Software identifier based correlation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9953143-B2
Application number	US-15120508-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 5, 2008
Priority date	May 5, 2008
Publication date	Apr 24, 2018
Grant date	Apr 24, 2018

Abstract

Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with software identifier based correlation are described. One example system includes an identifier data store to store a first identifier that uniquely identifies a discovered instance of a software title installed in an enterprise. The first identifier is discoverable from the discovered instance and may be provided by a discovery logic. The second identifier identifies a known instance of a software title associated with the enterprise and is provided from an enterprise resource planning (ERP) data store by an ERP logic. The example system may also include a correlation logic to identify a correlation between the discovered instance and the known instance based on a relationship between the identifiers. The example system may also include an update logic to selectively update a value in the ERP data store based on the correlation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computing system, comprising:
at least one processor for executing instructions;
a discovery logic, configured as a first module stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium, including instructions that when executed by the at least one processor cause the at least one processor to perform an automated process that crawls nodes of an enterprise system via network communications to discover a plurality of instances of software titles that have been installed in the enterprise system, wherein crawling the nodes includes (i) locating and inspecting a registry of installed software titles to discover instances of the installed software titles, (ii) for each discovered instance, locating a software header that prepends a software file associated with the discovered instance, and (iii) identifying a stock keeping unit (SKU) number from each of the discovered instances of software titles by locating and reading the SKU number from a read-only value permanently installed in the software header associated with each discovered instance, wherein the SKU number of a discovered instance is a first identifier that uniquely identifies the discovered instance;
an enterprise resource planning (ERP) data store contained on computer-readable medium that stores data generated from purchase orders and corresponding invoices that identify stock keeping unit (SKU) numbers for each instance of software titles purchased for the enterprise system wherein the SKU number of each instance of software titles purchased are a second identifier;
a correlation logic configured as a second module stored in the non-transitory computer-readable medium, including instructions that when executed by the processor cause the at least one processor to perform a function to determine whether a correlation exists between (i) the SKU numbers from the discovered instances that are acquired by the discovery logic from crawling the nodes and reading from the registry, and (ii) the SKU numbers from the purchased software titles stored in the ERP data store, wherein the function includes accessing the ERP data store to retrieve the SKU numbers of the purchased software titles and at least comparing the SKU numbers to the SKU numbers from the discovered instances;
wherein in response to determining whether the correlation exists:
(i) for a first SKU number from the purchased software titles retrieved from the ERP data store that does not correlate to one of the SKU numbers from the discovered instances acquired by the discovery logic from crawling the nodes and reading from the registry, the correlation logic is configured to generate and transmit via a computer network a first network message to a first device that indicates that the purchased software title having the first SKU number was purchased but is not installed in the enterprise system; and
(ii) for a second SKU number from the discovered instances, acquired by the discovery logic from crawling the nodes and reading from the registry, that does not correlate to one of the SKU numbers from the purchased software titles retrieved from the ERP data store, the correlation logic is configured to generate and transmit via the computer network a second network message to a second device that identifies the second SKU number from the discovered instance as an unauthorized instance.

2. The system of claim 1 , where the discovery logic has access to the enterprise but is hosted external to the enterprise.

3. The system of claim 1 , where the discovery logic comprises a set of cooperating logics distributed to two or more computing components in the enterprise.

4. The system of claim 1 , where the discovery logic provides the first identifier in response to detecting an installation of a software title.

5. The system of claim 1 , where the software header is an ISO 19770-2 compliant header.

6. The system of claim 1 , where the first identifier is an ISO 19770-2 compliant identifier.

7. The system of claim 1 , where the first identifier is a read-only identifier.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the data generated from purchase orders and corresponding invoices and stored in the ERP data store includes, in addition to the SKU number, a registration number, and a license number of the purchased instance of the software title.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the data generated from purchase orders and corresponding invoices a data inventory of the software titles purchased, where the second identifier identifies an entry in the data inventory, and where update logic is configured to update the data inventory based, at least in part, on results of the correlation.

10. The system of claim 1 , where the ERP logic is a software license logic that maintains a set of compliance states for a set of software titles, where the second identifier identifies a member of the set of software titles, and where the update logic selectively updates the set of compliance states based, at least in part, on the correlation.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system further includes an accounting logic that maintains a database of the purchase orders and the corresponding invoices that identify the stock keeping unit (SKU) numbers for each instance of software titles purchased by the enterprise.

12. The system of claim 1 , further including ERP logic that comprises:
an asset management logic that maintains an inventory of the software titles purchased by the enterprise;
a software license logic that maintains a set of compliance states for one or more members of the inventory of software titles; and
an accounting logic that maintains purchase information, where the purchase information includes a set of the purchase orders and a set of the corresponding invoices and where the accounting logic relates a member of the set of invoices to a member of the set of purchase orders;
and
where the second identifier identifies one or more of, an entry in the inventory, a purchase order entry, and an invoice entry, and
where the update logic selectively updates one or more of, the inventory, and the set of compliance states based, at least in part, on the correlation.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that are executable by a computer and at least a processor, the instructions comprising instructions for:
executing, by at least the processor, an automated process that crawls nodes of an enterprise system, and discovering a plurality of software instances installed in the nodes of the enterprise system, wherein crawling the nodes includes locating and inspecting a registry of installed software titles;
identifying and retrieving, by at least the processor, a stock keeping unit (SKU) number from each of the discovered software instances of software titles by locating and reading the SKU number from a read-only value permanently installed in a software header that prepends a software file associated with the discovered instance, wherein the SKU number of a discovered instance (a discovered SKU number) is a unique identifier assigned to and stored with each software instance;
in response to retrieving the SKU numbers from the discovered software instances, querying, by at least the processor, a database that contains data generated from purchase orders and corresponding invoices that identify purchased stock keeping unit (SKU) numbers for each instance of software titles purchased for the enterprise system, wherein the querying requests at least the purchased SKU numbers;
comparing the discovered SKU numbers, that are acquired from crawling the nodes and reading from the registry, to the purchased SKU

Assignees

• Yee John Leong
• Alonzo Jason Aron
• Apte Umesh Madhav
• Oracle Int Corp

Inventors

• Yee John Leong
• Alonzo Jason Aron
• Apte Umesh Madhav

Classifications

• G06Q10/063 Primary

  Operations research, analysis or management · CPC title

• G06Q10/087

  Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders · CPC title

• G06F21/10

  Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material (protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16) {; Digital rights management [DRM]} · CPC title

• G06F2221/07

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F8/70

  Software maintenance or management · CPC title