ITAM Insights Report 2023

White papers

15 June 2023

4 minute read

A perfect storm of changes creates unprecedented uncertainty for organisations when it comes to managing their IT costs in 2023/2024. Download here.

The ITAM Review’s roundup of the main events shaping ITAM in the next 12 months

With double-digit price rises among many of the tier 1 and 2 software publishers, “license gouging” (aka licensing changes in the publisher’s favour) and a wealth of vendor M&A activity, CIOs are faced with an avalanche of uncertainty in 2023/2024.

“The “ITAM Insights 2023” report presents a comprehensive analysis of the key industry events that are expected to shape the IT landscape throughout the year, and is essential reading for anyone who needs to understand the main changes coming their way – from day to day through to long-term strategy.”
Rich Gibbons, MD, ITAM Review

Click here to download the ITAM Insights 2023 report

The report examines, among others, the following developments:

Global price rises

IBM global price increases for all non-SaaS products of around 24% in most regions including GBP, EUR, Japanese Yen etc. (SaaS products received their own, albeit lower price increases)
Microsoft “price harmonization” saw most prices rise in double digits (e.g. GBP: +9%, EUR: +11%, Danish Krone: +11%, Norwegian Krona: +11%, Swedish Krone: +15%
Oracle support costs up 8% in US and APAC

Contract & Licensing changes

IBM Passport Advantage self-reporting requirements: Customers now required to measure their own consumption of IBM licenses and report to IBM on their request within 30 days
Oracle Java switches to an all-encompassing “employee” licensing, whereby an employee includes full-time employees, part-time employees and temporary employees (i.e. contractors, outsourcers, consultants etc.). Some customers are reporting this change alone could see costs increase by up to 10x

Mergers & Acquisitions

TIBCO + Citrix merger: February 2022 saw the acquisition of Citrix for $16.5 billion by “Vista Equity Partners” and “Evergreen Coast Capital”: Mergers & acquisitions involving software companies often leads to an increase in compliance audits, thus there is now an increased risk of software licensing audits focusing on Citrix software.
OpenText acquires Micro Focus: Both organisations are well known for their difficult and aggressive audit tactics, and it is our view that customers should be prepared for new compliance checks and audits within the next 12 months.
Broadcom looks to acquire VMware for $61 billion: In addition to the expectation of price rises for some VMware products, it is likely that Broadcom will look to divest many of the less profitable parts of the VMware portfolio, meaning uncertainty for customers using those product lines.

ITAM Insights Report 2023