Supercharge Your Software Recognition with Xensam’s New Custom Inventory Capabilities
Building On Xensam’s State-of-the-Art Software Normalization
Across the board, the most common struggle IT professionals tell us they’re grappling with is the need for a single source of truth across their hybrid, decentralized software and hardware environments. Our platform was designed to be that single source of truth.
To achieve this, we knew that the data our system gathered had to be comprehensive, and it had to be accurate. This ethos has put Xensam at the absolute forefront of the market for both software applications and vendors recognized, with a software library of more than 480,000 SaaS and on-premise applications. But being market leaders isn’t enough. Innovation is our goal, and we have a groundbreaking new feature to share with you.
Today, our platform recognizes applications based on the main executable and the registry key. We inventory application data alongside its metadata attributes (including license requirements, release date, EOL, up-and down-grade paths, and GDPR compliance) from all our customers and create applications with unique recognition rules.
However, recognizing applications is challenging. Some vendors and applications don’t store all the information about the software and its metadata in the main executable or registry key. This leaves out crucial information like which edition the application is or if it’s an evaluation/trial installation. Instead, this data is stored in custom paths in the registry or local files in the installation folder. Our Xearch agent is making history as the first agent on the market able to gather such granular data.
Making Leaps with Custom Inventory Innovation
Our new custom inventory innovation enables you to go even deeper into the data and detect the actual usage of modules or add-ons within a software application. This is in addition to the Active Usage data on each of these metrics.
You can also gather any file type from the installation folder, as well as data from the registry which contains valuable information about the application. For instance, data that allows you to separate usage of specific expensive editions and differentiate between trial software and purchased software.
This solution is natively built into the Xearch agent and made available to all customers at no extra cost. You can also add custom inventory rules upon request, and the Xource team adds new rules daily to ensure that applications are recognized properly with the correct data. Similar to the Web Apps inventory feature, there is no need for ongoing agent upgrades as the Custom Inventory rules are remotely sent to each agent endpoint once added, similar to a self-updating agent.
Explore Our Custom Inventory Capabilities in Action
Let’s explore a few examples of the new custom inventory function in action with common applications!
1 I Recognize Separate Products in Autodesk AutoCAD
AutoCAD is an application that can be purchased and used on its own, but can also be purchased as different products that are built on the same data, like:
- AutoCAD Architecture
- AutoCAD Electrical
- AutoCAD Map 3D
- AutoCAD Mechanical
- AutoCAD MEP
- AutoCAD Plan 3D
- AutoCAD Civil 3D
They all use the same executable and there is no difference in the metadata:
The difference is within the registry keys, where we can separate the recognition and show the amount of installations for each product:
These important differences are housed within the registry keys, which allow separate recognition of each product and shows the amount of installations for each product. But since they use the same executable, it also means that the application usage will be the same for each product:
With the regular inventoried data that all SAM tools gather today there is no way to separate the usage for these products that are using the same executable.
With Xensam’s custom inventory solution, you can go deeper into the data and find traces of which products are being used. You can separate both the total usage and Active Usage for each product. This is not something that any other SAM tool on the market can do today. Xensam is solving it directly through Xearch, and making it available for all customers instantly.
The agent will now inventory new executables for each product and version, then recognize the new executables as their own application:
2 I Capture Different Editions of Quest Toad for Oracle
Toad for Oracle can be purchased in separate editions with unique content and prices. Our new custom inventory functionality yields data about the edition, inventory those as actual registry keys, and groups them with the primary executable.
3 I Differentiate Paid and Trial Versions of Fournova Tower
Another difficulty for all SAM tools is to differentiate between a paid or trial edition and paid software. Usually when you download a trial you get the same functionalities and same data as the paid edition. Therefore, it’s difficult to separate recognition between paid and trial versions.
With our new custom inventory solution we can also look for specific files in the filesystem and yield data from them. For instance, inside the installation folder for Fournova Tower in the raw data inventory, there is a license file that indicates if it’s a trial:
The new custom inventory feature allows the specific targeting of this file and inventory as its own data row. Together with the main executable, they can be grouped together and recognized as a trial:
The Benefits of Supercharged Software Normalization
This new custom inventory feature is state of the art. There is no other SAM platform or inventory technology available that provides data at this level of specificity and granularity. But we don’t just want better data for the sake of better data. We want better data so that our users can achieve greater cost savings, more accurate compliance, and improved security. Better data means more comprehensive control of your hybrid IT environment.
With more granular information on application editions, alternate products, and paid and trial software versions, you can better understand where your software spend is going, how it’s being utilized, and where enhancements can be made.
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