Straight Talk about ITIL

Nice story on the basics of ITIL.

More on Microsoft’s SAM Program

Question – Is Microsoft’s SAM Just a Shakedown in Disguise?

Read the story, it goes along with several other stories I’ve posted about.

Over a $2 Million in fines

The BSA did one of their massive piracy announcements last month…

Last week, the BSA published a list of 19 companies whose combined settlements were $2M, along with the requirement to remove the unlicensed software from publishers Microsoft, Adobe, Symantec Corp, McAfee and others.

This is a good quote from Eracent…

The alternative to reaching a settlement with your publishers is to build the processes necessary to correctly manage software licenses. “Rather than wasting resources and important budget dollars repairing the damage from an audit, organizations should invest in real software asset management business practices, structured to fit the organization and providing the data needed to make the organization compliant and financially efficient., “ states Jenny Schuchert, Vice President of Marketing for Eracent, Inc. “Software asset management is certainly easier for organizations that are highly standardized or centralized, but that doesn’t mean that decentralized organizations cannot benefit from effective software asset management practices.. The greater the complexity, the more the organizations must rely on their tools.”

Commissions, engagement “goals” raise red flags for some IT execs

I missed this story from a couple of weeks ago. This is one of several stories that have been in the press lately about Microsoft SAM program and some of their “shady” practices according to the customers.

While it may be a little shady about how Microsoft is going about doing this, I think they have every right to do this – along with any other software vendor.

With fewer people upgrading to a new software application just for the sake of doing an upgrade, software vendors are looking to get all the new software revenue they can. One of the ways to do this is find all of the lost license revenue.

According to Juan Fernando Rivera, worldwide director of Microsoft’s SAM program, part of the compensation received by the engagement managers is based on the revenue they recover for unpaid licenses on software that customers have been using.

Microsoft Leans on SAM as Licensing Grows More Complex

Here is a good one…

“You should pay for what you use, and use what you pay for,” were the words Microsoft server chief Bob Muglia used during a keynote at the Microsoft Management Summit 2006 in San Diego in May. That statement sounds simple enough, but of course it’s rife with complications.

While I agree with this statement for the most part, I find it funny coming from a Microsoft person. It should be more like, assume you need a license for every machine in your organization and pay us for it.

I don’t think Microsoft really wants a company to know how many applications it has installed, they want some sort of “fuzzy” area to exist so they can suck you into some sort of Select Agreement. The best way to do that is make it hard to figure out what you actually have installed, let alone comparing that information with what you have bought.

Antispyware tool for thumb drives launched

Okay so here is another reason for network admins to be worried, it looks like a lot of the USB thumb drives you buy today come with the U3 software (no they are not a wanna-be U2 clone). It is becoming enough of a problem that now they are including Antispyware tools on the drives.

But don’t worry corporate America, they are looking our for you too…

As well as scanning the host PC for malware, the program also claims to be able to stop malware from installing itself on the U3 drive itself, from where there is a danger it can be transported back into a company or infect another PC.

Spyware Infection Rates on the Rise

Does this surprise anyone…

“We’re finding that the social-networking sites like MySpace are turning out to be hotbeds for spyware,” CEO Dave Moll says. “People are creating multiple profiles, and the links on their sites will take you to sites that will either download or drive-by download adware and spyware.”

Perimeter defence systems are buckling

Here is a great story from the Australian IT web site entitled ‘Perimeter defence systems are buckling’. It does a nice job of summing up the problem right off the bat…

TRADITIONAL perimeter defence systems, usually comprising firewalls between the Internet and corporate network, have crumbled.

Wireless networking, Bluetooth connectivity, USB memory sticks, portable DVD burners and even music players, have become common network endpoints.With these, data from the outside world often flows in and out of corporate networks unchecked, while assuming full user credentials.

They really grab your attention when they talk about nuclear secrets being lost…

But his most memorable breach on the public record happened two years ago, when a US defence research laboratory lost portable media containing nuclear weapons information. The response was predictable.

Facilities around that country were ordered to stop all classified work on computers until security for removable storage devices had been tightened.

I also like the line…

According to Gartner, most organisations have done nothing about bringing perimeter defence down to the personal level.

There recomendation is three fold:

1. upgrade you network credentials for two-factor authentication

2. install more security on portable devices

3. implement access control for devices on the network

I’m biased since I sale and support software that covers option two, but I also think this is one of the more dangerous areas right now and a solution can be implemented fairly quickly.