Why a Single Platform to Manage your IT Assets is Important

How do you manage software and hardware assets? How can a single platform help?

To discuss the importance of a single platform first we must look at the historical issue or managing your hardware assets. In the past, when it came to the question of managing IT assets, the big concern for organizations was initially focused on costly hardware assets. The original hardware-centric IT asset management (ITAM) products were fat client, difficult to deploy and, as a consequence, tended to be used for point-in-time projects.

They weren’t particularly suitable for lifecycle management and while those lifecycle management tools around at the time did have the capability, the primary purpose was focused on IT service management (ITSM) and asset management was really only a side element.

Hardware costs eventually started to come down and software assets became the major focus, exacerbated by the audit and compliance activities of the major vendors. Hand-in-hand with software asset management (SAM) came licensing optimization, the initial focus of which was all around the desktop.

Then, we saw the advent of ‘enterprise’ SAM and solutions which could deliver the same compliance, cost and utilization improvements for licensing in the datacentre. This was intensified by all the complexities associated with the optimization of licensing from vendors such as Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and IBM. Virtualization in all its guises (thin-client, VDI etc.) only added to the increasing complexity.

Coping with ‘The 3rd Platform’

A 2016 IDC Solution Brief (The Business Value of Software Asset Management, October 2016) noted that we now have a new ‘influx of 3rd Platform technologies such as mobile devices, Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, cognitive and artificial intelligence, and cloud-based computing. All of which will increasingly add complexity and cost to the entire IT ecosystem if it is not controlled. Therefore, today, it is more important than ever that organizations continuously evaluate how hardware and software assets are inventoried, managed, and secured.’

IDC went on to say that ‘without a holistic approach to asset management, which includes an understanding of how all forms of hardware and software assets are linked to business processes, IT will find it virtually impossible to optimize the dynamic resources essential for delivering critical business services. By embracing a holistic asset management strategy with a single platform, IT departments can more effectively assess their production and non-production datacentre designs and workloads. IT leaders are increasingly realizing that traditional/siloed approaches to asset management often lack the insights necessary to respond quickly to business needs.’

IDC confirmed that ‘the best SAM program is a set of IT practices that integrates the people, processes, and technologies needed to holistically manage and optimize software asset usage and management across the varying device types being used in the workplace.’

Lack a Single View of IT Assets

Many organizations find themselves in the position of having deployed particular solutions in order to address these new challenges as they arose. The end result being that they have to manage a vast array of different systems, often from different vendors. All of these systems often have disparate data sources, infrastructure, interfaces, resources, stakeholders and no way of gaining one single view: CHAOS!

In fact, it has been commonly stated that 70% of a SAM Manager’s time is simply spent trying to access and manage data! How are these organizations ever going to gain control and start optimizing the management of their assets along the lines recommended by the likes of IDC and other industry experts?

Clearly the ideal solution is a set of modular elements, based on legacy-free technology, working either individually or together holistically on a single platform, from a single vendor. That solution is only available from Certero.

The Certero Management Platform: The Single Platform for Managing IT Assets

The Certero Management Platform has been designed from the ground up to specifically address the challenges you face in the world of asset management and software licensing. In building the Certero Platform we separated out the core elements common to each solution across data, forms, management and reporting. This ensures that we have the key functionality in one platform.

With a single platform for managing IT assets, you have centralized access to core information which will enhance the management process, helping teams make better informed strategic decisions and avoid unnecessary asset purchases.

Find out more about the Certero Management Platform.