network inventory solutions

It’s about more than licensing, of course. “Good asset management practices consist of basic inventory management,” Heine says. “What’s your migration plan—what needs to be replaced or upgraded, and when? This allows for some precise budgeting. There are significant savings associated with good asset management.” Some IT/SAM products even handle—or are part of suites that can handle— software update/patching, disk reimaging, and per-program access control.

Many schools use established IT/SAM products or modules from companies such as Altiris, BigFix, and Sitekeeper, or utilities provided from vendors such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Microsoft. But many others are using home-grown or modified network inventory solutions, even simply databases or spreadsheets.