Robin Cronan, Marketing Director, Certero

Data center asset tracking, with advanced automation, increases the efficiency and effectiveness of cloud migration programs.

The Challenges of Data Center Asset Tracking

Data centers are well known for being a dynamic and unpredictable environment. As a result, they require precise and efficient data center asset tracking and management – especially if you are preparing for migration programs to drive Cloud First strategies.

Many of the older tools on the market focused on hardware alone (ITAM). These were very manual and prone to human error. Ultimately these tools could only provided basic ITAM data and nothing about the software applications that run on them. In other words, the results produced did not offer enough value for CIOs and their teams – or provide enough data to support cloud migration programs.

Data Center Asset Tracking Software

As a result of the gaps and limitations of ITAM tools, Software Asset Management (SAM) tools for data center vendors such as Microsoft, SAP, Oracle and IBM began to emerge. These tools attempted to plug the gaps, offer greater efficiency and remove the risk of human error from the data center asset tracking process – but with limited success.

The reason is the majority of these tools have been developed independently over extended periods by different teams. As a result, layers of legacy technology build up over time across a collection of disparate products. Similarly, many of the SAM tools available do not offer any ITAM data at all. Enterprises have to purchase many individual products that do not integrate with one another, resulting in an increasingly fragmented patchwork of tools and data sources.

If you are driving a Cloud First strategy, this lack of interconnectedness and fragmented data sources will force you into performing a wealth of slow, manual processes to derive basic low value outputs. These tools and processes allow human error to creep into your results, producing very poor analysis that sabotages your decision making. You may even implement an uncontrollable cloud ecosystem with runaway costs and/or fail to retire old hardware devices and software applications, exposing your business to potential IT security vulnerabilities and license compliance violations.

Advanced Data Center Asset Tracking

So, how do you control data center hardware and software assets to drive Cloud First strategies? The answer is simple and the technology is available today.

Certero is the driving force behind the next generation of automated ITAM, SAM and CAM solutions. These solutions are replacing older legacy tools across the globe. Through the Certero Management Platform, these solutions give you a single pane of glass view across all your devices. This means that they cover everything from Mobile to Mainframe to Cloud. Similarly, they cover all your key vendors such as Microsoft, IBM, SAP and Oracle. All products work from a single login, with one UI/UX and a single, normalized data source that works straight out of the box. Our solutions come with a powerful analytics engine that enables you to perform advanced data analysis and produce bespoke, dynamic reports and baselines. In addition, we can deliver all of this as an end-to-end SaaS solution (supporting your Cloud First strategy), on-premises or any hybrid combination – with full functionality and zero compromise.

With so much automation, an interconnected data source and built-in analytics capabilities, manual processes are all but eliminated. By reducing your manual processes, you can free up your skilled resources to focus on higher value tasks – like your migration program. The result is a greater and faster return on investment, enabling you to significantly improve data quality, efficiency, cost savings and value – a far cry from the legacy tools of yesterday.

So what does all this mean? Well, if you are driving a Cloud First strategy, with Certero you have complete visibility of your entire IT ecosystem. That means your current hardware and software assets, along with your new cloud assets. The data that powers this single pane of glass view is automatically gathered in real-time and populated in a single, normalized data source. With this level of visibility (and no manual processes to achieve it), your teams can control and govern the entire end-to-end migration process. You will be able to retire all legacy applications and hardware, safe in the knowledge that no vulnerabilities or software license issues are left behind. But most importantly, you will have complete visibility of your new cloud ecosystem, giving you absolute control over costs and the threats of Cloud Sprawl, Shadow IT and Bill Shock.