DATASHEET
Software License
Optimization - Essential
Tool in an Effective
Federal CyberSecurity
Program: FlexNet
Manager Suite plays
a critical role in
any Federal Agency
cybersecurity
strategy by:
• Providing hardware
inventory data in a
standard interface
- comprehensively
understand what is
‘on the network’
and know what
is “missing”
• Collecting and
processing software
inventory data for
Federal networks
• Discovering
and identifying
unauthorized or
unlicensed software
installations
• Providing
management and
reporting of whitelist
changes and software
installation actions
• Proactively managing
software maintenance
contracts and
renewals.
Cybersecurity Strategy Must Include
Software License Optimization
FlexNet Manager Suite and App Portal Reduce Cybersecurity and Compliance Risk
While Delivering Cost Savings on Hardware and Software Assets
The recent spate of cybersecurity breaches underscores
just how vulnerable federal agencies are to malware
and hacker attacks. Federal CIO’s are therefore
aggressively enacting cybersecurity measures to
mitigate these risks. Implementing effective hardware
and software asset management automation via a
Software License Optimization solution is an essential
element to any effective cybersecurity strategy.
Flexera Software’s FlexNet Manager Suite for
Enterprises is the market leading Software License
Optimization solution that provides comprehensive
hardware asset management (HAM) and software
asset management (SAM) capabilities. A full enterprise
wide hardware and software asset inventory provides
the essential “evidence” agencies use to detect
unlicensed and/or unauthorized IT assets - critical to
identifying potential security vulnerabilities.
Flexera Software’s App Portal, a universal enterprise
app store, enables Federal agencies to have improved
software governance while providing end user
self-service. FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises
and App Portal are integrated solutions that allow
organizations to proactively maintain license
compliance, mitigate security risk and reduce IT
operational and software costs.
Through the extensive asset and entitlement data
collection and analysis provided by FlexNet Manager
Suite, agencies can reduce their security risk related
to both hardware and software installed and in
use in the environment. Flexera Software’s solution
interoperates with and complements existing IT Service
Management (ITSM) tools, inventory/deployment
solutions, and endpoint management tools, such
as BMC, ServiceNow, SCCM, and IBM Endpoint
Manager (IEM).
Advanced Visibility, Control and Security
FlexNet Manager Suite provides visibility and control
of the IT environment by collecting and analyzing
comprehensive hardware and software inventory
data. This data can be collected and aggregated
from multiple sources, including Flexera Software’s
own discovery technology as well as third party
tools that may already be deployed in the IT
environment. It offers extensive reporting capabilities
on assets installed in the environment. This allows
rationalization and consolidation of both hardware
and software assets to reduce ongoing costs and
mitigate risks that unused and/or non-standard assets
may be misappropriated for malicious purposes.
For software assets, the FlexNet Manager Suite
Management Dashboard also shows licensed and
unlicensed installations. Software installations can
pose security risks, as in the case where unlicensed or
unauthorized software has been installed. Agencies
must have processes in place to control software
installations and only deploy approved software.
Flexera Software App Portal, the universal app store,
enforces continual software license compliance and
controls software deployment, while increasing end
user satisfaction and the efficiency of service delivery.
End users select from the approved software and
hardware in the App Portal catalog which reduces
the likelihood of downloads and installations of
unauthorized applications. The enterprise app store
ensures that governance is in place to check license
availability and obtain proper approvals. Additional
processes should further mitigate the risk by ensuring
that software identified by FlexNet Manager Suite as
unauthorized, is removed.
Moreover, as Federal agencies seek to implement
more comprehensive software tagging strategies,
Flexera Software provides additional tools to create
ISO-19770-2 compliant tags and insert them into
proprietary software assets developed by the
government, or those created without software tags
by independent software vendors. FlexNet Manager
Suite can also collect and read these tags, aiding in
the software inventory and management process.

Discovery, Inventory and Software Identification
FlexNet Manager Suite’s software inventory capabilities
leverage the most comprehensive methods available for
detecting and collecting “evidence” on the network that can
be used for identifying software. Those include:
• Discovery of ISO-19770-2 Software Tags: Comprehensive
software tag discovery and inventory support that adheres
to the ISO 19770-2 standard.
• Discovery of Customer-generated Software Tags: Discovery
and recognition of Federal agency-created software tags
(e.g. using tools such as Flexera Software’s AdminStudio)
that are ISO-10770-2 Compliant.
