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Wednesday, 12 August 2020 18:07

Quest & Micro Focus Software Audits are High-Risk

Quest is owned by a hedge fund, and private equity firms also have a large stake in Micro Focus. Software audits are essential parts of the revenue for both vendors. Quest and Micro Focus are not Tier 1 vendors like Oracle and Microsoft; however many customers are surprised to find widespread installation and usage of Quest and Micro Focus products in their IT environments.

Quest and Micro Focus will typically hire public accounting companies like Deloitte or KPMG to perform the audits. In some cases, Quest will themselves perform software compliance reviews. Quest audits are very thorough, and they will run their own custom scripts and home-grown tools. In September 2020, The ITAM Review reported that Micro Focus was rated the “most unhelpful vendor” in their survey on 2020 software audits, and they have shown they are willing to take audit cases to court.

We have been supporting many customers throughout Quest and Mico Focus audit processes. Below are examples of the common compliance issues we have seen identified in the Quest audit reports.  Similar examples are available for Micro Focus compliance issues pertaining to lack of clear metrics and licensing requirements for those who can access products vs. those who actually use them.

  • Quest Trial Licenses:
    • Quest allows only 3 trial licenses per company, so any installations more than 3 per company are counted as licensable installations. Many customers don’t control or uninstall trial licenses hence this comes as a shock in the audit reports
  • Pirated/Cracked License Key
    • No customer wants to intentionally deploy pirated Quest software, but many customers struggle to control deployments of pirated software in various satellite offices or on developer workstations. Pirated Quest software is counted at three times its value, and Quest is likely to take you on a guilt trip throughout the settlement
  • Not tracking products outside Toad.
    • In addition to Toad, which is the most famous Quest product that runs on the desktop, Quest will include other products in the audit scope as well. We find that customers have difficulty understanding how these products are licensed and how to measure the deployment. One product that we see often is Quest Change Auditor. It is licensed by managed id; and we see this regularly come up as a finding because customers have difficulty tracking and measuring deployment for it.

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