What is IT Asset Discovery and What Are the Benefits?

IT asset discovery is the process of locating, identifying, and indexing all assets within an organization’s IT infrastructure. This includes both hardware and software assets, such as laptops, tablets, PCs, servers, IoT devices, software libraries, third-party software licenses, code repositories, storage buckets, databases-as-a-service (DBaaS), containers, virtualized network devices, and virtual servers.

The benefits of IT asset discovery

Asset discovery is a critical component of any cybersecurity strategy and provides organizations with a new level of transparency in their networks. Asset discovery can help your organization:

• Improve cybersecurity: By having an accurate inventory of assets, organizations can ensure that all assets are up-to-date and secure, helping to protect the organization from potential cyber threats.
• Remain compliant: Knowing which assets the organization owns can help them determine the best ways to use them and ensure they comply with security and regulatory standards.
• Cut costs and budget better: Knowing which devices you have, their usage, and how old they are can help you make more informed decisions regarding IT budgeting and planning. In addition, IT asset discovery can help organize third-party software licenses, so you aren’t paying for additional, unused software instances.

In short, asset discovery helps organizations better understand their environment and take steps to protect and improve it.

Tips on choosing the right asset discovery tool

• Choose a tool that tells the full story and allows you to easily identify, scan, and monitor all devices.
• Ensure your chosen platform handles automated patching.
• Check that your chosen platform supports the hardware you’re currently using.

Ready to get started with IT asset discovery?

With the right tools and processes in place, you can quickly identify and address any potential risks, reduce costs, and improve the efficiency of your IT operations. As you continue to learn more about asset discovery, remember that it is an ongoing process that requires regular maintenance and updates to remain effective. Yeo & Yeo Technology can help.

Information used in this article was provided by our partners at ConnectWise.