Microsoft Supports International Standards to Help Make Software Licenses More Manageable

re: Microsoft Supports International Standards to Help Make Software Licenses More Manageable

PCProfile — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 13:24:40 GMT

An overview of Microsoft Windows 8 19770-2 tags - get ready for pain and suffering if you are working in Software Asset Management (SAM)!

www.pcprofile.com/The_lowdown_on_Windows_8-19770-2_tagging_and_SAM.htm

re: Microsoft Supports International Standards to Help Make Software Licenses More Manageable

Rob Harmer — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 02:33:13 GMT

I omitted a link to the Microsoft reference site for tags.

If the vendors are supplying data that only covers the mandatory tags then the tags are a complete waste of time and the customer is NO BETTER off at all.

Microsoft seem to be only supplying the mandatory tags as per their web site link below.

www.microsoft.com/.../softwareid.aspx

In Microsoft's own words..........................."What kind of information will these tags give me? These software identification tags are simply small XML data files that are installed with the software."

They contain the following mandatory data elements:

* Product Title,

* Product Version,

* Software Creator,

* Software Licensor,

* Tag Creator,

* Unique Software Identifier, and

* Entitlement Required (Yes/No).

ISO 19770-2 tagging is flawed if it allows a few Mandatory and a large number of Optional tag elements.

In it's current form 19770-2 isn't helpful at all, to the end user customer, despite all the evangelistic trumpet blowing.

Regards Rob Harmer

http://www.pcprofile.com

re: Microsoft Supports International Standards to Help Make Software Licenses More Manageable

Rob Harmer — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 02:29:51 GMT

There is a significant problem with the -2 tags as they currently stand.

For a software manufacturer (OEM vendor) to claim that they comply with the standard for -2 tags all they do is need comply with the mandatory elements in the -2 schema.

Optional means optional.

We note that so far Adobe only provides a few extra optional elements, not the full suite of data in the schema.

Optional means the vendor can pick and choose what they want to or don't want to supply, not the customer.

Microsoft has made it clear (by omission) they are only applying mandatory elements not optional elements as per previous link supplied.

The mandatory tag data below is no better than what customers see now and in many cases less than they can see now with existing tools.

Mandatory data elements (items with >> are new 19770-2 fields compared to existing data):

* Product Title,

* Product Version,

* Software Creator,

* Software Licensor,

* >>Tag Creator,

* >>Unique Software Identifier, and

* >>Entitlement Required (Yes/No).

Guidance for 19770 is suggesting that customers go out to vendors with RFPs mandating compliance with 19770-2. This not a smart move as they won't be getting all the data they need. I can imagine some customers might feel annoyed if not dismayed by this without understanding what they will be getting as the end state package.

If the minimum that customers can expect out of -2 tags is the mandatory elements, or in some cases a mix and match version of what other vendors decide they wish to include, then the customer is no better off than using add/remove or registry data, or internal elements already existing when enumerating file properties, or their existing discovery tool, whatever that may be. The data in file properties already equals or exceeds what will be provided in -2 mandatory tags.

To be useful to the end user customer, what they really need is the optional data in the -2 standards to make their efforts, investment and changes they will need to adapt to make it worthwhile.

The -2 schema can simply solve the problem by making more of the data elements in the optional area mandatory. That would be a big improvement, but for some reason this doesn't seem obvious, to the -2 evangelists, I have no idea why.

The reasons listed above are why I make the claim the -2 tagging approach is flawed.

Pity the poor software discovery tools vendors who will have to make sense of the mix and match tagging elements that will be appearing and what additional data matching identification libraries (and normalising needed) they will need to maintain to help disclose what is installed.

All of this will need extra tools development effort by discovery tools vendors, which comes at a cost, which the customers will have to pay as they are upgraded to version x of their discovery tool.

The benefits do not stack up and customers need to realise this, that's why I am happy to be a lone voice on the issue.

Let's not be fooled into believing that this solution is workable in its curremt form, it has a lot of work yet to be done.

Rob Harmer

http://www.pcprofile.com

re: Microsoft Supports International Standards to Help Make Software Licenses More Manageable

Randy Littleson — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 20:15:42 GMT

Amy –

This is a great post, and really underscores the promise of software tagging and the industry frustration around its slow adoption. Flexera Software is also a proponent of software tags, and we’ve actually rolled out a comprehensive strategy and set of products which we announced at SoftSummit last October, to promote wider adoption of software tags by both ISV’s and enterprises.

The challenge for the industry was the “chicken and egg” conundrum. Enterprises couldn't leverage ISO standards to improve their license management capabilities because there was no easy and automated way to create software tags, so they haven't been widely used. And ISV’s didn’t have automated tools to create software tags – so there wasn’t a lot of incentive. We’ve broken that logjam.

Ultimately, application producers must massively adopt the ISO 19770-2 standards for tagging to go mainstream. Last year we announced that InstallShield and InstallAnywhere include tools to create ISO 19770-2 software identification tags as part of the installation development process. Implemented by thousands of software vendors globally on more than 500 million desktops – InstallShield & InstallAnywhere are used nearly ubiquitously by application producers, and it is now tooled to enable them to quickly and efficiently add software tags to their applications across all platforms.

There’s an additional problem that’s been slowing the adoption of software tags. Today when applications are repackaged, deployed, and installed on client computer end-points within an enterprise, the software tags imbedded in the software are usually lost or obfuscated. The backend software asset management tools then struggle to properly identify the installed applications. With our recent release of AdminStudio, we gave enterprises the ability to automatically add ISO 19770-2 compliant tags to repackaged applications and preserve the original publisher information that will enable applications to be identified after deployment. This solves the software packaging problem around software tags – and it also empowers enterprises to create their own ISO-19770-2 compliant tags if none were provided by the ISV.

Ultimately, enterprises benefit when software tags can be used to support their software asset management and software license optimization efforts. To ensure this, we announced that our software license optimization solution, FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises, can now provide software tag discovery and inventory support that adhere to the ISO 19770-2 standard.

The ultimate vision of the ISO 19770-2 standards body was to improve the accuracy and reduce the difficulty around software identification. While the standards provide the path to improved accuracy, we're providing the vehicle - automated tools - to get organizations to the goal line.

Randy Littleson

Flexera Software

http://www.flexerasoftware.com

re: Microsoft Supports International Standards to Help Make Software Licenses More Manageable

tribecaguy — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 14:55:07 GMT

I'd believe Adobe was serious and not just paying lip service if they had behaved and named the next release of Adobe Acrobat VERSION 10 rather than X. Talk about a coding nightmare for identification of all versions found in an enterprise!

re: Microsoft Supports International Standards to Help Make Software Licenses More Manageable

Martin Thompson (The ITAM Review) — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 09:55:12 GMT

Screenshot of Microsoft ISO/IEC 19770-2 Tag found 'in the wild' in Windows8.

"First Microsoft ISO/IEC 19770-2 Tag Spotted in The Wild"