Elite Discovery
A comprehensive and accurate inventory of your IT assets is the first and most important step in maintaining IT compliance. Multiple platforms make auditing your IT assets a difficult, if not impossible task. Many audit tools are only compatible with certain operating systems, while other tools require network-wide deployment. Elite Discovery is a comprehensive, completely web-based solution that does not require an architecture specific audit tool to be installed on either a client or a network server.

Elite Reports
Comprehensive and informative reports are critical to effectively evaluate the IT assets on your network. Elite Reports provides customizable reporting so you can view your network the way that makes the most sense for your environment.

March 22, 2010
Pine Belt Automotive, Inc. of Toms River, New Jersey agrees to pay the Business Software Alliance $97,218 to settle claims that it had unlicensed copies of Microsoft and Symantec software installed on its computers.

March 16, 2010
Scheidt & Bachmann USA, Inc. of Burlington, Massachusetts agrees to pay the Business Software Alliance $156,002 to settle claims that it had unlicensed copies of Adobe, Autodesk, Corel, and Microsoft software installed on its computers.

March 15, 2010
iCan Benefit Group of Boca Raton, Florida agrees to pay the Business Software Alliance $61,500 to settle claims that it had unlicensed copies of Adobe, Microsoft and Symantec software installed on its computers.

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With copyright enforcement increasing, “agentless” discovery tools are inadequate. “Too often, someone in the IT department whom management trusts causes non-compliance on the network. That person then seeks to capitalize on that conduct by disclosing the non-compliance to the Business Software Alliance, the Software & Information Industry Association, or the software publishers themselves,” says Brian Garlitz, partner at Garlitz Bell, LLP, a Dallas based law firm who represents clients in software copyright infringement. “Senior executives need to delegate the burden of network compliance to their subordinates, but regulatory requirements impose a non-delegable duty to assure network compliance. Most discovery tools, by their very design, neither allow senior executives to confirm network compliance without the assistance of their IT departments nor ensure confidentiality of the discovered information.”

With copyright enforcement increasing, “agentless” discovery tools are inadequate. “Too often, someone in the IT department whom management trusts causes non-compliance on the network. That person then seeks to capitalize on that conduct by disclosing the non-compliance to the Business Software Alliance, the Software & Information Industry Association, or the software publishers themselves,” says Brian Garlitz, partner at Garlitz Bell, LLP, a Dallas based law firm who represents clients in software copyright infringement. “Senior executives need to delegate the burden of network compliance to their subordinates, but regulatory requirements impose a non-delegable duty to assure network compliance. Most discovery tools, by their very design, neither allow senior executives to confirm network compliance without the assistance of their IT departments nor ensure confidentiality of the discovered information.”

Discovery tools that require an application be installed on any computer on the network are insufficient for a number of reasons. First, and foremost, any application that is installed on a computer on the network must be written and conform to the restrictions of the host operating system, which necessarily imposes discovery compatibility issues of devices not running that same operating system. “Many software discovery tools report the discovered information via web browser, in a secured manner. The real measure of the value of a software discovery tool is not how it reports the network information, but how it gathers it,” says Garlitz. “Agentless” tools are not really agentless if they require the user to install an application on even one computer on the network.

Second, and equally important, is the discovery tool’s ability to detect and report fonts installed or present on networked computers. “Software vendors, particularly Adobe Systems, Inc., have recently begun a concerted effort to enforce copyright protection of their fonts,” says Garlitz. “A network discovery tool that does not gather and report copyrighted fonts leaves an enormous hole in overall compliance, and the value of such a tool should be discounted accordingly.”

Once operating system vendors adopted support of TCP/IP, the well-established network protocol, and computer users realized the importance of networking computers, “agentless” discovery tools emerged. An “agentless” discovery tools is one that does not require an application be installed on each computer on the network. Rather, the discovery application is installed on a networked server or workstation which in turns causes a discovery script to be run on each networked computer. The principal differences between the two are obvious. The “agentless” discovery tool facilitates discovery of all networked computers from a central location with minimal impact and knowledge to users of the many networked computers. It also keeps the discovered information at a central location on the network.

But with copyright enforcement increasing, “agentless” discovery tools are inadequate. “Too often, someone in the IT department whom management trusts causes non-compliance on the network. That person then seeks to capitalize on that conduct by disclosing the non-compliance to the Business Software Alliance, the Software & Information Industry Association, or the software publishers themselves,” says Brian Garlitz, partner at Garlitz Bell, LLP, a Dallas based law firm who represents clients in software copyright infringement. “Senior executives need to delegate the burden of network compliance to their subordinates, but regulatory requirements impose a non-delegable duty to assure network compliance. Most discovery tools, by their very design, neither allow senior executives to confirm network compliance without the assistance of their IT departments nor ensure confidentiality of the discovered information.”

Elite Discovery and Elite Reports are different. Elite Discovery is a web-based discovery tool that does not require the user to install an application on any networked device and Elite Reports is a web-based reporting tool. With Elite Reports and Elite Discovery senior executives now have a way to assure network compliance with or without IT support. Moreover, with Elite Discovery “discovery data is not stored on the network for abuse by disgruntled employees,” says Garlitz, “which is how almost all cases of non-compliance are reported.”