Jul
1
2009

New: Better Inventory Control, Improved Risk Management

Here at SAManage, we are constantly striving to make it easier for you to manage your IT assets. This week’s upgrade provides new ways to better control your hardware inventory, and features that will enhance the way you manage risks within your technology infrastructure.

We’ve added:

Unauthorized Software alerts

SAManage has always used a global dictionary to identify the presence of unauthorized software across your company’s network. As inventory is checked, the system performs in-depth analysis, comparing the software being used against a list of unauthorized applications. If there is a match, a new risk alert will be triggered.

Now, you can expand your list of unauthorized software. Want to know the next time a user installs Skype? Simply add Skype to your list of greynet software, and you’ll receive an alert each time Skype is discovered in your software inventory. This will make it easier for you to stay on top of your approved software stack, and to more effectively implement and enforce a software usage policy.

: Enforce a software usage policy across your network

Duplicate Computers

Dealing with duplicate computers is one of the obstacles you may face when maintaining accurate IT asset inventory. This is caused by the dynamic nature of IT systems. For example, existing hardware is re-provisioned for new employees, operating systems get reinstalled on the same computer, and virtualization technologies enable the launch of multiple virtual instances of the same computer (this topic will be addressed in a separate post).

From an IT asset management perspective, these components must be recognized as the same. In order for your inventory to be tracked as precisely as possible, the “old asset” must first be removed from your inventory log, before the new asset is accounted for.

SAManage will now add a new alert to your risks module, notifying you when duplicate computers exist in your inventory. You will then be required to take action, and will be asked to mark the duplicate one, so a single, accurate log of your assets can be maintained.

Computers That Are Not Reporting

In order to most effectively manage your inventory of IT assets, you must ensure that all components are present and accounted for. Therefore, all assets must be reporting back to SAManage on a regular basis.

Now, SAManage can alert you when specific assets do not report for a pre-defined period of time, so you can immediately take action to locate it and determine its status. Maybe it has been stolen and needs to be reclaimed? Perhaps it is no longer being utilized, and can now be reassigned to another user?