Hardware Asset Management

The hardware asset management phrase means that an organization should be aware of it's computer IT assets: workstations, servers, peripheral devices, network devices and others it owns and effectivelly manage them in the organization's everyday life. Having that information that will help the organization effictivelly respond to any changes that will be required or useful to make in the company infrastructure. For example, if the organization's computer network response time increases, the network administrators should find the problem and suggest the way to fix it rather than replace the network equipment with the quicker ones.

The key to hardware asset management is hardware inventory. The cmpany IT team should not only have the principal scheme of their network, but be also aware of what devices process what subnets, and know the settings of those devices. It is nearly impossible to remember characteristics for all devices if the company LAN contains hundreds of workstations and servers; in this case the IT team use specialized programs that inventory the network and generate the detailed reports on what the company network consists of.

We can recommend you to check Asset Tracker for Networks, a software of the kind described above. This program scans the network and lists all computers and network equipment connected to it, finding hardware and software details for each individual device and storing them in a centralized database. Please use the links below to download the free evaluation version of the program and evaluate it in your network:

Next article: Hardware Configuration