Revolutionizing Asset Inventory Management with Modern Technology Asset Management
By: Arthur Lozinski
Traditional IT asset inventory has long been the bedrock of IT Asset Management (ITAM) strategies, providing the management of IT hardware and software within your organization. This inventory houses critical asset data, including location, users, maintenance and support details, documentation, performance metrics, licenses, compliance status, costs, lifecycle stages, and more.
IT technology assets encompass a diverse range of products, including:
- Endpoints: Laptops, smartphones, tablets, accessories
- Software: Endpoints software, Software as a Service (SaaS), on-premises applications
- Infrastructure: Servers, storage, and networking, both on-premises and cloud-based
Maintaining an accurate asset inventory is a fundamental requirement for all IT governance and cybersecurity frameworks, such as NIST, CIS, COBIT, SOC 2, and HIPAA. Security audits, in particular, require accurate asset inventories of all internet-facing connections within the organization to identify potential exposures and attack risks.
Yet, modern organizations face the challenge of managing a constantly changing and complex technology asset inventory. For example, this complexity hampers the swift discovery of security vulnerabilities, especially when the attack surfaces are ever-evolving. Additionally, many assets suffer from misconfigurations or run outdated software, posing significant security risks.
What’s wrong with traditional asset inventory management?
The limitations of traditional asset inventory management often stem from manual processes and point-in-time audits using spreadsheets. These approaches are not only time-consuming and inefficient, draining IT resources, but they also lead to documented inventories riddled with human errors and quickly rendered obsolete by the dynamic technology landscape. For example, one company was onboarding 500 and offboarding 200 employees a week, often unable to locate ex-employee laptops to repurpose for new employee use, much less ensuring all laptops were accounted for and secured.
The consequences of an inaccurate asset inventory extend to compromised security measures. Antivirus/antimalware scanners and penetration tests, for instance, require a reliable single source of truth for a company’s technology assets to be effective, leaving unaccounted assets vulnerable to attacks. In essence, protecting an asset is impossible without knowing its location, access privileges, and the software it runs.
Siloed teams and tools
One of the reasons for the difficulty in maintaining accuracy is the deployment of numerous siloed management tools across different siloed teams, leading to conflicting data and accuracy issues during audits. The average organization deploys 50+ siloed management tools, as each siloed team seems to run its own tools to meet its specific requirements. Meanwhile, on average, 32% of organizations use 11 or more tools/databases for audits. Consequently, 40% of organizations have accuracy issues due to conflicting data from different tools.
Modern versus traditional ITAM
To help address these challenges, traditional IT Asset Management (ITAM) emerged, providing asset counting and tracking, helping customers keep a more accurate inventory of their enterprise technology. However, many businesses are faced with significant challenges attempting to implement an ITAM strategy, most notably a lack of visibility into their entire IT assets portfolio, and issues running complex IT processes which rely on access to accurate asset inventory data. Example processes include employee on/off boarding, audit readiness, SaaS lifecycle management and procurement forecasting.
In response to these challenges, Modern Technology Asset Management (TAM) by Oomnitza has emerged. Modern TAM combines the traditional ITAM capabilities with low-code workflows to simplify the automation of complex IT processes. It utilizes an Enterprise Technology Management (ETM) database, continuously improving data accuracy and visibility across the entire technology asset portfolio. Oomnitza's out-of-the-box connector integrations further enhance the seamless connection of standardized and custom-built Workflow Applications to existing technology management tools and platforms.
Oomnitza Modern TAM also empowers organizations with comprehensive Business Intelligence capabilities, enabling better decision-making, rapid issue identification, and effective demonstration of IT's value to the business. With real-time visibility, notifications, and reporting, it keeps companies updated on the state and performance of their automated IT processes and technology landscape.
Moreover, Oomnitza Modern TAM enhances CMDB accuracy, elevating the company's asset management to new heights.
Interested in learning more?
- Download the Oomnitza Solution Overview.
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