Gartner Research

What You Need to Know About Discovery Tools for IT Asset Management

Published: 14 July 2014

ID: G00264158

Analyst(s): Patricia Adams

Summary

The number of vendors who offer discovery tools continues to expand, but there are a limited number that should be used for IT asset management purposes. This covers selection criteria for IT asset managers to consider when choosing a tool.

Table Of Contents
  • Key Challenges

Introduction

Analysis

  • Prioritize Discovering What Is Connected to the Corporate Network and Identifying the Installed Software Using Both Agent-Based and Agentless Discovery Tools
    • Agent Versus Agentless, or Both?
  • Use a Software Knowledge Base to Accurately Identify Business Software and Personal Software
  • Build a Discovery Strategy That Maintains Multiple Discovery Sources to Ensure That All Assets Requiring Management Are Identified
  • Ensure the Tool Has the Ability to Analyze and Make Recommendations on Software Deployments, Enabling Efficient Hardware and Software Asset Management

Case Study

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