As a Cloud customer, you see FlexNet Manager 2019 R2 as just another monthly update. The highlight of this particular update is license reconciliation transparency, allowing you to understand why users or devices are linked (or not linked) to licenses. But if you are an on-premises customer, this is the first release since March 2019.  It contains features we've introduced over the past few months in our Cloud environment (with one exception, but we are working to close that gap). For a detailed list of the features, you can go to our Helpnet Documentation page. In this post, I would like to focus your attention on what we believe will be the most important additions: #1 - Transparency, transparency, transparency Did I mention that we introduced "transparency" capabilities in FlexNet Manager 2019 R2?  In fact, we added 2 distinct capabilities in this area: - File evidence transparency, to help you understand results of application recognition - License calculation transparency, to let you know why a license included, or does not include, specific devices or users - Oracle DB transparency is available in FlexNet Manager Cloud already and will be available as a native on premises capability in a future release #2 - Targeting and scheduling You can now define when and where our Agent is deployed (e.g. per location, OS type, etc.) and which Beacons agents are allowed to communicate with. #3 - Integrations - We've added integration with KVM virtualization technologies - FlexNet Manager integration is now certified with ServiceNow New York release - Our solution is verified against the latest "Verified by Oracle" requirements (2019 R2) - Citrix integration now supports Application Groups - FlexNet Manager for SAP supports Load Balanced environments - Support for Role-based access for AWS integration #4 - Other enhancements - 64-bit, signed MacOS agent, with support for Catalina (10.15) release - Enhanced Java discovery and recognition (publishers and versions) We've also added many other improvements, listed in our release documentation. We encourage you to review these as we believe they will provide improved usability, quality and value delivered by our solution. To download this release, please go to Product and License center. The recording of the release webinar is available via this link.   ... View more

If you're managing a large enterprise, you probably have Oracle products in your environment. And if you do, then I bet Oracle is one of the largest software vendors by spend in your environment. Having FlexNet Manager gives you the ability to manage your Oracle licenses and optimize your Oracle license investments. FlexNet Manager is also "Verified by Oracle," which is important.  But what does being "Verified by Oracle" mean? In short, it means that our verified tools (FlexNet Manager and Nova Ratio) collect all the data required by Oracle when performing a license audit for Oracle Database or when they're engaged in consulting activities aimed at maximizing the value of your Oracle Database investments. This will allow you to avoid having to deploy Oracle's scripts during those activities, accelerating those activities and reducing risks associated with introducing new components to your server environments. What being "Verified by Oracle" does not mean is that you automatically get unique licensing insights about Oracle Database.  It also doesn't mean the verified tool can help you to effectively manage license compliance for other Oracle applications. We at Flexera have incorporated many years of licensing expertise to provide you with a solution that not only collects data needed by Oracle during their activities, but also a solution which allows you to manage and optimize your Oracle license investments (not just Oracle Database investments, but also Java SE, WebLogic, EBS, Hyperion, PeopleSoft and other applications). Simply being "Verified by Oracle" doesn't deliver that benefit. You can check our our November 2018 webinar discussing our capabilities for more information and some important hints about managing your Oracle licenses. Don't get me wrong, it is important to be "Verified by Oracle".  But that's only a beginning. After all, your goal is to optimize your investments, not just shorten audits. ... View more

We are pleased to announce that our integration between FlexNet Manager and ServiceNow has been certified against the ServiceNow New York release. Customers are able to obtain the integration directly from ServiceNow Store. If you aren't using New York release yet, our integration works with multiple releases of ServiceNow. And appropriate integrations for previous releases are available from ServiceNow Store. ... View more