• Multi-platform Discovery and Inventory: agent and
agentless technologies collect file, registry, package and
other evidence across Windows, Linux, UNIX and Mac
OS platforms, virtual machines, and hard partitions.
Application usage data may also be collected.
• Application Recognition Library: A proprietary Application
Recognition Library capable of identifying more than
150,000 applications across more than 16,000 publishers,
using ISO tags, file, registry, package and other evidence.
FlexNet Manager Suite provides specialized discovery and
inventory capabilities not found in other solutions, including
discovery and inventory of virtual environments (VMware,
Microsoft Hyper-V, and Citrix XenApp, XenDesktop), Oracle
databases, options, management packs and more.
Hardware Asset Management
All IP addressable hardware, including desktops, laptops,
servers, printers and routers can be discovered and managed
using FlexNet Manager Platform. It tracks an extensive set of
hardware asset properties in its asset management database
(AMDB) including:
• Identification: Serial number, asset tag, part number,
manufacturer, model, parent/child relationship with
other assets…
• Purchasing data: Purchase order number, purchase order
date, price, vendor, acquisition mode (purchased, leased,
loaned, rented, etc.), delivery date…
• Financial Data: Warranty, depreciation (current/residual
values, depreciation method…), chargeback
(monthly charge)…
Figure 1: FlexNet Manager Suite Management Dashboard
579,995
5
$11.9M
Unlicensed installation
Publishers with the most products in breach
Licenses under-consumed
by 5% or more
Total devices: 1,399
Devices missing for over
60 days
Contracts expiring within
next 30 days
Over spend ($)
Publishers in breach
Under purchased ($)
53 2482
Discovered devices with
alerts
Contracts renewals within
next 30 days
02
Licensed installations
7%
Management Dashboard
Management
Dashboard
License
Compliance
Hardware
Assets
Discovery
Inventory
Enterprise Procurement
Management Reports SAP

• User/group allocation: Location, cost center, business unit,
user assigned to the asset…
• Technical: Any relevant technical details associated with
the asset…
• Contractual: Relationship with contracts, vendors and
payment schedules…
• Asset status: Assets can be purchased, installed, in stock,
disposed, retired…
• Baseline tracking of assets: Identify changes for each asset
over time; computers missing or changed are flagged.
(supports tracking of IMAC—Installs, Moves, Adds
and Changes)...
Software Asset Management and License Optimization
FlexNet Manager Suite is able to discover authorized
(managed) and unauthorized (unmanaged) software on the
network. Because unauthorized software is unmanaged, it is
vulnerable to being exploited as a pivot to other IT assets if
not removed or managed. In addition, a complete, accurate,
and timely software inventory is essential to support awareness
and effective control of software vulnerabilities and security
configuration settings.
• Computer or device name
• IP address
• Ethernet MAC Address
• Host name
• Serial number
• Manufacturer
• Model
• Calculated user
• Operating system
• Service pack
• Processors
• Cores
• Threads
• Sockets
• Processor type
• Clock speed
• RAM
• Disk
• Hard drives
• Display adapters
• Network cards
• Master asset
• Status
• Category
• Asset type
• Asset tag
• Part number
• Location
• Corporate unit
• Cost center
• Assigned user
• Acquisition mode
• Warranty type
• Delivery date
• End of warranty
• Current value
• Residual value
• Depreciation method
• Depreciation period
• Depreciation rate
A comprehensive list of hardware asset data that can be tracked and managed by FlexNet Manager Suite includes:
FlexNet Manager Suite delivers a comprehensive software asset
management solution that includes:
• Automated identification and normalization of software
titles, versions and editions installed and/or in use in the IT
environment. It utilizes its Application Recognition Library
and support for many complex license models to streamline
this process.
• Fully automated purchase order processing— imported
purchase orders (‘POs’) can update existing licenses or
generate new licenses in the asset management repository,
as necessary, without any operator interaction.
• Accurate reconciliation of software inventory and purchases
to generate a license compliance position using its Stock
Keeping Unit (SKU) Library.
FlexNet Manager Suite includes a full contract management
module that allows Federal agencies to keep track of contract
renewal and expiration dates. This helps agencies ensure that
software maintenance doesn’t lapse so that the latest version
of software and security patches are available, minimizing the
security risk.
Moreover, FlexNet Manager Suite license optimization
solutions leverage software license entitlements (product use
rights) and detailed usage data to determine an optimized
license position. This reduces license consumption and
ongoing software costs.

