Author: Srinivas Ramanujaiah
Downgrading a software license is the process of applying a more recent version of a license to an earlier version. Upgrading a software license occurs when a newer version of a product is released, and your existing licenses can be converted to the most recent edition.
Managing upgrades and downgrades can be a very cumbersome and ongoing task for software asset managers, as each vendor has different rules for supporting upgrades and downgrades. For example, some vendors allow for licenses to be downgraded across editions, while others do not. While difficult, effectively managing your upgrade and downgrade eligibility is critical for accurately tracking software compliance.
ServiceNow SAM provides SAM managers with an automated solution to simplify this cumbersome process:
- ServiceNow automatically delivers upgrade and downgrade rights through weekly Content Library updates. SAM Managers also have the ability to add upgrades and downgrades manually, if they have negotiated terms or specific licensing requirements.
- Based on the upgrade and downgrade rights configured, ServiceNow will automatically reconcile the applicable rights and provide an accurate license compliance position.
ServiceNow SAM delivers content related to upgrades/downgrades (as well as other important data: Product SKUs, lifecycle data, normalization rules, etc.) on a weekly basis. The upgrade and downgrade content has a hierarchical structure. In the example below (see Figure 1) MS Office 2016 Professional Plus would have downgrade rights to MS office 2013 Professional Plus and thereby MS Office 2010 Professional Plus as well.
Microsoft’s Software Assurance (SA) terms also state that licenses with active SA are eligible for upgrades to the most recent version. For entitlements with active SA, ServiceNow would automatically apply upgrade rights. For example, MS office 2013 Professional Plus would have upgrade rights to MS Office 2016 Professional Plus. All these relationships are dependent on Vendor Product Use Terms and hence are automatically shipped to customers through our content service.
Figure 1 Downgrade and Upgrade Rights Content
Using the same product example, the following screenshots provide details on how this concept is modeled in the SAM product. Figure 2 provides a view of the Software Model form, a critical component to SAM. Here you can see the Software Model for MS Office 2016 Professional Plus has a “Next Version” defined as MS Office 2019 Professional Plus, and a downgrade to MS Office 2013 Professional Plus. This data is automatically populated by content services. Downgrade rights on MS Office 2016 Professional Plus entitle the customer to install and use MS office 2013 Professional Plus too.
This configuration is required to accurately determine license compliance results.
Figure 2 Upgrade and Downgrade Rights for MS Office 2016 Professional Plus
Similarly, we can see the downgrade rights configured for MS Office 2019 Professional Plus
Figure 3 Downgrade Rights for MS Office 2019 Professional Plus
ServiceNow SAM, also provides the flexibility for SAM Manager to add their own upgrade/downgrade rights.
Figure 4 Flexibility to add downgrade rights manually
All the downgrade and upgrade rights are taken into consideration by ServiceNow SAM during the reconciliation process, in order to provide an accurate license compliance position. SAM Managers can review exactly how many downgrade rights were transferred/used to the parent software while calculating compliance directly in the License Workbench (Figure 5).
Figure 5 License Compliance- also showing the downgrade rights used
In my next blog, I’ll explain how Microsoft Software Assurance plays a part in this process!
