IT Asset Management (ITAM) is the strategic approach to tracking an organization's IT assets throughout their lifecycle—from procurement, and maintenance to disposal.
The IT asset management process involves systematic tracking and management of hardware, software, and network resources used in the organization's network. This ensures optimal utilization, cost-effectiveness, and compliance with licensing agreements. Having a thorough ITAM process in place can empower organizations to make data-backed, strategic decisions about acquiring new assets, thereby cutting down unnecessary expenses. Now that we have an overview of IT asset management, it is crucial to understand the concepts of ITAM, starting with IT assets.
Table of Contents
- What is an IT Asset?
- Importance of IT Asset Management
- How Endpoint Central Helps with IT Asset Management
What is an IT asset?
An IT asset is any hardware, software, or information resource organizations use. Examples of IT assets include physical devices such as computers, servers, and mobile devices, as well as digital assets such as software applications, licenses, and data.
IT asset management can be classified into three different categories, based on the IT asset types. These include:
- Hardware asset management involves the management of tangible devices such as laptops, desktops, keyboards, printers, etc.
- Software asset management involves the management of all the software applications/executables that are installed on endpoints in a network within an organization. It also involves software license management, software metering, and much more. You can also prohibit certain applications by adding them to the prohibited software list.
- Digital asset management encompasses the management of documents, pictures, videos, or in general, data in any form that has been paid for, produced, or is being managed by your enterprise.
With the asset landscape continuously changing, it is imperative for IT admins to be acquainted with the overall asset management lifecycle of their organization. This ensures better resource utilization and helps make informed decisions.
Leveraging a unified solution for managing assets is one of the most viable in today's landscape. The multitude of systems across various offices and locations can make it impossible to manage with out-of-date practices such as maintaining spreadsheets.
Implementing IT asset management solutions can greatly reduce the administrative burden and simplify the workflow. Here's a look at how important ITAM is for organizations.
What is the importance of IT asset management?
Implementing IT Asset Management (ITAM) is crucial for IT admins to effectively oversee resource allocation and usage throughout their lifecycle. Here are ITAM's key benefits:
- Enhanced visibility and control via a comprehensive inventory of all IT assets, that contain asset locations, users, and purposes. This transparency enables informed decision-making and efficient resource allocation.
- Cost reduction by accurately tracking assets to identify underutilized or redundant resources, leading to significant cost savings through optimized procurement and maintenance strategies.
- Risk mitigation through proper asset management ensures compliance with licensing agreements and regulatory requirements, reducing the risk of legal penalties and security breaches.
- Operational efficiency by streamlining processes such as asset deployment, maintenance, and decommissioning, thereby enhancing overall operational productivity.
- Improved security posture by maintaining up-to-date records of assets facilitates timely updates and patches, strengthening the organization's defense against cyber threats.
In addition to the above-mentioned importance of IT asset management, one added advantage is curbing shadow IT. To explain in simpler terms, shadow IT refers to the use of unauthorized IT devices or software within the organization's network by employees without the approval or knowledge of the IT teams.
While curbing shadow IT is a never-ending battle, the implementation of IT asset management solutions can help reduce such occurrences with added visibility.
How does Endpoint Central help with IT asset management?
IT asset management forms a pivotal part of Endpoint Central's arsenal of unified endpoint management and security capabilities. Available on the cloud and as an on-premises solution, its range of asset management functionalities includes asset monitoring, software license, and warranty management, thus ensuring a simplified management process.
Test drive these capabilities with a 30-day free trial of the solution.