TheFederation Against
Software Theft(Fast) has begun working with
the software industry to form a working group to clarify the impact
ofvirtualisationon software
licensing.
Many software suppliers have yet to address how to price their
software on a virtual server environment. Other companies have
licensing that have led to confusion among
users. While software companies licensing on a per-user,
per-server or per-processor basis, server- and processor-based
licensing do not accurately reflect usage when software is run in a
virtual environment.
Fast chief executive, John Lovelock, commented, "There is a big
gap in understanding what virtualisation really means for
organisations looking to adapt the technology - both in terms of
the impact it has on the day-to-day running of the business, the
possibility of cost savings as well as the potential for ambiguity
over licensing agreements with the software publishers."
Among the issues the working will focus on is looking into how
to measure usage on virtual environments - technically it is
possible but a discovery agent has to be deployed there to identify
the software's presence
Lovelock said, "As a representative body we're asking whether
software will need to have some kind of agent installed which
enables it to recognise a virtual environment. And will virtual
licences need to be reclaimed during the disposal process? What we
do know, is that there will need to be a combination of processes
and tools to control the virtual environment. It is vital at this
point that we demand greater clarity from suppliers and look at the
potential to canvas virtualisation software vendors for their view
on the future direction."