What IT Assets to Include in Your Inventory
Before, organizations would just keep their technology in a single data room. Now, IT assets are all over the place – perhaps on an office shelf or in a remote employee’s home. This complexity makes it difficult for some to determine what counts as IT assets. With that in mind, we have made a list of items that fall under the category of IT assets.
1. Infrastructure Hardware
This includes hardware usually related with network systems managed by the IT department. For example, routers and switches, network inspection devices, physical servers, and data centers.
2. In-House Software or Applications
These are applications coded or designed by internal software developers, and are wholly owned by the company. These programs may either be cloud-based or stand-alone.
3. Software Licenses
This includes software licenses that a company has procured for the organization.
4. Infrastructure Lease Agreements
These are leasing agreements that enable you to use third-party infrastructure like data centers.
5. Company-Owned Devices
Computers, laptops, tablets, and other hardware devices that are utilized within the company’s IT network are considered assets. However, it doesn’t include employee-owned devices.
6. Digital Data
Most companies see digital data as key IT assets, which has to be valued, managed, and maintained throughout its lifecycle.
Reasons Why Inventory Management Software Open Source is Important
Using inventory management software open source will help you avoid the pitfalls of organizing your assets. Here are some of the reasons why you should implement this strategy in your company now.
1. Failure to manage assets properly can make you vulnerable to cyber-threats
If you do not monitor hardware and software assets regularly, you are opening a gateway for cybercriminals. What if there are weak points in your network and you overlooked them? By tracking your IT assets using inventory management software open source, you are able to see the performance of your tools and devices, and upgrade them when necessary. Keeping your systems up to date could prevent disasters from happening.
2. Obsolete assets affect productivity
Without knowing what assets are available to your employees, you are affecting the workflow of your company. Take this scenario for example: you have outdated equipment or unsupported software on the network. These assets are integral to your business and any slowdowns or issues could disrupt your operations or negatively influence user experience. Tracking asset life cycles using inventory management software open source will give you an idea when to upgrade or replace obsolete solutions.
3. Not knowing your points of failure
Redundancy is critical if you want to have a stable and reliable network. This will allow employees and clients to get the resources they need from your IT assets whenever they need them.
The lack of a solid map on your network infrastructure makes it tricky to know what your network’s points of failure are. Using inventory management software open source can ensure that you fix device issues immediately to ensure business continuity.
4. IT asset management is crucial to comply with regulations
Industry regulations require you to have a comprehensive hardware asset management process. If you don’t have a clear visibility of all the assets on your network (including the data you hold about your clients), how can you ensure that you are storing them properly? Without an IT inventory management, you may face compliance violations and pay fines.
5. Incoming and outgoing assets need to be tracked and accounted for
Organizations often withdraw outdated hardware as it reaches its end of life and welcome new equipment to the network. By keeping track of new IT assets and accounting for the removal of obsolete ones, you can avoid having inaccuracies in the network architecture map, minimize wasted time looking for missing components, and fill the gaps in your cybersecurity. Inventory management software open source helps you monitor and document any changes in your network.
Do you need assistance in setting up your IT inventory management solution? Contact our experts at ITarian and get the best-laid plans for your organization’s network.
