Software identifier based correlation

• US 9,953,143 B2
• Filed: 05/05/2008
• Issued: 04/24/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Yee, John Leong, Alonzo, Jason Aron, Apte, Umesh Madhav
• Primary Examiner(s): OBEID, MAMON A
• Application Number:
  US12/151,205
• Publication Number:
  US 20090276269A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,641 Days
• Field of Search: 705 59
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/105 Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/018 Certifying business or products

Abstract

Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with software identifier based correlation are described. One example system includes an identifier data store to store a first identifier that uniquely identifies a discovered instance of a software title installed in an enterprise. The first identifier is discoverable from the discovered instance and may be provided by a discovery logic. The second identifier identifies a known instance of a software title associated with the enterprise and is provided from an enterprise resource planning (ERP) data store by an ERP logic. The example system may also include a correlation logic to identify a correlation between the discovered instance and the known instance based on a relationship between the identifiers. The example system may also include an update logic to selectively update a value in the ERP data store based on the correlation.

Claims

1. A computing system, comprising:

at least one processor for executing instructions;

a discovery logic, configured as a first module stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium, including instructions that when executed by the at least one processor cause the at least one processor to perform an automated process that crawls nodes of an enterprise system via network communications to discover a plurality of instances of software titles that have been installed in the enterprise system, wherein crawling the nodes includes (i) locating and inspecting a registry of installed software titles to discover instances of the installed software titles, (ii) for each discovered instance, locating a software header that prepends a software file associated with the discovered instance, and (iii) identifying a stock keeping unit (SKU) number from each of the discovered instances of software titles by locating and reading the SKU number from a read-only value permanently installed in the software header associated with each discovered instance, wherein the SKU number of a discovered instance is a first identifier that uniquely identifies the discovered instance;

an enterprise resource planning (ERP) data store contained on computer-readable medium that stores data generated from purchase orders and corresponding invoices that identify stock keeping unit (SKU) numbers for each instance of software titles purchased for the enterprise system wherein the SKU number of each instance of software titles purchased are a second identifier;

a correlation logic configured as a second module stored in the non-transitory computer-readable medium, including instructions that when executed by the processor cause the at least one processor to perform a function to determine whether a correlation exists between (i) the SKU numbers from the discovered instances that are acquired by the discovery logic from crawling the nodes and reading from the registry, and (ii) the SKU numbers from the purchased software titles stored in the ERP data store, wherein the function includes accessing the ERP data store to retrieve the SKU numbers of the purchased software titles and at least comparing the SKU numbers to the SKU numbers from the discovered instances;

wherein in response to determining whether the correlation exists;

(i) for a first SKU number from the purchased software titles retrieved from the ERP data store that does not correlate to one of the SKU numbers from the discovered instances acquired by the discovery logic from crawling the nodes and reading from the registry, the correlation logic is configured to generate and transmit via a computer network a first network message to a first device that indicates that the purchased software title having the first SKU number was purchased but is not installed in the enterprise system; and

(ii) for a second SKU number from the discovered instances, acquired by the discovery logic from crawling the nodes and reading from the registry, that does not correlate to one of the SKU numbers from the purchased software titles retrieved from the ERP data store, the correlation logic is configured to generate and transmit via the computer network a second network message to a second device that identifies the second SKU number from the discovered instance as an unauthorized instance.

2. The system of claim 1, where the discovery logic has access to the enterprise but is hosted external to the enterprise.

3. The system of claim 1, where the discovery logic comprises a set of cooperating logics distributed to two or more computing components in the enterprise.

4. The system of claim 1, where the discovery logic provides the first identifier in response to detecting an installation of a software title.

5. The system of claim 1, where the software header is an ISO 19770-2 compliant header.

6. The system of claim 1, where the first identifier is an ISO 19770-2 compliant identifier.

7. The system of claim 1, where the first identifier is a read-only identifier.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the data generated from purchase orders and corresponding invoices and stored in the ERP data store includes, in addition to the SKU number, a registration number, and a license number of the purchased instance of the software title.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the data generated from purchase orders and corresponding invoices a data inventory of the software titles purchased, where the second identifier identifies an entry in the data inventory, and where update logic is configured to update the data inventory based, at least in part, on results of the correlation.

10. The system of claim 1, where the ERP logic is a software license logic that maintains a set of compliance states for a set of software titles, where the second identifier identifies a member of the set of software titles, and where the update logic selectively updates the set of compliance states based, at least in part, on the correlation.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the system further includes an accounting logic that maintains a database of the purchase orders and the corresponding invoices that identify the stock keeping unit (SKU) numbers for each instance of software titles purchased by the enterprise.

