Why TagVault.org? And Why Now?

By Howard Hastings - Chairman of the Board of TagVault.org

When I started in IT we only had mainframes. Those of us managing these systems knew exactly what software was installed, and understood the contracts including all the critical licensing terms and conditions – it was a key part of our jobs.  That was long ago and things have changed dramatically since then ... but not always for the better!

When computing became distributed, so did responsibility. Different people started managing each aspect of the infrastructure, and these people each had their own ideas about management tools and management styles. Soon, organizations realized that no one individual had all the crucial details about the full spectrum of installed software, licensing considerations or contractual obligations. Further, none or few of the now numerous tools were compatible. The tools tasked with software inventory proved themselves to be providing only best guesses, and then only for a portion of the actual installed software – the rest they couldn’t even report on. To make matters worse, the software publishers themselves could rarely conduct a credible 3rd party audit for their own software products. Yet, all the while, organizations of all sizes were being threatened and coerced into buying additional licenses and sometimes even paying fines in the name of “software license compliance” from those same software publishers and their increasingly powerful software associations.

Before continuing the saga, I feel it’s important to note that during my career I’ve been an IT practitioner, manager and executive, an instructor and curriculum advisor/contractor for the SIIA’s Certified Software Manager software license compliance course, an ITSM and ITAM consultant including defense against 3rd-party software audits, an expert witness for Federal software copyright infringement cases, and a product strategist, manager and evangelist for several software publishers. I believe I have a reasonably in-depth and fair 360° perspective on these issues.

Given that experience, when the opportunity arose a number of years ago to become involved with drafting the IEC/ISO 19770-2 standard I jumped headfirst into the project. Since then, I watched as the wheels of international bureaucracy turn towards the ultimate prize: ratification and publishing of what I believe will be a groundbreaking standard that, for the first time, will provide the ability for definitive and authoritative identification of software installations.

Of course, for the 19770-2 standard to deliver on its promised benefits, software publishers must embrace and implement the standard by shipping software products that comply with the standard. Correspondingly, inventory tool providers must modify their products to incorporate data collection techniques and reporting based on the availability of software identification tags as specified in the standard. This is not a trivial matter, since there is some level of investment required. THis brings us to the reason for TagVault.org...

To ensure that the software publishers and inventory tool providers get onboard and start delivering, software consumers around the globe, as represented by commercial, governmental and non-profit organizations, must join together to demand these changes. TagVault.org was formed in part to act as an unbiased, community-based focal point to galvanize these voices. But, most importantly, TagVault.org’s central mission is to provide registration and certification of software identification tags to eliminate the “best guess” failings of all past product recognition approaches.  TagVault.org exists to ensure that software identification data provided by publishers and used by tools and services as well as end-users is consistent across any platform or vendor.

With the 19770-2 standard nearing its final stage, the time is upon us to forever change the way in which software is managed and software license compliance is determined. In essence, we will change the software industry itself for the better. Please join my colleagues and me on this historic journey!