SOFTWARE LICENSING

Software Licensing Company Flexera Intros New Release, Replete with Dynamic Features

By Carrie Schmelkin, TMCnet Web Editor

2012 is already off to a fast start for software licensing solutions provider Flexera Software as today the company unveiled the latest release of its FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises. As part of the makeover, the FlexNet will boast new functionality that further entices organizations to say goodbye to basic software asset management and hello to better financial control, savings and efficiencies through software license optimization.

"The discipline of software license optimization is growing ever-more complex because new licensing models are proliferating in order to accommodate virtualization, the cloud, and mobile devices," said Fred Broussard, research director, enterprise system infrastructure software at IDC (News - Alert). "Flexera Software continues enhancing FlexNet Manager Suite to help organizations maintain continual license compliance and optimal software spend across this increasingly complex licensing environment."

One of the main highlights of the new release is that there is additional virtualization support which helps organizations better manage their software licensing in virtual appliances. Thanks to the upgrade, FlexNet Manager Platform now includes a Citrix XenApp/EdgeSight Connector which collects information on what applications users have access to as well as aggregates data on actual software usage. With the new release, Flexera Software's broad virtual environment coverage – which already includes license optimization support for software running on hardware partitioning technologies, VMware vSphere/iESX Server and Microsoft (News - Alert) Hyper-V environments – has been extended.

"The broad set of new capabilities in FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises helps our customers meet the challenges of continuous license compliance and optimized software spend in today's increasingly complex IT environments," said Alan Swahn, vice president of product management at Flexera Software. "Support for a wide range of virtualization technologies and license models are key requirements of next generation software asset management and license optimization solutions."

Moreover, the release boasts an improved workflow manager that is integrated with application readiness processes. In so doing, enterprises can now create business workflow processes – from software request to software packaging and license re-harvesting – that span Application Readiness and Enterprise License Optimization and automate essential processes. The workflow capabilities for FlexNet Manager Suite and AdminStudio, Flexera Software's Application Readiness solution, have been merged into a single Workflow Manager product, according to company officials. Additional enhancements to Workflow Manager include automated task assignment to users during the execution of the workflow process which eliminates the need for manual assignment of each task.

The latest version of the software licensing solution also features ISO 19770-2 Software Tagging Support so that organizations can leverage the value of software identification tags in their software asset management and license optimization processes. FlexNet Manager Platform now provides discovery and inventory support of software tags that adhere to the ISO 19770-2 standard.

Additional features include: a new license model support as FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications has been enhanced to support token-based and product tier concurrent licensing models; FlexNet Manager Platform & FlexNet Manager for IBM (News - Alert) Enhancements for IBM License Optimization in that the new release provides support for two new license types -- the User Value Unit (UVU) and Resource Value Unit (RVU); and SAP (News - Alert) Chargeback Reporting that shows how licenses are distributed across cost centers or cost center groups.

"Enterprises want confidence that they can maintain license compliance for their business applications when migrating to virtual environments, minimizing the risk of costly software audits," said David Moxey, senior director of marketing at Citrix Systems. "Flexera Software's announcement today of its support for Citrix XenApp ensures that companies can effectively manage licenses for virtualized applications to optimize software spend and reduce license liability risk."

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