If you’re wondering what ITAM is, this article is for you. In terms of an elevator pitch, organizations use IT asset management (ITAM) capabilities for managing, optimizing, and controlling IT assets throughout their lifecycles.
ITAM capabilities help organizations ensure all technology resources are accounted for, deployed, maintained, upgraded, and disposed of when necessary. ITAM’s primary goal is to maximize the value and efficiency of IT assets while minimizing the associated risks and costs, with it considered an IT service management (ITSM) capability after becoming one of the 34 ITIL management practices in 2019.
A more detailed definition of ITAM
Organizations use ITAM capabilities to track, evaluate, and manage their IT assets. This includes tangible IT assets (such as hardware) and intangible assets (such as software licenses and digital content). With ITAM, organizations get a comprehensive inventory and detailed insights into their IT resources to enable better purchasing, deployment, maintenance, and compliance decision-making.
At its core, ITAM involves processes that help ensure every IT asset is properly recorded and monitored throughout its lifecycle. This ITAM activity helps organizations to optimize asset use, reduce waste, ensure compliance with license agreements, and minimize the risks associated with IT operations.
The different types of IT assets and their ITAM needs
IT assets can be broadly categorized into:
Hardware assets
These assets are the physical devices used in an organization’s IT environment. Examples of hardware assets include desktops, laptops, servers, smartphones, tablets, networking equipment, printers, and other peripherals. Hardware asset management capabilities focus on the procurement, deployment, maintenance, and eventual disposal of these devices.
Software assets
This category includes all software applications, operating systems, and licenses an organization uses. The effective software asset management helps organizations ensure licenses are compliant with legal requirements and optimized for cost efficiency. It involves monitoring software usage, managing licenses, ensuring updates and patches are applied, and retiring unused or obsolete software.
Virtual assets
These assets include virtual machines (VMs), virtual networks, and other resources that exist within a virtualized IT environment. Managing virtual assets is crucial for maintaining control over virtual environments, ensuring they are used efficiently, and preventing what has been termed “VM sprawl.”
Cloud assets
Cloud assets include cloud storage, software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), and platform as a service (PaaS) offerings. Managing cloud assets involves tracking subscriptions, usage, and costs and ensuring compliance with contractual obligations.
Digital assets
Digital assets are the data, intellectual property, digital content, and other intangible items valuable to an organization. Managing digital assets involves data governance, ensuring data integrity, security, and compliance, and optimizing storage solutions.
The scope of ITAM
ITAM encompasses several areas, each of which is critical to IT governance:
Inventory management
This includes tracking hardware devices, software licenses, network components, and other assets to ensure they are accounted for and managed properly.
Compliance management
Ensuring compliance with software licensing agreements, regulatory requirements, and industry standards.
Cost management
This involves managing procurement processes, negotiating better vendor contracts, optimizing software licensing costs, and eliminating unused or underutilized assets.
Risk management
ITAM helps mitigate risks associated with IT assets, such as data breaches, non-compliance with licensing agreements, and hardware failure.
Lifecycle management
ITAM is responsible for managing the entire lifecycle of IT assets, from planning and acquisition to disposal.
The key benefits of IT Asset Management
ITAM offers numerous benefits to organizations, including:
Cost efficiency
By optimizing IT asset use, organizations can reduce unnecessary expenditures, negotiate better vendor contracts, and avoid overbuying software licenses or hardware.
Improved compliance
ITAM helps ensure organizations comply with software license agreements, reducing the risk of legal issues and fines. It also helps meet regulatory requirements by maintaining accurate records of IT assets.
Enhanced security
By keeping track of all IT assets, organizations can better manage vulnerabilities and ensure that all devices and software are updated and secure.
Increased productivity
Effective ITAM helps streamline IT operations, reducing service downtime and improving IT resource availability.
Better decision-making
ITAM provides valuable insights into the organization’s IT environment. These can be used to improve performance, including addressing improvement opportunities.
Risk mitigation
By managing IT assets better, organizations can identify and mitigate risks related to asset failure, data breaches, and non-compliance.
What would you add to this quick explanation of what ITAM is? Please let me know in the comments.
Further Reading
Please use the website search capability to find other helpful ITAM and ITSM articles on topics such as cost-effective ITAM, how to reduce costs with ITSM, managing data centers, making informed decisions with data, security risks, managing mobile apps, asset tracking software, selecting software vendors, realizing cost savings, hardware and software asset management, application development, and service level agreements (SLAs).
There are also ITSM and ITAM-focused articles on managing cloud computing services, IT asset management solutions, improving bottom lines, managing potential risks, managing SaaS applications, resourcing plan creation, improving business operations and business processes, and getting value from software products.
Stephen Mann
Principal Analyst and Content Director at the ITSM-focused industry analyst firm ITSM.tools. Also an independent IT and IT service management marketing content creator, and a frequent blogger, writer, and presenter on the challenges and opportunities for IT service management professionals.
Previously held positions in IT research and analysis (at IT industry analyst firms Ovum and Forrester and the UK Post Office), IT service management consultancy, enterprise IT service desk and IT service management, IT asset management, innovation and creativity facilitation, project management, finance consultancy, internal audit, and product marketing for a SaaS IT service management technology vendor.
