IT managers negotiating the price ofvirtualisation licenceswith software
suppliers such as Microsoft, SAP and Oracle could get cheaper deals
if theyaudit softwareuse
beforehand.
Presenting evidence to suppliers showing how often applications
are used and by how many users in a hardware environment helps
establish a baseline price, which can be marked down when moving to
a virtualised environment, say experts.
Tony Lock, programme director at analyst firm Freeform Dynamics,
said that software suppliers can be flexible on virtulisation
pricing if IT managers provide evidence showing the value of an
application to the business.
"Businesses are using virutalised environments in dozens of
different ways, so it is hard for suppliers to argue a single
licensing model for any one company," he said.
If an IT manager quotes a precise number on the software
packages they use, and can place a value on it to their businesses,
they can use this as a baseline to mark down virtulisation
licences, he said.
"Large software suppliers do not want to alienate their biggest
customers, and they are the biggest customers are using
virtulisation. IT managers should find out what their peers are
paying for virtulisation licensing and use that to argue cheaper
deals," said Clive Longbottom, service director at analyst firm
Quocirca.
A survey by Freeform Dynamics of 1,500 IT managers showed that
70% found current virtulisation licensing models complex and a
barrier to negotiating cheap deals. But IT managers could be in a
stronger position to negotiate than they think.
Ian Osborne, project director at IT supplier trade group
Intellect, said suppliers are keen to keep customers rather than
issue fines for under-licensing in a virtualised environment. To
date, no high-profile fines have been issued to companies who may
have under licensed in virtual environments because it was still a
grey area that software vendors were working out, he said.