Snow Web Application Metering

Overview

The Flexera Snow Web Application Metering Extension is used together with the Snow Inventory Agent or FlexNet Inventory Agent to help organizations track web application use for the purpose of license compliance and cost optimization.

If you find that your organization has installed this extension on your browser, it means that your organization is using Flexera’s tools to see what licensable web applications people are using across the organization. This helps your company manage license costs and avoid the risk of getting fined for unlicensed usage of web applications. The extension does not perform any detailed tracking of your web usage—it just collects the URLs of visited websites. It only keeps and uses in Flexera’s tools the URLs that are related to potentially licensable web applications.

Why monitor web application usage?

To ensure that use of licensed web applications throughout your organization is compliant with the terms and conditions of its procured licenses, this extension monitors usage of licensed web applications and sends data to Flexera’s application responsible for managing software licensing. Terms and conditions governing compliant use of web applications vary according to vendor and product. Some applications, for example, are free to use without a license.

However, an application can become license applicable if several persons from the same organization use company credentials when signing up. Suddenly, your organization is liable for a business license, which can be expensive if discovered, but can present substantial unplanned cost if left undetected prior to an audit.

Flexera aims to prevent organizations from overspending on software. Our solution provides enterprises with full visibility into their software estates, including intelligence related to license compliance, an understanding of software-related costs, a means to avoid the risks associated with audits and opportunities to optimize spend.

The company

Flexera is a global leader in IT management solutions that help organizations optimize their technology investments, ensure software compliance, and manage risk across complex hybrid IT environments. Their offerings are designed for both enterprises and software producers, providing tools for software asset management (SAM), IT asset management (ITAM), cloud cost optimization (FinOps) and vulnerability management.

Security

The Flexera Snow Web Application Metering solution is designed with data protection and user privacy in mind. The extension only collects the URL of web requests made by the browser. That means it does not look at security headers or the request body. For more details on our security policy, go to https://docs-snow.flexera.com/other-snow-products/snow-inventory-agents-and-oracle-scanners/cloud-application-metering/security-considerations#data-collected-and-sent.

You cannot remove this extension due to settings made in your organization’s IT environment.