IT Asset Management (ITAM) is an easily forgotten activity amid the abstraction of digital transformation and cloud. This article by Jimmy Tom, Director of Research Advisory at Info-Tech Research Group examines key strategies to not only get a handle on ITAM, but to operationalize it by leveraging existing processes.
Digital transformationOpens a new window has been a boon to IT departments. In leveraging cloud services, IT is able to conduct rapid deployment and provisioning of software and services in a manner that incurs relatively low start-up costs, compared to traditional on-premise methods. Even capacity planning is no longer hardware-boundOpens a new window due to the elasticity that cloud brings.
But it’s not just IT operationsOpens a new window that benefit from the cloud. Proper planning, configuration, and deployment of cloud can be a game-changer in IT disaster recoveryOpens a new window and contingency planning. In fact, cloud can support business continuityOpens a new window practices, especially those experienced during the recent COVID-19 pandemic lockdown period.
In essence, the cloud portion of digital transformation has been a great way to outsource the responsibility, if not accountability, of IT operations. No need to worry about servers, hardware footprint, power consumption, or cooling of data center hardwareOpens a new window . Physical security concerns shift to the cloud provider, and all businesses really need to worry about is logical security – that of the operating system, the applications and the data. One can almost view it as a set-and-forget type of scenario!
With cloud, the physical components are all abstracted in a hosted data centerOpens a new window …somewhere. Somewhere out of sight, but always there and always available to users. The abstraction is present because that is what users pay for and have come to expect.
Learn More: 7 Ways to Build an Effective Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity PlanOpens a new window
But, what about IT Asset Management?
IT Asset ManagementOpens a new window , also commonly known by its acronym ITAM, is the practice of managing IT hardware and software assets throughout their full lifecycle — from acquisition to deployment, across an asset’s useful life, and then to recovery and final disposal. ITAM is an often-forgotten concept with on-premise installations; when it comes to off-premise and cloud, it is even worse. And therein lies the danger of the cloud’s out-of-sight-out-of-mind characteristic. That characteristic starts to become a concern when an invoice suddenly arrives for software licenses that you didn’t know you needed, or you discover that you are overpaying for maintenance and support on the software that had been decommissioned. Or any number of circumstances that haven’t been on the radar.
Understandably, it is easy to forget the need and importance of ITAM when dealing with assets that you can’t actually see. This is why a back-to-basics approach to IT Asset Management Opens a new window is worth the time and effort it will take to launch such an endeavor. Enterprises must take a step back to build a process that incorporates elements of ITAM and operationalize the process such that ITAM virtually maintains itself. Sound too good to be true? Read on – you’ll be surprised how easy it can be.
One caveat that should be mentioned here: this article will provide you with a recipe, the necessary ingredients, and the suggested steps for preparation. You will still need to gain the buy-in of key stakeholders to support this process, and some technology tweaks may be needed to make portions of this work. Different people from across all of IT will have a role to play. There may even be some cultural shifts in how ITAM is viewed. We can definitely have that conversation, but we’ll save that for another time.
Learn More: Customer Preference Management Puts IT in the SpotlightOpens a new window
The very first step is to compile a list of what you have in terms of assets. This sounds like a daunting activity if you don’t already practice asset management, but it really doesn’t have to be. Chances are, you already have much of that information somewhere, stored in many places, but you don’t know it. Start with existing systems, such as Microsoft SystemOpens a new window Center Configuration Manager (SCCM). If you have an ITAM application, it may come with a scanning tool to provide you with reports on what software titles are installed in your environment. The procurement systemOpens a new window that purchasing uses will have records of software being purchased, and the expense tracking system will cover purchases made on corporate p-cards. Does IT have a group that handles securityOpens a new window ? See if their vulnerability scanning tool can uncover any software titles that aren’t captured in your ITAM tool or by SCCM. Establishing a full inventory of your software assets, including those in your cloud data center, will provide a solid foundation.
Next, evaluate the asset lifecycle and reference the various processes and systems that support these. For example, when a software license is purchased, how is the request received? Who does the actual purchasing and receiving of the software? How is the softwareOpens a new window installed/provisioned? When an employee changes roles or is offboarded, how do we recover the software licenses? These questions don’t make the process any less daunting, but the great news is that you likely have existing processes and systems that you can leverage.
Learn More: How to Overcome 4 Challenges to IT Operational Resilience During ChangeOpens a new window
Take, for example, your service desk. End-users contact the service desk as the single point of contact for IT. What do they typically contact the service desk for? “My PC is busted.†“My software is kicking up an error message.†“I would like to requisition a wireless mouse, as it would be more convenient than my wired mouse.†“I have a project for which I need a copy of Adobe Acrobat.†Sound familiar? The first two are examples of incidents, the latter two are service requests. When the SD is contacted, it is usually about an asset – hardware or software. When the service desk works its magic, either fixing the thing or providing a thing, they fill the service desk ticket with the details and then close the ticket.
But wait! When the incident or service request details are updated, why aren’t IT asset details captured at the same time? By installing additional RAM in a user’s desktop, or allocating an Acrobat license from the license pool, these details can be captured as it happens. Similarly, when recovering a user’s workstation and the software licenses allocated, the software asset library can be updated at the same time.
Learn More: Private Networks for Enterprise Connectivity: What to Know & And How to Get StartedOpens a new window
The other process that can be leveraged is an organization’s IT change management process. Generally, any changes which are service impacting or have risk will go through change management. Standard changes (we call them “pre-approved changesâ€) are tracked somewhere as a best practice, even if they don’t get explicit approval. The change management process is another effective trigger for ITAM tracking, particularly if it is software that is being installed or decommissioned — that includes software that is installed in the cloud.
There are likely other IT processesOpens a new window that we can leverage to make the job of ITAM a lot easier, but you likely get the point that we are suggesting. The beauty of this is that each of the processes – incident management, service request fulfillment, change management – are already being carried out. A savvy IT asset manager (that’s you) will orchestrate things so that there is the little-to-no additional effort required from each of these other teams, but you will end up with an operationalized ITAM process. Kudos to you, in advance!
Let us know if you liked this article on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We would love to hear from you!