The SysTrack Software Analytics Kit: Software Dependencies
A key component of observing software assets is understanding software dependencies. To address this, we here at Lakeside have developed the SysTrack Software Asset Analytics kit. A portion of this kit is entirely centered around discovering and monitoring software dependencies within an environment to meet the needs of the IT professional. These dependencies provide insight into the requirements needed for the proper functionality of software and identifying answers to important questions that IT might have such as “are all my software packages being used?” or “what are the connections required for my applications?”. The driving force behind understanding dependencies is the promotion of innovation for software package delivery and thus a more positive end user experience.
Dependencies allow for the ability to observe what the applications that make up a software package require to function every day. Requirements for software can vary, but the core attributes to monitor are application connections, required systems components, compatibility, and application usage. The ability to identify required connections and system components is vital due to potential system restrictions such as unusable ports or unsupportable system.
Let’s say an IT administrator, Joe, is analyzing software packages that he provides and is wondering how to make it more optimal for him and end users by trimming deadweight from his packages to reduce install and delivery size, limit the chance of errant components interfering with one another, and streamlining application connections. The perfect place for him to start would be our Software Dependencies Summary dashboard. He notices in the Software Summary panel that there is a software package installed in most systems but only used by half of the systems it’s installed on. It is also clearly highlighted in a graph next to the given data and displayed below.
By diving into one of the detailed dashboards provided by our Software Asset Analytics Kit, he can easily search for the package and see additional details including the number of associated applications, how many of those applications require connections, and where those connections are going. He goes further down the dashboard and takes note of which systems are using the software and even the last time it was used.
With this information, he can conclude that only certain groups within the company need to have that software. As he continues to follow the flow of the dashboard, he notices that only some of the applications within the package are being used and many of the system components required by the unused applications are unnecessary. He can use this information to optimize the software package and only include the necessary applications and components. The image below shows how easy it is for Joe to view this information and thus reach his conclusions.
Finally, he ensures that the applications that do require connections are using approved correct ports to guarantee the security of the environment and potentially simplify network traffic. Through proper use of this dashboard, Joe could easily navigate the pertinent data and know what to trim from the software package and how to limit its delivery to only the groups that required it. He even confirmed that the software package would only make connections through approved network ports.
Dependencies is just one of the three key categories when observing software assets. We will continue to expand on the other two categories, Usage and Performance, with examples taken directly from the SysTrack Software Asset Analytics Kit to show the importance and practicality of monitoring this data for maintaining a successful environment.
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