Software licensing audits—and any resulting fines—are a key piece of the software delivery model, and most enterprise sites have been subjected to audits by one or more vendors in the past 3 years. It is, however, often difficult for customers to maintain proper compliance and adherence to the terms and conditions of those contracts. Sometimes, those challenges become prohibitive to effectively using the software, and sometimes the companies, despite their best efforts, fail in that endeavor. It is equally difficult for organizations to maintain details of actual software usage.
These observations come from a survey of 300 data and IT managers, conducted among readers of Database Trends and Applications and underwritten by LicenseFortress. The survey, which followed a similar study conducted in 2023, finds there are more overall audits, and the audits are occurring with greater frequency. The percentage of respondents audited in the previous year stood at 40%. This increased to 66% in the current survey.
Software audits are no longer restricted to on-prem implementations, the survey shows. More than half of respondents (53%) report that the introduction of clouds has added significant complexity to managing software, with implications for responding to and managing audits.
In addition, the audits cost more to conduct, and more are ending in customers being required to pay increased fees to vendors. Added to that is the fact that responding to an audit takes longer and requires the assignment of more resources, both in terms of physical resources and personnel.
The survey also shows a marked increase in software audit frequency. The difference between the 2025 survey and the respective results from 2023, audited by what they self-describe as a major software vendor within the 6 months, jumps from 16% to 41%.
The survey found that the impact has been substantial—specifically, in the most critical applications. More than 3 in 4 (78%) faced audits for their use of the new AI-powered services offered by Microsoft.
VMware by Broadcom customers report that they have been impacted at a rate of more than 55%. Another 44% have been affected by the new subscription approach of Oracle Java.
The leading software issues that tend to get flagged in software audits involve either rogue installations found on unlicensed hosts or the use of software without proper reporting of volume of usage.
More than one-third of respondents (27%) report having issues with rogue installations within their enterprises.
Another 22% report using unlicensed features with software, and 1 in 5 encountered issues with not purchasing enough licenses from their vendors.
While these are common mistakes that occur through entirely accidental and innocent misuse, these can result in considerable economic consequences.
Examples of common but accidental unlicensed software usage include DBAs installing relational database management systems without considering the location of an installation or the users who might have access. This common error may open access to developers or even external parties. It is possible that software purchased for a single application is inadvertently used for a different, non-licensed application. Or software is deployed to improperly licensed backup or disaster recovery locations. Most software vendors have different restrictions and requirements, and all these requirements must be fully understood.