EDF

EDF’s team supports 25,000 users at any given time, and includes a mix of full-time employees, partners and contractors. As the operator of six nuclear power stations in the UK, security is a top priority for EDF. As a result, the organisation runs a highly secure and unique IT environment with three distinct networks, each with their own tailored security requirements. This not only presents additional challenges when it comes to maintaining the licence inventory or conducting proactive licence management or audits (since they have three entirely separate networks to monitor), but it also makes it difficult for EDF to receive third-party support due to the specific security credentials required by individuals to access the networks, while also adding the specific requirement for software inventory tools to be agentless.

The unique nature of EDF’s IT estate also makes it difficult to run agents or scripts on the networks, as every script must receive prior approval by the internal security governance team before it is permitted to run on the network. The same team must also review the output of such reports before they can be sent to software publishers or other third-parties to ensure that sensitive data is not compromised.

Following several difficult and costly software audits, EDF explored ways to bolster its SAM team’s licencing expertise. Given the growing complexity of licence management, the broad range of software that EDF uses, and the limited size of EDF’s SAM team, the company knew it would not be able to reach the level of specialism required to confidently overcome similar audits with in-house resources alone.