What is Application Management?
Application management covers best practices, techniques and procedures that are used to ensure application’s optimal operation, performance and efficiency. AM is done by organizations that use different applications to manage their application’s operation, maintenance, versioning, and upgrading.
Application Management (AM) is different from Application Lifetime Management (ALM) that handles the product lifecycle management (governance, development, and maintenance) of computer programs by the developing company. It encompasses requirements management, software architecture, computer programming, software testing, software maintenance, change management, continuous integration, project management, and release management. Link to Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_lifecycle_management
What is OpenLM?
OpenLM is a license management software that is utilized by organizations to manage and optimize the utilization of their applications. OpenLM is a Software Assets Management for Engineering Licensing that is focusing on the management and optimization of licenses that are managed by a License Server.
How Application Management is connected to License Management?
Licensing is a significant aspect in Application Management and closely relates to the operation of the applications within the organization.
There are many elements related to licenses, we will mention only a few:
- Licensing compliance is a major risk for organizations using software applications. In case of failure to comply, organizations can face significant costs and disrupted operations.
- Applications are tightly linked to software licensing. The inability of our users in the organization to have access to the applications that they need reduces productivity and frustrates our users.
- Typically, software vendors sell different levels of applications based on the functionality supported. This is a common way of allowing their customers to select the level that best meets their needs. Access to the different application levels is typically controlled by the application license mechanism.
- When it comes to applications, sometimes geography is a factor. For instance, the application is only accessible from one continent or country. These limitations are generally imposed by the vendors in order to enable different pricing, to different users groups within the same company. The company pays different prices for the same application when it is accessed by users on different continents. Another reason for such limitations are related to the ability of the software vendor to charge more for applications that run around the clock by users on different continents.
Summary
License management is an integral part of application management. Hence, OpenLM is a significant player in the Application Management arena. Many factors related to the organization’s ability to use an application are directly related to the application’s license.