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Flexera Software Extends the Power of Software Asset Management (SAM) with Launch of FlexNet Manager for Cloud Infrastructure

First-to-market solution provides centralised visibility into use of public cloud services and tools to eliminate waste and optimise spend

Maidenhead, U.K. – April 12, 2016. Flexera Software, the leading provider of next-generation software licensing, compliance, security and installation solutions for application producers and enterprises today announced the launch of FlexNet Manager for Cloud Infrastructure. The first solution from a Software Asset Management (SAM) vendor addressing the management of cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), FlexNet Manager for Cloud Infrastructure gives organisations centralised visibility into their cloud services use and allows them to optimise utilisation and control costs.

“The cloud services industry is growing more than five times faster than other IT categories as organisations shift away from internal hardware to greater use of public cloud infrastructures. This shift in spend means having the ability to track, manage and optimise cloud services usage is essential for responsible governance and cost management,” said Jim Ryan, President and CEO of Flexera Software. “With FlexNet Manager for Cloud Infrastructure as part of FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises, Flexera Software enables companies to manage and optimise cloud infrastructure services and the software running in the cloud, along with traditional on-premises software.”

This first release of FlexNet Manager for Cloud Infrastructure focuses on optimisation of Amazon Web Services (AWS) – the most widely adopted cloud infrastructure service. Most organisations have multiple cloud accounts that are often purchased in a decentralised fashion by different departments and business units. Because of this, FlexNet Manager for Cloud Infrastructure will automatically import usage and billing data from multiple accounts to deliver a centralised view of all AWS accounts and instances across the enterprise.

Moreover, a cloud dashboard provides an executive-level view of the organisation’s use of cloud resources, presenting aggregated consumption patterns and total spend across all AWS cloud subscriptions. Cloud usage analysis and reporting enables organisations to eliminate waste and optimise spend. Organisations can analyse data and view consumption reports and breakdowns based on AWS instance types (On-demand and Reserved Instances), view consumption rates by departments and perform trending analysis.

As organisations continue to adopt cloud services and create even more complex, heterogeneous IT environments, their asset management tools must evolve and expand to optimise not only on-premises hardware and software assets, but cloud infrastructure services as well. FlexNet Manager for Cloud Infrastructure enables companies to:

• Track cloud services spending and usage across all departments to eliminate over-buying and under-utilisation of cloud capacity and instances
• More effectively negotiate volume discounts and rationalise usage of cloud instances
• Enable IT’s transition to a service-based organisation by centralising management of cloud services, minimising overhead, managing costs and facilitating chargeback of cloud services
• Optimise usage of pre-paid capacity (reserved instances) to minimise costs

“The new frontier in Software Asset Management is Infrastructure as a Service,” said R “Ray” Wang, Principal Analyst & Founder at Constellation Research. “Organisations are rapidly subscribing to public cloud services as a means to reduce their infrastructure costs and deliver flexible computing resources that can be quickly scaled upward or downward according to demand. But you can’t deliver true cost reduction and efficiency without visibility into, and control over, cloud services spend. Software Asset Management processes and technology must be able to account for, track and manage cloud infrastructure services.”