"Microsoft Customers Find New Licensing Plan Is Bad News, But Not as Bad as Feared"
There's no software-compliance branch of your local sheriff's office, but the license police are a very real threat to your organization and being out of compliance could cost you millions. If your company is suspected of being out of compliance with a software-licensing agreement, you may be asked to perform an audit. Asked is code for, You have 30 days to prove your innocence or we'll sue you.
The core of this "police" force is the Business Software Alliance. The BSA has no direct government ties; rather, it represents its members, similar to the RIAA in the music industry. You need to take the BSA seriously--it has lots of lawyers and knows how to use them.
The group's public radio commercials go something like this: "I would say to businesses that unless you have no current or former unhappy employees, you are only one phone call away from a BSA investigation." Even if you're completely innocent, you can still be audited at your expense. And the instant your organization receives a software-audit request, the IT department must deal with it. You can imagine the disruption that would cause, not to mention the cost.
If you're found out of compliance, penalties can run as high as $150,000 for each unlicensed copy. Many organizations have settled out of court, though you can bet the settlement price per copy will be higher than the purchase price--that's because you are, in fact, breaking the law, and you have little bargaining power. Publicly disclosed settlements listed on the BSA Web page range from $10,000 to $525,000. The BSA has collected more than $83 million in 12 years, with $12 million collected in 2002 alone.
To realize the benefits of cloud-native software, an application must actually be cloud-native—designed to run in the cloud, interacting with disaggregated cloud services, fully manageable as code—to deliver the expected benefits.
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
