We’ve heard it a thousand times: “We don’t need SAM anymore because Adobe and Microsoft went to the cloud and we just buy site licenses for everything now.” In other words: “We can’t win.” But in our opinion, now is not the time to surrender and “pay them what they want.” In the age of cloud- and subscription-based […]
With any system that maintains a database of computers, a critical question is how each record is uniquely identified. For many organizations, identifying computers simply by Computer Name is sufficient – but there can be reasons to consider other data points. In particular, if computer names are not well regulated, it is safer to create […]
During installation of the K2 client, a “Department” field can be placed on the client. This value is then sent from KeyAccess to KeyServer, and can be used in a rule to populate divisions appropriately. This is just one of various ways to help automate placement of computers into divisions. Whenever possible you will want […]
Any organization using KeyServer has a powerful tool for learning how and where computers and software are being used. Using KeyServer, policies can be configured which specify how product usage should be handled – ignored, denied, observed, or actively managed. By setting up such policies, you will be able to understand usage patterns and make […]
Though availability maps have been around since the 7.2 version of KeyServer, we’ve found that many K2 administrators either still aren’t aware of them, or they just aren’t sure where to start when it comes to implementing them. Therefore, we’ve put together the video above to help you get going. If you’d prefer to read through the instructions, […]
Sassafras supplies an API that third party vendors use to build KeyServer support directly into their products. A vendor builds a custom license (.lic) file that includes basic details (such as the enabled count for the Policy) while the KeyServer Administrator retains the ability to work with settings such as Scope, Pools, Schedules, Custom Messages, […]
Last year Apple announced that High Siera (10.13) would be the last version of OS X to support 32 bit applications. Furthermore, starting in 2018, beta versions of the current OS (10.13.4) show a warning message when a 32 bit program launches. Sassafras has been preparing for this transition and will supply 64-bit versions of […]
Stata for Mac is frequently managed by K2. With the release of KeyAccess 7.4.0.7, the way that the Stata program is identified has been changed, to allow distinct entries for different editions of Stata. If the Product Recognition Service (PRS) is enabled within K2, standard definitions for Stata have automatically been updated. If however, PRS […]
The collection and analysis of software license entitlement data in software purchase records is essential to Software Asset Management best practices around compliance analysis and overspend reporting for cost reduction efforts. It is not possible for a software asset manager to complete the full disposition of their duties without comparing software procurement levels to deployment, consumption, […]
Best Practices for correctly configuring Policies to track and manage software usage. K2-KeyServer can conduct many activities to support your organization’s IT management goals. It handles Software Asset Management (SAM), Hardware Asset Management (HAM), Software License Management (SLM), software usage tracking and optimization of computing resources (both software and hardware). K2 also supports IT Procurement […]