Software asset management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10152314-B2
Application number	US-201815939656-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 29, 2018
Priority date	May 5, 2017
Publication date	Dec 11, 2018
Grant date	Dec 11, 2018

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for provisioning software in computing networks. For example, methods may include invoking one or more discovery probes; retrieving software usage data based at least on the one or more discovery probes; determining software usage predictions based on the software usage data; allocating, based on the software usage predictions, per user software entitlements and per device software entitlements to obtain an allocation of software entitlements; and invoking installation or uninstallation of software responsive to the allocation of software entitlements.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A Platform-as-a-service system operable to manage software entitlements in a computing network, the system comprising:
a memory; and
a processor, wherein the memory includes instructions executable by the processor to cause the system to perform operations comprising:
based on known patterns or trends of usage of a plurality of software installed on computing devices of the computing network, determining software usage predictions of the plurality of software indicative of estimated future levels of usage of the plurality of software;
based on the software usage predictions indicating low estimated future levels of usage of at least one of the plurality of software, selecting the at least one of the plurality of software to be a software reclamation candidate;
determining a reallocation of a software entitlement for the software reclamation candidate;
based on the determined reallocation, controlling (i) at least one computing device of the computing network to uninstall the software reclamation candidate, and (ii) at least one other computing device to install the software reclamation candidate;
detecting that a user has launched a particular software on a computing device;
in response to detecting that the user has launched the particular software on the computing device, allocating, by the dynamic software license allocator module, to the user, a software license associated with the particular software;
detecting that the user has signed off the particular software on the computing device; and
in response to detecting that the user has signed off the particular software on the computing device, deallocating, by the dynamic software license allocator module, for the user, the software license associated with the particular software.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein selecting the at least one of the plurality of software to be the software reclamation candidate is further based on the known patterns or trends of usage of the plurality of software indicating low levels of usage of at least one of the plurality of software.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
determining a potential cost savings realized by the reallocation; and
providing for display, on a graphical user interface, an indication of the determined potential cost savings.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
determining a frequency at which to initiate reallocation software entitlements; and
performing the operations at the determined frequency.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is configured to automatically perform at least the operations of determining the reallocation and controlling the at least one computing device and the at least one other computing device.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the reallocation comprises a reallocation of software entitlements per user.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the reallocation comprises a reallocation of software entitlements per computing device.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
providing for display, on a graphical user interface, a list of the at least one of the plurality of software selected to be the software reclamation candidate.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
providing for display, on a graphical user interface, an indication of active software reclamations.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
before determining the software usage predictions:
invoking one or more discovery probes; and
receiving software usage data in response to the one or more discovery probes;

wherein determining the software usage predictions are determined based on the received software usage data.

11. The system of claim 10 , the operations further comprising:
updating software installation models in a configuration management database based on the one or more discovery probes; and
wherein determining the reallocation is further based on the software installation models.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the software usage predictions include information about cloud services from one or more external service providers, the operations further comprising:
determining a recommendation to procure a reserved instance of a cloud service based on the software usage predictions.

13. A method for managing software entitlements in a computing network, the method comprising:
based on known patterns or trends of usage of a plurality of software installed on computing devices of the computing network, determining software usage predictions of the plurality of software indicative of estimated future levels of usage of the plurality of software;
based on the software usage predictions indicating low estimated future levels of usage of at least one of the plurality of software, selecting the at least one of the plurality of software to be a software reclamation candidate;
determining a reallocation of a software entitlement for the software reclamation candidate;
based on the determined reallocation, controlling (i) at least one computing device of the computing network to uninstall the software reclamation candidate, and (ii) at least one other computing device to install the software reclamation candidate;
detecting that a user has launched a particular software on a computing device;
in response to detecting that the user has launched the particular software on the computing device, allocating, to the user, a software license associated with the particular software;
detecting that the user has signed off the particular software on the computing device; and
in response to detecting that the user has signed off the particular software on the computing device, deallocating, for the user, the software license associated with the particular software.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein selecting the at least one of the plurality of software to be the software reclamation candidate is further based on the known patterns or trends of usage of the plurality of software indicating low levels of usage of at least one of the plurality of software.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by a computing system, cause the computing system to perform operations comprising:
based on known patterns or trends of usage of a plurality of software installed on computing devices of a computing network, determining software usage predictions of the plurality of software indicative of estimated future levels of usage of the plurality of software;
based on the software usage predictions indicating low estimated future levels of usage of at least one of the plurality of software, selecting the at least one of the plurality of software to be a software reclamation candidate;
determining a reallocation of a software entitlement for the software reclamation candidate;
based on the determined reallocation, controlling (i) at least one computing device of the computing network to uninstall the software reclamation candidate, and (ii) at least one other computing device to install the software reclamation candidate;
detecting that a user has launched a particular software on a computing device;
in response to detecting that the user has launched the particular software on the computing device, allocating, to the user, a software license associated with the particular software;
detecting that the user has signed off the particular software on the computing device; and
in response to detecting that the user has signed off the particular soft

Assignees

• Servicenow Inc

Inventors

• Borthakur Apolak
• Srivastava Manish
• Xia Yu

Classifications

• H04L41/20

  Network management software packages · CPC title

• H04L41/0266

  using meta-data, objects or commands for formatting management information, e.g. using eXtensible markup language [XML] · CPC title

• G06F21/105

  Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level · CPC title

• G06F9/5061 Primary

  Partitioning or combining of resources · CPC title

• G06F2209/508

  Monitor · CPC title