12. The system of claim 1, further including ERP logic that comprises:

an asset management logic that maintains an inventory of the software titles purchased by the enterprise;

a software license logic that maintains a set of compliance states for one or more members of the inventory of software titles; and

an accounting logic that maintains purchase information, where the purchase information includes a set of the purchase orders and a set of the corresponding invoices and where the accounting logic relates a member of the set of invoices to a member of the set of purchase orders;

and

where the second identifier identifies one or more of, an entry in the inventory, a purchase order entry, and an invoice entry, and

where the update logic selectively updates one or more of, the inventory, and the set of compliance states based, at least in part, on the correlation.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein based on the correlation, when the correlation does exist:

for a third SKU number from the discovered instances that does correlate to one of the SKU numbers from the purchased software titles, the correlation logic is configured to electronically mark a purchase order corresponding to the third SKU number as fulfilled.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein the correlation logic is configured to identify the correlation between each of the SKU numbers from the discovered instances and the SKU numbers from the purchased software titles stored in the ERP data store by:

querying the ERP data store with the SKU numbers from the discovered instances to identify whether a purchase order exists for the discovered instances using the SKU numbers.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that are executable by a computer and at least a processor, the instructions comprising instructions for:

executing, by at least the processor, an automated process that crawls nodes of an enterprise system, and discovering a plurality of software instances installed in the nodes of the enterprise system, wherein crawling the nodes includes locating and inspecting a registry of installed software titles;

identifying and retrieving, by at least the processor, a stock keeping unit (SKU) number from each of the discovered software instances of software titles by locating and reading the SKU number from a read-only value permanently installed in a software header that prepends a software file associated with the discovered instance, wherein the SKU number of a discovered instance (a discovered SKU number) is a unique identifier assigned to and stored with each software instance;

in response to retrieving the SKU numbers from the discovered software instances, querying, by at least the processor, a database that contains data generated from purchase orders and corresponding invoices that identify purchased stock keeping unit (SKU) numbers for each instance of software titles purchased for the enterprise system, wherein the querying requests at least the purchased SKU numbers;

comparing the discovered SKU numbers, that are acquired from crawling the nodes and reading from the registry, to the purchased SKU numbers in the database to determine whether a correlation exists, and outputting results of the comparing;

in response to determining that the correlation does not exist for one or more of the SKU numbers,

(i) for a purchased SKU number from the software titles purchased that does not correlate to one of the discovered SKU numbers acquired from crawling the nodes and reading from the registry, generating a signal that indicates that the software title purchased having the purchased SKU number was purchased but not installed in the enterprise; and

(ii) for a discovered SKU number from the discovered instances, acquired from crawling the nodes and reading from the registry, that does not correlate to one of the purchased SKU numbers in the database, generating and transmitting a network message indicating the discovered SKU number from the discovered instance is an unauthorized instance.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions for controlling an asset management logic to manipulate a value in an asset inventory, where the manipulation is based, at least in part, on the results of the comparing.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions for controlling a software license logic to manipulate a value assigned to the discovered SKU number in a software license data store by changing a state from a compliant value to a non-compliant value upon determining that the discovered SKU number from the discovered instances does not correlate to one of the purchased SKU numbers.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions for controlling an accounting logic to manipulate a value relating an asset inventory value to one or more of, a purchase order, and an invoice based, at least in part, on the correlation.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the instructions for querying the database includes querying an enterprise resource planning (ERP) database by requesting an SKU number.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, further including instructions for controlling a software compliance logic to issue a software compliance notice that indicates a correlation between the discovered SKU numbers and the purchased SKU numbers in response to the results of the comparing.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, further including instructions for controlling an order logic to issue a purchase order for a specified software title in response to the results of the comparing that indicate that an inventory level for the specified software title is below an order threshold, wherein the inventory level is determined from an amount of SKU numbers discovered for the specified software title.

22. A computer-implemented method performed by at least one computing device using at least one processor, the method comprising:

crawling, using at least network communications, a plurality of computers of a networked system to search for and discover a plurality of software instances installed in the plurality of computers of the networked system, wherein crawling the plurality of computers includes locating and inspecting a registry of installed software titles;

identifying and retrieving a stock keeping unit (SKU) number from each of the discovered software instances by locating and reading the SKU number from a read-only value permanently installed in a software header that prepends a software file associated with the discovered instance, wherein the SKU number of a discovered instance (a discovered SKU number) is a unique identifier assigned to and stored with each software instance;

in response to retrieving the discovered SKU numbers, querying a database that contains data generated from purchase orders and corresponding invoices that identify purchased stock keeping unit (SKU) numbers for each instance of software titles purchased for the networked system, wherein the querying requests at least the purchased SKU numbers from the database;

comparing, using at least the processor and a memory of the computing device, the discovered SKU numbers, that are acquired from crawling the nodes and reading from the registry, to the purchased SKU numbers in the database to determine whether a correlation exists, and outputting results of the comparing;

in response to determining that a correlation does not exist for one or more of the SKU numbers;

(i) for a purchased SKU number from the software titles purchased that does not correlate to one of the discovered SKU numbers acquired from crawling the nodes and reading from the registry, generating a signal that indicates that the software title purchased having the purchased SKU number was purchased but is not installed in the networked system; and

(ii) for a discovered SKU number from the discovered instances, acquired from crawling the nodes and reading from the registry, that does not correlate to one of the purchased SKU numbers in the database, generating and transmitting a network message indicating that the discovered SKU number from the discovered instance is an unauthorized instance.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 22, wherein the comparing includes correlating the discovered SKU numbers to the purchase orders and the corresponding invoices stored in the database to determine if the discovered SKU numbers are found in the purchase orders or in the corresponding invoices of the purchase orders.