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IT asset management (ITAM)
IT asset management (ITAM) refers to the process of managing the lifecycle of IT
assets within an organization, including their acquisition, deployment, utilization, maintenance, and disposal. Effective IT asset management helps organizations optimize asset utilization, reduce costs, mitigate risks, and ensure compliance with licensing and regulatory requirements. Here are key components and best practices for IT asset management:
1. Asset Discovery and Inventory: Conduct a comprehensive inventory of all IT
assets, including hardware, software, licenses, and peripherals, across the organization's IT infrastructure. Utilize automated discovery tools and asset management software to identify and catalog assets, including details such as asset type, serial number, location, owner, configuration, and warranty information. 2. Asset Classification and Categorization: Classify IT assets based on their type, criticality, value, and usage within the organization. Categorize assets into groups or classes, such as desktops, laptops, servers, networking equipment, software applications, and licenses, to facilitate management, tracking, and reporting. 3. Asset Tracking and Monitoring: Implement asset tracking and monitoring processes to track the movement, usage, and status of IT assets throughout their lifecycle. Use asset tags, barcodes, or RFID labels to uniquely identify assets and capture asset-related data, such as location changes, maintenance activities, and software installations. 4. Asset Procurement and Acquisition: Establish procurement processes and controls for acquiring IT assets in a cost-effective and efficient manner. Define procurement policies, vendor selection criteria, and approval workflows to ensure compliance with budgetary constraints, quality standards, and procurement guidelines. 5. Asset Deployment and Configuration: Standardize asset deployment and configuration processes to ensure consistency, reliability, and security across IT assets. Implement imaging and provisioning tools to automate the setup and configuration of hardware and software assets according to predefined configurations and standards. 6. License Management and Compliance: Maintain accurate records of software licenses and entitlements to ensure compliance with licensing agreements, terms, and restrictions. Implement license management tools and processes to track software usage, monitor license consumption, and reconcile license inventory against deployed software instances. 7. Asset Maintenance and Support: Implement proactive maintenance and support processes to optimize asset performance, reliability, and availability. Schedule regular maintenance activities, such as software updates, firmware upgrades, and hardware inspections, to prevent downtime and minimize disruptions to IT operations. 8. Asset Retirement and Disposal: Develop policies and procedures for retiring and disposing of obsolete, end-of-life, or surplus IT assets in a secure and environmentally responsible manner. Ensure proper data sanitization and disposal procedures are followed to protect sensitive information and comply with data privacy regulations. 9. Asset Security and Risk Management: Implement security controls and risk management practices to protect IT assets from security threats, vulnerabilities, and breaches. Enforce access controls, encryption, and security policies to safeguard sensitive data stored on IT assets and mitigate the risk of unauthorized access. 10. Asset Performance and Optimization: Monitor asset performance metrics, such as uptime, utilization, and maintenance costs, to identify opportunities for optimization and cost reduction. Analyze asset data and usage patterns to make informed decisions about asset consolidation, retirement, or replacement to maximize ROI and efficiency.
By implementing these best practices, organizations can establish effective IT asset
management processes that optimize asset utilization, reduce costs, mitigate risks, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. IT asset management is an essential component of overall IT governance, risk management, and compliance efforts within organizations.
(Routledge Studies in Family Sociology) Maya Halatcheva-Trapp, Giulia Montanari, Tino Schlinzig - Family and Space - Rethinking Family Theory and Empirical Approaches-Routledge (2019)