What Are The Chances of an Audit by IBM?
• If you own or use IBM software – Good.
• If you tell IBM of changes to your environment but bought no software. – Better than good.
• If you show a reckless or carefree attitude towards licensing. – Great.
Gartner’s polls still show IBM leading all other software vendors with auditing. An IBM audit is not a once in a lifetime, or even once a decade occurrence. IBM’s plan is to grow their software revenue to 50% of all revenue by 2015. Audits will generate revenue.
Has your hardware changed since you bought the software? Changes to hardware leads to changes in software licenses required for any licensed by core-based metrics.
Has the metric changed or is this software from a company IBM acquired and you didn’t check the converted metrics and quantities against your usage? Even if you have not changed your usage at all, IBM may have underestimated or the metric is different enough that guessing your usage may lead to an incorrect conversion. Know the products, know the licensing rules and keep track – be prepared for the eventual, inevitable audit.