Best Practices for Cloud Services 

The digital transformation raises numerous questions about software asset management. Here are our answers to the three we believe are most important to consider:

1. Can I reduce my costs by converting to cloud licensing?

Care must be taken here, the same as when considering potential savings by acquiring OEM or second-hand licenses. If you buy cheap, you often end up paying more in the end or having to buy everything all over again. 

Granted usage rights always need to be reviewed in detail. Downgrade rights, for example, are usually not included. In particular however, there are restrictions for hybrid scenarios or virtualized environments. If you make the wrong decision, you run the risk that something is not licensed or is not able to run in the first place. 

Saving money is certainly possible by taking advantage of new possibilities available to you. As a rule however, it is not going to cost you less, but rather offer you more for the same amount of money you were paying before.

2. How do I overcome the IT department's resistance to the cloud?

You should not bypass your IT department under any circumstances, but actively involve them in the decision. Anything else is very risky in our opinion, if not downright negligent. Years of experience, an overview of the entire company and beyond, and usually highly complex data protection and data security concepts can be wiped out here – with fatal consequences. 

Decentralizing the procurement and administration of IT services cannot be the goal. Instead, you should discuss the possibly legitimate concerns of those in charge of IT with them, and address those concerns together.

3. Am I automatically licensed properly at all times by introducing cloud technologies?

It is certainly not recommended to introduce cloud services for the sole purpose of eliminating the effort of software asset management - at least not currently. Cloud services actually make the issue even more complex, especially in hybrid scenarios. It is all the more important to have control, and to determine what solution fits which user, whether software will be standardized, and where you are paying for licenses or subscriptions with no productive use. 

Software asset management is definitely much more than just "measuring, counting, weighing".  

If you have further questions about compliance or licensing, in relation to cloud services, we'd be happy to answer them!