As a follow up to the notification email sent on Friday, July 12, 2019, we are providing the following answers to commonly asked questions. Which products does this apply to? The notice refers to a group of products in Flexera’s Technology Spend Optimization and Software Vulnerability Management solution areas.  A summary of the products affected is below, along with a high-level overview of expected timing of the migrations: Product Amazon Web Services GoodData FlexNet Manager Suite (including all of its individual components for managing Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, Symantec, VMware and Platform).  Personal data will begin to be stored in AWS beginning late August 2019. Personal data will begin to be stored in GoodData beginning  late 2019/early 2020. FlexNet Manager for SAP Personal data will begin to be stored in AWS beginning late 2019/early 2020. Personal data will begin to be stored in GoodData beginning  late 2019/early 2020. Optima/CMP N/A (Optima and CMP products already store personal data in Amazon Web Services.) Personal data will begin to be stored in GoodData beginning  late 2019/early 2020. SaaS Manager N/A (SaaS Manager already stores data in Amazon Web Services.) Personal data will begin to be stored in GoodData beginning September 2019. Software Vulnerability Manager (including Corporate Software Inspector) Personal data will begin to be stored in AWS beginning late 2019/early 2020. Personal data will begin to be stored in GoodData beginning late 2019/early 2020.   What is the expected timing for these migrations? There is no single time when a migration will happen since the changes will happen over time and vary by product. FlexNet Manager Suite is introducing the Oracle Database Transparency feature in its August 2019 update to FNMS Cloud (2019 R1.5). This will be the first feature to permanently store data in AWS.   This feature is initially disabled for all customers. Customers may request to 'opt-in' to beginning using this feature at any time after the 2019 R1.5 release is live by opening a Support Case with the request (Get Support > Open New Case in navigation). This feature will be enabled for all customers starting with September 2019 update (FNMS 2019 R1.6).  Customers who do not wish to allow storage of any data in AWS, must open a Support Case with the request (Get Support > Open New Case in navigation). Over time, we will start pushing some additional data (e.g. inventory and license reconciliation data) into AWS as part of our ongoing modernization efforts, with a goal to over time transition the product and all its data storage into AWS data stores.  Flexera SaaS Manager will begin sending data to GoodData starting September as part of its enhancements to dashboarding capabilities. FlexNet Manager Suite, SaaS Manager and Optima/CMP will begin sending data to GoodData as part of Common Spend Analytics capabilities, expected to have its first release late 2019/early 2020. Why are we transitioning to AWS? As Flexera’s products portfolio continues to grow, we are focusing on delivering unified Flexera solutions.  SaaS approach allows us to deliver these solutions faster, with better user experience and in a more agile manner by taking advantage of latest cloud-technologies, global locations and other benefits of AWS.  You will benefit by gaining access to the latest capabilities and improving overall management of your IT assets without the need to maintain our solutions. Why are we using GoodData? GoodData provides the best fit for analytics capabilities for unified Flexera solutions.  It allows Flexera engineering to focus on delivering information via dashboards and reports, rather than building analytics capabilities. This will benefit you by providing better insights into your managed environment, allowing you to focus on optimizing costs, efficiency and internal standards compliance within your environment. What is required of you? No action is required. You will see seamless transition as we modernize our solutions and deliver replacement and new capabilities. What if you object? If you have a reasonable objection to the migration (meaning that you have reasonable doubts as to whether AWS and/or GoodData will be able to comply with the law or the contractual arrangements Flexera has entered into with you), you must communicate your objection to Flexera in writing and we will schedule time to discuss your objection. If the parties are unable to find a workable go-forward solution, you will be required to remove any personal data from the service, or Flexera will be restricted from delivering the service to you. ... View more

July 17, 2019 update: We've now concluded our review of 1-Level IBM bundle tests and the updated content will be released as follows: FlexNet Manager Suite Cloud - July 29th, 2019 FlexNet Manager Suite on premises - August 22nd, 2019 Please note, if you're on FlexNet Manager Suite 2018 R2 or earlier release, you'll need to apply a patch before importing the new bundle library.  More information about the patch (and how to obtain it) is available in this announcement. As a reminder, once you import the new bundle library and reconciliation process has run, you'll see new license recommendations for IBM Bundle products. The old recommendations based on multi-level bundles will be removed. You'll then be able to either accept or ignore the recommendations based on your current process.   June 25th, 2019 update: I've been receiving many inquiries about the release date for this library change. Because of a delay in completing our testing, we've pushed it to July.  Why? We've undertaken extensive testing, including testing against the last two releases (2018 R2 and 2019 R1). Because we're still reviewing our results this week, we've decided to push the update in order to finalize our review. The good news is the results are meeting our expectations, so this change will happen in the next couple of weeks.   IBM Bundle Library content structure change After extensive consultations with various stakeholders, including customers, partners and Flexera Professional Services, we're making a change to our IBM multi-product bundle library structure. Background IBM multi-product licenses are typically bundles of multiple applications. In many cases, these license bundles might be a component of another license bundle. As a result, a single license may represent many applications via sub-bundle relationships as illustrated below:  Management of this structure is challenging due to a potentially large number of components, which can often be installed across multiple devices.  FlexNet Manager Suite automatically identifies IBM bundle licenses by matching inventory against applications identified on a single device. Some customers prefer to create their own IBM Bundle licenses, especially when applications of the bundle license are installed on multiple devices.  Based on our research and discussions, we've decided to update the IBM multi-product or bundle license library in order to improve usability of our content. What is changing? The IBM bundle library content will be revised and will result in a change in the number of applications that are part of a bundle license. In many cases, you'll see fewer application components in the IBM bundle license. Based on stakeholder feedback, this will make it easier to understand IBM bundle licenses and assist IBM license administrators to manage components included in IBM bundle licenses. When will this change take place? The changes to the bundle library will be effective with the first update of the FlexNet Manager Suite content in June 2019. How will this change impact me? All customers with IBM multi product licenses will see new license recommendations based on the new IBM bundle library content.  If you've configured FlexNet manager Suite to automatically accept FlexNet Manager Suite’s IBM bundle identification, you can continue to accept IBM bundle identification If your configuration currently ignores our bundle identification, and you chose to manually create their IBM Bundle licenses, you might now wish inspect the new proposed license changes from our revised content and reduce or even eliminate manual work of configuring IBM Bundles  You can configure these settings in the Purchases tab of the System Settings page. If you have any questions regarding this change, please contact Customer Support, your Customer Success Manager or contact us on Flexera Community. ... View more

As previously announced in the FlexNet Manager blog post, we are moving to monthly updates for our FlexNet Manager Suite Cloud environment. The first monthly update are now being released to User Acceptance Testing  (UAT) environments. UAT environment in European Union (EU) has been updated today, Thursday 11th of April 2019. UAT environment in North America (NA) will be updated on Sunday, 14th of April 2019. Production environments are scheduled to be updated one week later.  We encourage you to test the changes in UAT environment and review the release information on our HelpNet site.  This release includes: - An update to our ServiceNow integration (resolving an issue with export of data to ServiceNow in some environments) - Updated ServiceNow integration certification with ServiceNow Madrid release - Update to IBM PVU Consumption report   ... View more