in short:
Changes in vendor licensing are reshaping major publishers’ software spending, update planning, AI cost governance and audit risk. Learn how to build the visibility and shared fact base you need to take action before cost and compliance pressures narrow your choices.
Software licensing becomes more difficult to manage and more error-prone. Vendors are changing pricing models, adding AI-related provisions, scrapping long-term agreements, and forcing subscription-first business models. For many organizations, these shifts have put real pressure on costs, compliance, renewal planning and operating budgets that leaders need to defend.
SHI’s software licensing experts created this guide to help you understand what’s changing, where risks may arise, and how to prepare before renewal or audit enforcement goes awry. It covers major software publishers and cloud providers, including:
What our guide covers
The guide provides IT, procurement, software asset management, IT asset management and finance teams with a common perspective on future decisions, including:
- M365 price changes and support end date.
- Oracle Java exposure and database support changes.
- SAP maintains cliff and FUE access rules.
- ServiceNow AI packaging and consumer pricing.
- VMware moves from Broadcom to subscription-only licensing.
where risks may arise
Small licensing decisions can have long-term consequences. Updates starting from the wrong baseline can lead to overspending. Cloud workloads without clear cost ownership can turn AI experiments into production expenditures without a responsible owner. Weak entitlement data can increase audit risk before your team has time to correct it.
how to move forward
The e-book also presents practical approaches to software spend optimization. Start by building a complete view of contracts, entitlements, usage, renewal dates and spend for your highest priority suppliers.
From there, use this fact base to identify underused software, over-provisioned access, inconsistent terminology, and the financial impact of taking no action.
The job also depends on consistency. When IT, procurement, finance and business teams work from the same facts, they can focus on the riskiest renewals, publisher changes and governance decisions.
If you’re preparing for upcoming updates, evaluating cloud and AI investments, or strengthening software governance, use this guide to understand your current risk profile, where vendor changes might impact your roadmap, and where focused action can reduce risk without slowing down modernization.
Next step
Download the e-book below to learn about significant software licensing changes. Talk to an SHI licensing expert to get industry-leading guidance on how to move forward.
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PakarPBN
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