Beyond Compliance - Does the SAM function still have a raison d'être in the cloud era?
With the increasing use of cloud-based services in companies, the importance of traditional license compliance, especially for Software as a Service (SaaS), is decreasing - this was the unanimous opinion of the participants of our panel discussion on 24.03.2025 at SAMS in Berlin.
But what value can SAM add to the management of cloud-based services? In this blog post, we look at selected topics.
Basically, what applies on-premises also applies to the cloud: The value contributions of SAM can be divided into the categories of transparency, risk reduction, cost avoidance and cost reduction.
Typical SAM value contributions in the individual categories can be:
Transparency
- Transparency about cloud expenditure / contracts / vendors / services
- Transparency of what the cloud costs are for (per company / area / project)
- Transparency about cloud services and software used in the cloud
- Passing on licensing knowledge
Risk reduction
- Review and advice on license / terms of use
- Consideration of data protection and IT security aspects in cloud contracts
- Monitoring of cloud terms of use
- Checking the license-compliant use of on-premises licenses in cloud environments
- Identification of non-approved cloud services
Cost avoidance
- Identification and withdrawal of unused subscriptions
- Pooling and reallocation of unused subscriptions
- Use of bring-your-own-license (BYOL) instead of services with an included license
Cost reduction
- Shelfware reduction (e.g. by canceling unused subscriptions)
- License model optimization (choice of the best economic metric)
- Negotiation of prices and conditions
- Rightsizing cloud subscriptions (especially suites)
- Application of purchase obligations for longer-term use (pay-as-you-go vs. commitments and subscriptions)
- Standardization and automation of SAM processes with cloud reference
- Consolidation of cloud services with redundant functionality
Do you want to know what value contributions are possible in your company?
With our Cloud FinOps potential analysis, we take a close look at your cloud contracts, cloud usage, governance and processes as well as data and tools and identify potential savings and efficiency gains. You can find an overview of our services at COMPLION | Software Asset & License Management. Feel free to contact us!
Author: Felix Baran