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from the how-to-drive-away-your-customers dept.
El Reg reports (on 27 Mar)
Software providers such as Microsoft and Oracle are aggressively targeting public sector customers with licence "audit reviews" in a bid to plug falling subscription revenue, according to research. Over one-third of the 436 councils surveyed across the UK have been subject to at least one software licence review in the last 20 months, according to a report from software licensing costs advice company Cerno. Of those, 60 per cent were found to be "under-licensed" and hit with a penalty of up to £50,000.
Out of 132 universities, one quarter have been subject to at least one software licence audit in the last 20 months, it said. "This survey confirms considerable activity in licence reviews by the major software vendors - principally Oracle and Microsoft - and, critically, the high incidence of penalty demands following the review," said Robin Fry, co-founder of Cerno.
gewg_ notes that the solution adopted last century by Dave Richards of the City of Largo, Florida and by Ernie Ball, Inc. keep looking better and better. (It cost the California company $100,000 before they saw the light.)
(Score: 3, Informative) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday April 08 2015, @02:23AM
I was talking to an IT friend the other day and he said they audited their network and needed to purchase well over 3000 CALs to the tune of $12 each. They are a large school district so they can afford it. But the licensing model is insane. It is easy to get snared in a situation where you have more devices or users than CAL's.
Just read this article from Technet: http://blogs.technet.com/b/volume-licensing/archive/2014/03/10/licensing-how-to-when-do-i-need-a-client-access-license-cal.aspx [technet.com]
Your head will explode when you see what requires a CAL.
A friggen printer that gets an IP from an MS DHCP server requires a CAL. An internet user who uses your eCommerce website to access an MS backend server REQUIRES A CAL. So many orgs can loose track of little thing that can come back and bite them in the ass. And MS that really, really easy with its insane licensing model.