May ITAM and Licensing News Update

Oracle Extend Support

Oracle has announced an extension of Premier Support for their E-Business Suite 12.2 release through at least 2034. This extension provides customers with the ability to leverage their investment in the software for years to come and aligns E-Business Suite with other Applications Unlimited product lines like Hyperion, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, PeopleSoft, and Siebel CRM, which are also providing Continuous Innovation and Premier Support through at least 2034.

With the Continuous Innovation release model, Oracle will deliver ongoing applications and technology stack updates for E-Business Suite 12.2 without requiring a major upgrade, reducing the effort and cost involved in maintaining the software. Additionally, Oracle is making enhancements to ensure that E-Business Suite can fully leverage Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and can coexist effectively with complementary Oracle SaaS applications.

Thousands of organizations worldwide rely on Oracle E-Business Suite to run their key business operations. With this latest Premier Support extension, Oracle has committed to providing them with the support they need to maintain their critical operations. 

IBM Update

The latest update for IBM License Metric Tool (ILMT) version 9.2.31 is now available for clients using ILMT with BigFix or Passport Advantage account. Here are the key highlights of ILMT 9.2.31:

•  IBM Bring Your Own Software License (BYOSL) licensing policy enhanced: A new option, "Mark as Public Cloud", has been added to the Computers and Hardware Inventory reports, which classifies a computer as hosted on the eligible public cloud. Clients may also create custom rules to automate the identification of these computers in the future. This method is intended to eliminate the over-counting of PVUs on a computer.
• Enhanced capability to decommission computers so that they are no longer included as consuming licenses: It is now possible to immediately decommission and remove computers that have already been set as not actively reporting in ILMT. This can be accomplished by using the ILMT user interface or executing the new ILMT REST API. Additionally, users may choose selected or multiple computers to be decommissioned.
• Visualization of a detailed list of bundled products and related license ratios within IBM Cloud Paks: The Products and Metrics report has been enhanced with the capability to visualize a list of bundled products and feature components that are included in an IBM Cloud Pak along with their related license ratios.

Microsoft Licensing Update – April 2023

Universal Terms for Online services: A clause has been added for “Azure OpenAI Service and Online Service Integrations”. These describe the terms for online services that incorporate Azure OpenAI. Azure OpenAI Service and Online Service Integrations:

• Online Services may incorporate the Azure OpenAI Service. Unless otherwise indicated, the following service-specific terms for the Azure OpenAI Service apply to relevant features in those Online Services: Use Limitations (Product documentation, Reverse engineering, Extracting data); Data Use and Access (Data); and Third-party Claims.

Microsoft Azure: Azure Hybrid benefits use rights have been revised and simplified for Windows Server and SQL Server:

• The requirement that customers allocate licenses in packs of eight has been eliminated.
• Eliminated the requirement that customers allocate 16 licenses before they begin using Azure Hybrid Benefits.
• The requirement that the number of licenses needed equals the number of cores in a VM, subject to the 8-core minimum is still valid.
• SQL Server: No changes to the AHB benefits, just textual changes for readability.
• Windows Desktop OS: Online service name has been rebranded from “Windows Update Compliance” to “Windows Updates for Business reports”.

Windows Server editions (Standard, Datacenter and Essentials):

• Removed the requirement that customers start with 16 licenses before licensing by Virtual OSE.
• A clause has been added for CSP customers that they may run Windows Server Datacenter images with Windows Server Standard licenses when licensing by virtual OSE and following Standard edition use rights.

Microsoft Intune:

• Microsoft Intune Endpoint Privilege Management (User SL) has been added to the availability tables. This includes an updated pre-requisite table to include M365 A3/A5 as qualifying licenses for Intune Suite, Intune P2, and Intune Endpoint Privilege Management.
• Instances of “Intune” have been updated to “Intune P1” per the new naming convention.
• Software Assurance Benefits:
• “Purchasing Software Assurance” and “Renewing Software Assurance” terms have been moved to their own page called “Purchasing and Renewing Software Assurance”.

World Password Day

World Password Day is an annual event held on the first Thursday in May to raise awareness about the importance of using strong, unique passwords to protect online accounts. With so much of our personal and financial information stored online, it's more important than ever to use passwords that can't be easily guessed or hacked.

Unfortunately, many people still use weak and easily guessable passwords, which puts their personal information at risk. According to a 2021 study by NordPass, the most commonly used password is still "123456," followed closely by "password," "123456789," and "12345678." Other common passwords include "qwerty," "admin," and "iloveyou."

Using these types of passwords is a serious security risk because they can be easily cracked by hackers using automated tools. In fact, many hackers have entire databases of commonly used passwords that they can use to break into accounts.

To protect yourself and your information, it's important to use strong, unique passwords for each of your accounts. This means using a combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. It's also a good idea to use a password manager to generate and store your passwords, so you don't have to remember them all!

SAMOSA Act

Senators Gary Peters and Bill Cassidy reintroduced the SAMOSA Act, a proposed legislation aimed at reducing waste, saving taxpayer dollars, and strengthening cybersecurity through enterprise software licensing and oversight. The bill requires agencies to conduct an independent and comprehensive assessment of their software licensing practices, which will be used by Congress, the Office of Management and Budget, and the General Services Administration to promote more oversight of software acquisition contracts. The proposed legislation also calls on agency Chief Information Officers (CIOs) to compile reports on software entitlements and software inventories to consolidate software licenses and adopt enterprise license agreements across the agency. 

Finally, the Federal CIO Council must submit a strategy for the cost-benefit of government-wide enterprise software licenses, increase software interoperability, and offer applicable options for transitioning to open-source software.

Windows 10 version 20H2 End of Life

A reminder that Windows 10, version 20H2 for Enterprise, Education, and IoT Enterprise will reach the end of servicing on May 9, 2023. This will affect the following versions and editions:

• Windows 10 Home, version 20H2
• Windows 10 Pro, version 20H2
• Windows 10 Pro Education, version 20H2
• Windows 10 Pro for Workstations, version 20H2
• Windows 10 Team, version 20H2 (Surface Hub)

End of Servicing means these specific versions will no longer receive quality or security updates making them a risk to your estate. As a result, you should look to identify and update these assets as a priority. if you need help gaining full visibility of your IT estate Certero has a range of solutions and services that can help.

Amazon and Microsoft Cloud Services Face UK Antitrust Probe

Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator, has called for a competition probe into the UK’s cloud market, citing concerns over lack of competition and potential anti-competitive behavior.

According to a report by Reuters, Ofcom has concerns that a small number of large cloud providers dominate the market, making it difficult for smaller players to compete. This, in turn, could lead to higher prices and a lack of innovation, as well as potentially anti-competitive practices such as exclusivity agreements or the tying of services.

Ofcom also noted that there is a lack of transparency in the cloud market, making it difficult for customers to compare prices and services across different providers.

The regulator has called on the UK government to launch a competition probe into the cloud market, with the aim of ensuring that competition is working effectively and that consumers and businesses are able to benefit from a range of affordable and innovative cloud services.

This move by Ofcom follows a similar call by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which last year called for an investigation into the dominance of tech giants such as Amazon and Google in the cloud market.