October 29, 2008, 10:31 AM — What is IT Inventory Management?
IT Inventory management is about capturing and managing the IT assets residing on your network. That means knowing what they are, where they are and who is using them. It’s about maintaining an accurate, up-to-date database of the hardware and software assets your organization owns. When you manage your IT asset inventory correctly, you should be able to see the current state of any of the hardware or software in your network infrastructure.
Why Do I need to Inventory My Network?
Network inventory management is a must for efficient control of your computer and software asset inventory. An automated inventory is the only way to be truly up to date -- IT systems change continuously during their lifecycle. Hardware components may be added or removed, software installed or uninstalled. Even in small IT networks, there will always be growth and change and managing IT inventory manually is practically impossible.
The goal of inventory management is to have a complete, up-to-date and accurate view of all network components, including PCs, servers, printers, hubs, routers, switches and software, etc. At a minimum, IT inventory management should tell you the device class and what’s installed on the device. For any given time frame, inventory management provides the “actual†state of all infrastructure components. This means that you know what you have and where it is located ― across the entire enterprise network.
How is IT Asset Management Related to My Network Inventory?
IT Asset Management (ITAM) is built upon your network inventory. IT Asset Management covers the lifecycle of the IT assets in your inventory, from the actual acquisition through deployment, upgrades, patches, etc. By deploying an ITAM solution, you can do even more than manage your network and desktop inventory. You can manage the physical, contractual and even financial aspects of those computer assets. Implemented intelligently, IT inventory and ITAM will help your organization to reduce costs, improve service and reduce risk.
How Does SAManage help me with my Network Inventory?
Taking an inventory of your organization’s network is an important process. For an organization of almost any size, network inventory should ideally be an automated collection of information from your network.
With SAManage deployed on your network, easily retrieve up to date information on what software titles and hardware components are installed across your network. With visibility into where they are used, and when they are used, you will have improved IT asset management capabilities. No software or servers are required, and using our service is simple.
SAManage (http://www.SAManage.com) is a comprehensive, scalable IT Asset Management solution delivered on-demand.
