Background
Acronis is a global leader in hybrid cloud data protection. The company's management decided to implement the SAM Non-Production Environments project. It was driven by the need to obtain detailed information about IT assets and improve the efficiency of software utilization and non-production environment management.
As an IT partner, the company selected Noventiq, whose specialists possess all the necessary competences and experience to implement SAM projects. Being a certified Microsoft SAM Partner, Noventiq implements a full cycle of works aimed at improving the quality of the vendor's software utilization and increasing the level of license compliance.
Solution
In the course of the project, Noventiq specialists formed a model that reflected summary data on the number of developers, IT specialists, architects, testers, administrators who are involved in software development and have access to non-production environments. To conduct a comprehensive analysis of development tools in the organization, Noventiq experts developed an inventory plan and a questionnaire on the life cycle of non-production environments. Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP) was used as software for the customer's IT infrastructure analysis. In total, over 400 workplaces, about 30 test environments, as well as specialized Microsoft Visual Studio software and MSDN subscription services (software trial versions) were tested.
Results
As a result of the work performed, Noventiq specialists prepared reporting materials where they implemented a holistic approach to the development environment management strategy and produced recommendations about their deployment and administration, and server capacity consolidation. In particular, the experts found it optimal to transfer licenses serving test environments to the Microsoft Azure-based cloud, which will allow deployment and use in the cloud of as many virtual machines as necessary to develop and test applications without the need to purchase on the-premises hardware and procure software.
“The inventory not only allowed us to accurately determine the amount of software assets used and assess a level of SAM processes maturity, but also to form the optimal strategy for managing development environments, which was extremely important for the client. Today, Noventiq is among the Microsoft Partners who have been the first to start implementing such projects. This was possible thanks to the extensive expertise accumulated in the field of Software Asset Management (SAM),” said Sergey Krutskikh, IT Consultant of the Business Consulting Department at Noventiq.
“As a result of the project, we received a report on the non-working environment status and recommendations for their optimization regarding administration, server equipment utilization, software loading, and personnel training. All these recommendations will help us increase the level of SAM processes maturity and significantly reduce the IT infrastructure maintenance costs,” said Alexey Borovkov, Vice President for Information Technology and Infrastructure at Acronis.