It's not a completely isolated problem--being unsure of the extent of your IT infrastructure, where it's all housed, or what version of software it's running. But this lack of asset management can be a problem for IT managers faced with shrinking or stagnant budgets.
If you don't know what you've got, how can you know what you do (or don't) need to purchase?
As an enterprise's IT infrastructure grows, or becomes housed in a greater variety of locations, it becomes increasingly important to know what you've got. This can be for reasons as diverse as preventing theft by employees, calculating total cost of ownership, managing rolling upgrade programs or assessing taxable depreciation on assets.
But realising that you need to carry out an audit of your tech gear is only half the battle. From there you've got to work out how you're going to track all the IT equipment at the company, what you're going to cover in the audit, and who is going to be responsible for the process.
Not to mention setting up an ongoing process so that you can then keep records up-to-date in the future. It may seem like a huge undertaking-and for many organisations it can be-but the data gathered can be extremely valuable for future planning.
How does your IT department manage tracking assets? Do you think it's necessary to keep detailed records of IT equipment?
Please send your comments to Talkback below or e-mail us your tips to itmanager@zdnet.com.au
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