Piscataway, NJ, 13 July 2009 — The IEEE Industry Standards and Technology Organization (ISTO) announces a new program focused on revolutionizing software asset management by effective implementation of standards — TagVault.org.

TagVault.org, a technical, membership-driven organization has been founded as the certification authority for ISO/IEC 19770-2 software identification tags (SWID tags). In addition to being a certification authority, TagVault.org’s mission is to provide a forum for information sharing resources among software publishers, tool providers and software asset management (SAM) entities and to provide a shared library of technical knowledge and software tools including consistent cross-vendor, cross-platform APIs.

ISO/IEC 19770-2 is a pending international SAM standard, offering standardized nomenclature and schema structure for software identification tags, providing authoritative identifying information for installed software or other licensable items.

Founded by CA, ModusLink OCS and Symantec, TagVault.org was created to streamline commerce in the software market by providing accurate and authoritative software identification. Accurate software identification procedures have not previously been available for multiple vendors or platforms in any standardized manner. Lack of accurate software identification is a problem for the software market because this information is the basis for software license reconciliation and is required when determining projected software purchasing requirements. TagVault.org is making software identification more accurate and authoritative as well as easier, less resource intensive and faster for the three major pillars of the SAM eco-system — software publishers, software purchasers and SAM tool providers.

“Interest in the ISO/IEC 19770-2 standard and TagVault.org has been phenomenal. Customers are demanding data to automate the license entitlement reconciliation process, and software publishers are seeking to provide this information in a cost-effective, industry-standard manner,” said Steve Klos, executive director of TagVault.org. “As a trusted and neutral organization, TagVault.org is uniquely placed to help drive much needed consistency in the software asset management (SAM) market.”

TagVault.org is concentrating on three work areas:

  • Software Identification Tag Certification — allowing software publishers, SAM tool providers and end-user organizations to reliably count on and use authoritative software identification information
  • Tools and Services — for standardizing the creation and management of software identification tags
  • Communications Forums — for information exchange among software publishers, software tool vendors and software end user organizations

“TagVault.org joins ISTO’s expanding federation of standards and technology consortia, and we are pleased to work with its founders to launch and support its future activities,” said Peter Lefkin, marketing and business development executive for IEEE-ISTO. “TagVault.org will draw benefits from ISTO’s operational, strategic, and conformity assessment expertise having supported over thirty (30) diverse programs since its inception.”

About IEEE-ISTO
IEEE-ISTO is the premier trusted partner of the global technology community for the development, adoption, and certification of industry standards. Its mission is to facilitate the life-cycle of industry standards development through a dedicated staff committed to offering vendor neutrality, quality support and member satisfaction. Fostering the market acceptance, adoption and implementation of standardized technologies, ISTO Programs span the spectrum of today’s information and communications technologies. To find out more about ISTO, visit ieee-isto.org.