Patent ID: 9395966
Filing Date: 2016-07-19
CPC Classification: G06F

Claim Text:
1. A computer-implemented method for associating installed software components with software products, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing device comprising at least one processor, the method comprising: maintaining a catalog of software products that may be installed on a plurality of computing systems across an enterprise network of an enterprise, each entry in the catalog comprising a software product and a corresponding set of regular expressions; identifying a software component installed on the computing systems across the enterprise network; searching the product catalog for a software product that matches the installed software component by: associating the installed software component with the software product whose set of regular expressions matches the information that identifies the installed software component; creating a hash of a file associated with the installed software component; tracking, using the hash, usage of the software product across the enterprise network at least in part on the association between the installed software component and the software product; after the installed software component is patched or updated, continuing to track, using the hash, the usage of the software product across the enterprise network at least in part on the association between the installed software component and the software products; providing, for presentation to an Information Technology administrator, licensing information about existing licenses for the software product tracked across the enterprise network to enable the Information Technology administrator to make an informed decision on a future licensing agreement.