It’s been reported that as many as 30%[1] of IT fixed assets are lurking around as ‘ghosts’ in today’s enterprises. In fact, 56% of organizations verify asset location only once a year, and 10%-15% only do an asset location inventory every five years.[2] The risk? You could be making costly purchases you don’t need to, or you could simply be letting money walk out the door without knowing it. Even worse, you may be missing a large percentage of assets that need to be patched and integrated into your security processes to avoid cyber-intrusions. You can’t protect what you don’t know exists.
Rogue devices. ‘Shadow IT.’ Fileless Malware. These are just some of the examples of risk sectors in your enterprise, risk that is elevated when you do not have a thorough, global view of hardware and software asset inventory. At the same time, you and your IT team face the added complexity of rapid cloud adoption, with assets now distributed between on-premise and hybrid cloud environments; the proliferation of IoT devices, with often weak to non-existent security controls in place, and the additional demands on protection of data as a result of GDPR going into effect.
This combination of risks, devices and asset location is a lot to deal with, on any IT team’s plate. However, there are practices you can put into play to enable you to take a more unified, powerful approach to IT asset management on a global scale. Consider these five areas in which improvements will help you globally mitigate risk, achieve compliance, securely scale your operations, and better control costs:
1. Visibility and Performance
It isn’t uncommon to find that tools installed for other purposes, such as network or application performance monitoring, are being leveraged to discover what is installed at the endpoint. Since this tool isn’t designed for ITAM, there may be gaps in the data and detail. A first step is to engage a reliable discovery tool that can discover and run an inventory of every asset attached to the corporate network. This builds the baseline from which assets can be managed. Regarding performance, you need a clear tracking process and refresh policy to ensure productivity by knowing when to refresh an asset, or alternatively, to signal a retirement date. This will help avoid hardware assets continuing way past peak performance due to inadequate tracking and retirement.
2. Compliance and Risk Management
Historically, organizations only focused on managing assets that ran software. The widespread adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) has drastically impacted the definition of an asset. Today, scope should include any asset that can store data, has an IP address, or poses a security risk. This would include any BYOD; public cloud applications; Wi-Fi enabled, locally attached printers; and many others. Newer compliance sanctions like GDPR have increased the need to tighten up on IT asset management to ensure data privacy. A critical best practice here is a thorough auditing of all assets. Auditing is a continual process, and the best defense in knowing whether software or hardware assets present a threat to data security or have the potential for a larger disruptive event. Additionally, for compliance, your discovery tools should provide an accurate representation of licensing agreements and which users are allowed which application and device. When an employee leaves, compliance also requires the relevant devices and applications are brought back into the system and cleaned or disposed of, as required.
3. Cost Management and Fiscal Accountability
Unaudited assets and incomplete inventory tracking equal uncontrolled costs. As an IT professional, that equation means the C-suite has you on their watch list and weakens your case for budget approval of new digital initiatives. Asset discovery and auditing are foundational to cost control. This visibility, on a broader IT scope, has to include all servers, virtual machines, software containers and installed software. Here is where unifying IT via automation can help control costs and provide the C-suite with accountable forecasting of future expenses. A unified approach can be a database that integrates with procurement, service management and key suppliers. Powerful IT asset management can tell you when a new asset purchase order is opened, when an asset has generated too many trouble calls, or which vendors’ licenses require more scrutiny. An automated system that updates and populates this database and can manage and track all digital assets – is your ticket to cost control.
This visibility and accurate tracking means IT can stop being a budgetary black hole and charge back to other departments, wherever possible. It allows you to not have IT be responsible for all the costs and really hold those who are using the software and hardware in your assets accountable.
4. Business Scalability and the Cloud
Without a solid IT roadmap – incorporating thorough asset discovery and refresh/retirement processes – IT management cannot effectively support scaling the business or adding business value. Before constructing a budget to add people, applications, or locations, you need to know what assets could be repurposed, and what demands new acquisition. Also, the cloud now is an integral part of any business scaling up, with cost-sensitive businesses choosing to add new applications in the cloud. Thus, your ability to automate processes and easily update inventory and service desk requests, is really essential to supporting any scaling upward.
5. End user experience
The endpoint is where IT asset management can either break down or be of great value from a productivity standpoint. Often, assets may be refreshed simply because users ask for replacements, since no one is tracking how long they have been in use. Alternately, assets are used until they break, or user frustration mounts due to app performance times and limited storage on older models. Having an automated system in place – with set refresh dates and one that captures IT service tickets and requests– will flag performance issues and provide a more productive user experience.
The Future is Unified and Automated
No longer are employees using one desktop device and asset managers tracking this device via a spreadsheet. All employees now use multiple devices – some assuredly lending themselves to shadow IT – and businesses are routinely working on a global scale. The solution is for IT to become a business service, instead of a budgetary black hole by getting ahead of the challenges by executing an automated IT asset management system designed to accommodate hybrid environments and a myriad of devices. Throw away the spreadsheets and embrace IT asset management with tools that match today’s workforce.
