Snow Software, the global leader in technology intelligence, today announced new capabilities to help organizations optimize cloud technologies at a time when consumption is increasing yet budgets are tightening. The newly released solutions, including Bring Your Own License (BYOL) optimization for Snow Commander and enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) insights, provide IT and business leaders with the perspective they need to get the most out of their technology investments as they adjust to the new normal.
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“Organizations around the world continue to grapple with new ways of working and the significant impact that has on technology consumption”
Reliance on the cloud has risen sharply in response to the global pandemic. A recent Snow survey found that 76% of IT leaders have increased their use of cloud infrastructures such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, and over half increased their use of cloud-based applications. This surge is happening at a time when many organizations are looking to reduce or cut IT spend, making it essential for organizations to control and understand cloud usage.
“Organizations around the world continue to grapple with new ways of working and the significant impact that has on technology consumption,” said Sanjay Castelino, Chief Product Officer at Snow. “Cloud is a critical resource for enterprises looking to quickly shift or scale, but they require a different approach to efficiently and effectively manage costs. With Snow’s latest release, we bring together the intelligence IT needs to get a complete view of their technology landscape and maximize the value of all their investments in this rapidly shifting market.”
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Identify Cloud Savings
BYOL can provide significant cost savings, yet most organizations struggle to leverage these opportunities due to improper tooling, complex agreements and lack of awareness. Snow’s new BYOL optimization feature identifies how to maximize Windows Server and SQL Server Azure Hybrid Benefit savings as well as reduce license non-compliance risk in Azure and AWS.
Available in Snow Commander, this functionality is the first of its kind for a cloud management platform. It also marks the first time that Snow is bringing together cloud management and software asset management capabilities to help organizations identify, understand and more efficiently manage their software and cloud investments.
The latest version of Snow Commander also provides new cloud expense management features such as support for billing tags, customizable cloud markups and discounts, cost anomaly detection and enhanced billing retrieval.
Manage SaaS Sprawl
While SaaS applications have become increasingly popular in the enterprise over the past several years, they are especially critical today as organizations strive to support working from anywhere. This shift will have a lasting impact on IT budgets – in Snow’s recent cloud survey, 66% of IT leaders said they would continue to use the cloud applications and services that were implemented to enable remote work.
Snow’s advanced SaaS management capabilities are designed for enterprise IT and business leaders to gain visibility, optimize subscriptions and rein in costs. New capabilities include increased usage information on Microsoft 365 (M365) applications such as Teams, SharePoint, Yammer and OneDrive, greater visibility into specific organization structures such as department or region and expanded support for complex global M365 contracts that span multiple tenants.
Additional Features for the New Normal
Driven by increasing digital transformation efforts, IDC found that global enterprise applications market grew 7.5% year-over-year in 2019 to reach $224.6 billion in revenue. To help IT and business leaders maximize these investments, Snow has released additional capabilities to discover, inventory and manage enterprise software, while minimizing risk, across the entire technology ecosystem such as:
- Snow Optimizer for SAP now includes the Supermaster feature, enabling large enterprises to consolidate and monitor all SAP licenses across multiple brands, divisions and entities.
- Snow has expanded visibility into Oracle usage to help identify cost savings opportunities and areas of license non-compliance.
- Snow’s Risk Monitor now includes proactive alerts for software vulnerabilities and compliance risks, helping IT and security teams mitigate intensifying cybersecurity threats.