FlexNet Manager Suite allows Federal agencies to:
• Mitigate security risks associated with unauthorized software
• Identify software with lapsed maintenance contracts,
minimizing unpatched software
• Maintain continuous license compliance to reduce
software audit risk and avoid unbudgeted expenses
• Provide a ‘single source of truth’ for purposes of
negotiating Enterprise License Agreements
• Consolidate vendors and applications
• Reduce maintenance on unused software and/or versions
that are no longer covered by vendor support
• Reharvest unused or under used application licenses
to defer new license purchases
• Optimize license consumption to reduce ongoing
software spend
• Accurately charge back costs to individual cost centers
• More effectively negotiate software contracts including
Enterprise License Agreements
• Proactively manage software licenses throughout the
product lifecycle
FlexNet Manager Suite for Enterprises
The foundation of FlexNet Manager Suite is FlexNet Manager
Platform which provides scalable hardware and software asset
management functionality across more than 16,000 software
publishers and 150,000 applications. The Platform provides
insight into installed hardware, software and application usage
while delivering purchased versus installed license reconciliation
and software license compliance. The Platform also provides
Software License Optimization for desktop applications.
FlexNet Manager Suite server product license optimization
solutions include:
• FlexNet Manager for IBM
• FlexNet Manager for Microsoft
• FlexNet Manager for Oracle
• FlexNet Manager for SAP Applications
• FlexNet Manager for Symantec
• FlexNet Manager for VMware
• FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications
These Optimization solutions are built on top of FlexNet
Manager Platform and enable organizations to implement
comprehensive software license management and contract
optimization strategies that save time, enable continuous
license compliance and reduce ongoing software costs.
Additional Controls to Further Tighten Security
Application sprawl and poorly managed applications increase
cybersecurity risks. For instance, the ability of employees to
circumvent IT processes and download applications directly
from the web increases the possibility that unauthorized
software containing malware or other vulnerabilities can find
its way to the network. Flexera Software App Portal, a universal
enterprise app store, helps eliminate employee end-runs around
IT by providing an employee-friendly app store environment
as the sole source for requesting and downloading agency-
approved and licensed enterprise applications.
Moreover, the more expansive the application estate, the
more IT resources needed to manage those applications and
ensure they are up to date and all security patches applied.
Accordingly, Application Readiness best practices dictate
that the Federal government’s application estate should be
rationalized on a continual basis to retire software from
the estate that is not being used or that is duplicative. The
AdminStudio Inventory and Rationalization solution is another
critical tool in the cybersecurity arsenal. It helps agencies
discover, assess, and consolidate their application portfolio,
enabling them to retire software assets that are no longer
needed or used, and instead focus their limited IT resources
supporting and securing only those applications that remain
strategic to the agency’s mission.
• Vendor/Publisher
• Purchase order number
• Purchase date
• Description
• Quantity
• Part number/SKU
• Agreement date
• Contract Expiry date
• Invoice number
• Invoice date
• Cost
• Shipping date
• Shipping location
• Location
• Corporate unit
• Cost center
• Request number
• Request date
• Requestor
• Authorized by
• Processed by
• License keys
A comprehensive list of software asset data that can be tracked and managed by FlexNet Manager Suite includes:

Flexera Software LLC
(Global Headquarters):
+1 800-809-5659
United Kingdom (Europe,
Middle East Headquarters):
+44 870-871-1111
+44 870-873-6300
Australia (Asia,
Pacific Headquarters):
+61 3-9895-2000
For more office locations visit:
www.flexerasoftware.com
Copyright © 2015 Flexera Software LLC. All other brand and product names mentioned herein may be the trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners.
SLO_Cybersecurity_DS_July15
FlexNet Manager Suite and App Portal Reduce Cybersecurity and Compliance Risk While
Delivering Cost Savings on Hardware and Software Assets
About Flexera Software
Flexera Software helps application producers and enterprises
increase application usage and the value they derive from their
software. Our next-generation software licensing, compliance
and installation solutions are essential to ensure continuous
licensing compliance, optimized software investments and to
future-proof businesses against the risks and costs of constantly
changing technology. Over 80,000 customers turn to Flexera
Software as a trusted and neutral source for the knowledge and
expertise we have gained as the marketplace leader for over 25
years and for the automation and intelligence designed into our
products. For more information, please go to:
www.flexerasoftware.com
Next Steps:
To learn more about optimizing your software license
management and IT service management processes –
please visit www.flexerasoftware.com/SLO.