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IT Asset Management: By the Numbers - What is ITAM?

Aug 24, 2015 |
1 min Read
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This is Part 2 of a 5-part series on Calculating the ROI of an ITAM Solution. The entire series is available as a complimentary white paper in PDF format for download here.
 

Part 2 of 5: What is ITAM?

WHOCANBENEFITFROMASSETTRACKINGIT Asset Management (ITAM) is the critical, yet often neglected, process of inventorying and auditing the assets within a data center.

It is a subset of the larger process known as Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) which represents the convergence of IT infrastructure and building facilities functions within an organization.

ITAM is the process by which IT professionals responsible for the data center are able to track and manage the data center assets under their control.

Inventory assets can vary wildly by organization, but typically include assets such as: 

  • Racks
  • Cabinets
  • Other floor-mounted devices (base assets)
  • Rack-mounted devices (contained assets)
  • Device-mounted assets (sub-contained assets)
  • Power connections
  • Network connections

We've covered this topic in previous blog posts that you might find useful, like these:

  1. A Clipboard is Not and Effective ITAM Tool
  2. Value of ITAM for Data Center Colocation Facilities
  3. Reducing the cost of IT data center audits

 

 

Read the whole 5-Part Series:
IT Asset Management: By the Numbers

  1. Introduction
  2. What is IT Asset Management (ITAM)
  3. Why Inventory & Audit the Data Center?
  4. The High Cost of Manual IT Asset Management
  5. The Bottom Line

Download the complimentary white paper: IT Asset Management: By the Numbers Calculating the ROI of and ITAM Solution

 

Author:

Sean Cotter is President of Asset Vue, bringing 27 years of experience in IT leadership, business development, and entrepreneurship. He leads the company’s strategic direction and team, helping organizations simplify inventory management through RFID and barcode technology, automated data capture, and asset lifecycle tracking.

Sean’s expertise spans RFID and automatic identification technologies, process optimization, data center infrastructure management, and environmental monitoring. Before Asset Vue, he founded and grew an outsourced IT business and later served as Director of IT and CIO at the DVL Group. He has also taught Operations Management as an Adjunct Professor at West Chester University and holds a master’s degree in business from Saint Joseph’s University’s Haub School of Business.

His writing draws on this operational and technology experience to explore practical approaches to asset visibility, inventory accuracy, and more efficient IT asset management.

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