Methods and apparatus for software license management

#One or more embodiments of the present invention relate generally to software license management. More particularly, the invention relates to the use of data available from infrastructure management processes to track and control software licenses.

#Modern large enterprises typically employ data processing resources that may be substantial and widely distributed. Such enterprises generally license software under contracts that require the organizations to monitor their own usage of the software and purchase and maintain the number of licenses needed for the number of instances of the software being used. Vendors reserve the right to audit an organization's software use and under-licensing can lead to back payments and penalties. Years ago, computing environments changed relatively slowly. A computer was purchased and software was installed on the computer, either from media purchased from a publisher or from copies made by a purchaser. A single installation was associated with a single computer and vice-versa, and an installation remained installed until removed or the computer was taken out of service.

#Now, however, especially in the case of large enterprises, software installations may be in a constant state of flux. Software instances may be installed that have the capacity to accommodate many users, with the number of licenses required depending on a changing number of users. Software instances may be concentrated on servers and made accessible to users through the servers, with the number of licenses needed changing as the number of users changes. In addition, software instances may appear and disappear without changes to computing hardware or installation using an external physical medium. A particular software instance may not even be associated with an actual physical machine; instead a server may host a number of virtual machines that may appear and disappear as needed, with each installation of software on a virtual machine representing a software instance that must adhere to the license terms under which the software is provided to the enterprise. The more frequently the software environment changes, the more difficult it is for conventional techniques, such as scanning of computers for software instances, to accurately identify all instances. For example, if system scans are performed periodically, a virtual machine using a software instance may appear and disappear between scans. Numerous other difficulties attend license management in large, rapidly changing systems

#FIG. 1 illustrates a managed computing environment that may suitably employ license management mechanisms according to an embodiment of the present invention;

#FIG. 2 illustrates a software usage analysis environment according to an embodiment of the present invention;

#FIG. 3 illustrates a license analysis environment according to an embodiment of the present invention;

#The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

#Embodiments of the present invention recognize that scans of computing environment suffer from a number of deficiencies. They interfere to some extent with the efficiency of a system in which they are used and are therefore carried out only periodically. Large modern computing environments are typically in a continual state of change and license management in such environments is subject to a number of difficulties. For example, server machines may be missed, software may be identified incorrectly, with incorrect server and client components being reported or with incorrect software editions being reported. Installation instances may be miscounted, with double counting, false positives, and false negatives occurring. Collection of license metric values may be incomplete.

#In addition, scanning techniques face various challenges with respect to virtual machine instances. For example, scanning and reporting may outlast the lifetime of a virtual machine instance, or termination of a virtual machine instance may not be detected promptly. Scanning may require simultaneous access to domains that are isolated from one another, with, for example, information relating to software inventory being in a domain controlled by a customer and information relating to physical processor technology being in a domain controlled by a cloud provider. Software with different license types may not be differentiated in a virtual machine. Embodiments of the present invention recognize that these and other problems may be overcome by using information relating to managed systems, whose design includes the collection of information relating to changes to the computing environment.