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Private Application Catalogue

Use the Private Application Catalogue in Snow Atlas to manage any software assets that you consider important and that are not supported by the Data Intelligence Service (DIS).

Applications​

There are two types of applications in Snow Atlas; evidence-based applications and URL-based applications. The evidence-based, or installation-based, application is defined as software installed or run on a computer or other device. Each application can be associated with one or several recognition rules, which are then used to recognize any programs on computers and devices inventoried by Snow Atlas. For example, a rule for a Windows operating system can be based on an executable file or a registry value and the Microsoft Word application can be detected by recognizing the executable file "word.exe". You find more information on registry values in the subsequent sections.

The second type of application is the URL-based application, or cloud application. This type of application is not installed, but instead accessed via a URL in a browser. Recognition of the use of cloud applications is done via the post-login URLs of the respective application. When an user accesses or browses the target URL, the cloud application is recognized.

Today, the Private Application Catalogue supports evidence-based applications, only. For support of the URL-based applications, development is ongoing.

The Data Intelligence Service (DIS) provides global definitions for software recognition and distributes them to all subscribers of the DIS. In principle, the DIS covers all of the commercially available applications. However, in-house applications and bespoke third-party software unique to your environment are not covered and need to be managed locally in your Snow Atlas system.

You manage your local applications in your Private Application Catalogue on Snow Atlas. For more information, see Manage applications.

Filters​

Snow Atlas inventories millions of software rows from the computers in your environment. To find the software rows relevant for your in-house or bespoke applications, you can use collection filters.

note

Collection filters are only applicable to evidence-based applications.

A collection filter narrows down the number of software rows by only collecting and storing a subset of them. One filter can collect and store about 10,000 software rows. If you want to collect more rows, you need to use several filters in combination.

When you have the filters in place, you can review the software rows the filters collect and then create the software recognition rules needed to recognize your local applications. For more information, see Manage filters.

Before you create a collection filter, you need to know what information you receive from your Snow Inventory Agents and Integration Connectors, and what information you want to collect. The filters collect generic information, for example, data from a specific manufacturer throughout your organization.

EXAMPLE

Users in your environment use an application that the manufacturer "The Best Software Provider Inc." has developed for your organization, only. It is not a commercial application. To collect the software rows related to that application and to any other applications from that same manufacturer, you can create a filter where the criterion Manufacturer name is set to "The Best Software Provider%". This filter will then collect up to 10,000 rows of data with a manufacturer name that starts with “The Best Software Provider”.

Manufacturers​

The manufacturers of commercially available applications are provided by the DIS. For the applications in the Private Application Catalogue, you can either define the application manufacturers yourself or you can reuse the globally defined manufacturers as local copies. However, if you reuse a globally defined manufacturer, it is not possible to edit any information associated with it.

For more information, see Manage manufacturers.

Application families​

All versions and editions of an application are together called an application family. Application families are used for managing upgrade and downgrade rights. In Snow Atlas, the application families of commercially available applications are defined and provided by the DIS.

For the applications in the Private Application Catalogue, you can either define the application families yourself or you can reuse the globally defined application families as local copies. Note that the global application families are associated with the global application manufacturer. This means that you can only reuse the global family if you have selected to also reuse the global manufacturer.

For more information, see Manage application families.

Edition, version, and indexes​

The Edition and the Version are important parameters of an application. When you add a new application to the Private Application Catalogue, you have the possibility to include this information for your application. In addition, there are the two parameters Edition index and Version index. From a DIS logic perspective, these indexes are useful for license upgrades and downgrades. An application license can be upgraded or downgraded between edition indexes and version indexes in an incremental or decremental way.

EXAMPLE

You add three applications to the application family Test family:

  • Test App 1 with Edition index = 150 and Version index = 200
  • Test App 2 with Edition index = 150 and Version index = 250
  • Test App 3 with Edition index = 250 and Version index = 150

With this setup, the following applies:

  • The license of Test App 1 can be upgraded to Test App 2 or to Test App 3.
  • The license of Test App 2 can be upgraded to Test App 3 and downgraded to Test App 1.
  • The license of Test App 3 can be downgraded to Test App 2 or to Test App 1.

Note that the license upgrades and downgrades are done in SAM Core and not in the Private Application Catalogue.