IT and Software asset management can benefit greatly from the availability of data about the assets installed in an enterprise. However, few of any organizations are taking advantage of this resource.
It is estimated that the amount of stored data is currently doubling every two years. The availability of cloud based PAAS (platform as a service) enables organizations to store massive amounts of data but in many cases it is not being used constructively. B2C appears to lead the way with hand held devices that can tell an individual information such as how many steps they have taken, calories burned, time slept and where they are and where they are going. However many CIOs don’t know how many computers are connected to their networks and what software is installed on them.
The move to SaaS (software as a service) largely eradicates the need for compliance reviews and “pay as you go” business models provide a golden opportunity for efficiency improvements if managed correctly.
The organizations that will prosper in the future are those who analyse massive amounts of data to make sound business decisions quickly. For example on major international company now regularly analyses 25 million software usage records on a monthly basis to decide how software licensing costs can be reduced by reallocating software licenses and services. For them the data was not the issue as was already stored in their organization, the real issue was how to analyse it and make efficiency decision quickly and effectively.
