightforward process and there was one licence per physical server.

IT administrators are now worried that software licence agreements could be breached using virtualisation technologies that host multiple dynamic servers that can be easily cloned with a few mouse clicks.

These challenges are being addressed through alternative licensing models and by vendor-created tracking utilities. Some vendors now base their virtual licensing per running instance and by core or processor, while others have created 'data centre' licences providing unlimited server instances operating within the physical machine. Tools and utilities for tracking servers running in virtual environments are still fairly new to market and tend to be vendor-specific.

This Forum workshop considered the following topics:

• Key suppliers and their licensing models
• Deals available and achieved
• Translating models into actual charges experienced by organisations
• Managing Virtual Licences - good practice and key recommendations
• Implementing toolsets for Virtual Licence management
• Using third parties to help negotiate and manage your licensing