The Evolution of Hardware Asset Management

A Brief History

The term “Information Technology” first entered the English lexicon in 1958. However, what we now consider ITAM (IT Asset Management) didn’t really begin until the 1990’s; when IT leaders started using spreadsheets to manually track their inventory of hardware components like computers and peripherals.

Excel Version 1.5 (1998)

By the early 21st century, most organizations adopted ITAM software to automate the inventory process and maintain a central database of assets. In the decades that followed, ITAM grew to include all hardware lifecycle stages (Procure, Deploy, Manage, Maintain, Retire) with the goal of maximizing return on investment.

The proliferation of remote work, stemming from the pandemic, accelerated the adoption of new ITAM practices such as zero-touch deployment and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device).

Today IT leaders must align their hardware asset management strategies with various departments and stakeholders (ITSM, Security, Legal, ESG, GRC, Accounting, FinOps).

What’s Next?

ESG Trends

On March 6th, the SEC Adopted new Rules to Enhance and Standardize Climate-Related Disclosures for investors. If you manage IT at a publicly traded company, be prepared to show evidence that your end of life hardware was decommissioned using an R2v3 certified vendor. The deadline for adoption of the v3 standard was July 31st of last year, so make sure your ITAD vendor’s certs are up to date.

R2v3

AI Integration

Recent years have witnessed the integration of automation and artificial intelligence into ITAM. These technologies have enhanced asset discovery, provisioning, and decommissioning, while enabling organizations to manage their assets more efficiently.

This is great news for IT Asset Managers- repetitive tasks like hardware inventory management and diagnostics will be increasingly automated, freeing you up for more strategic work. AI-powered tools can predict hardware failures and recommend optimal maintenance schedules, extending hardware lifespan.

Some of the ways Galide is implementing AI to help clients and streamline our internal operations include:

Predictive Analytics: Galide’s developers are working on predictive analytics to help our clients maximize value recovery, by effectively timing the replacement/retirement of their aged devices.
Image Analytics: Our receiving department is testing the use of image analytics to classify devices by form factor.
Anomaly Detection has increased the efficiency of Galide’s audit line by 12%

IoT Asset Management / Emerging Threats

People generally associate IoT (Internet of Things) with consumer devices like smart speakers and appliances. These IoT devices may not be procured by IT; however, that doesn’t mean IT Asset Managers don’t need to bother tracking them. Every device that’s accessible over your organization’s network can be the gateway for a malicious attack, even ‘smart’ coffee machines.

VR Spacial Computing

Lately Galide has seen a significant uptick in VR devices being included with pickups from our clients. It’s still a fraction of the tens of thousands of machines we repurpose each year; however, we expect to see more in the near future with Apple Vision Pros being added to IT environments.

Galide demos Apple Vision Pro at IAITAM ACE 2024

Increased Regulation

The decentralization of corporate footprints has created new GRC (Governance, Risk, Compliance) challenges. Think about it, if you don’t know where all of your laptops and are located, how can you tell regulatory bodies that customer information is being kept private?

New and updated regulations introduced recently include:

Do you have easy access to certificates of destruction for every piece of hardware your organization decommissioned over the past seven years?

Some IT Managers don’t address this initially and are just happy to get rid of their old tech; at least until InfoSec comes knocking during a PCI or SOC2 audit. This is why you should insist that any ITAD (IT Asset Disposition) vendor you partner with provides a secure portal that gives you real time chain-of-custody visibility, as well as access to individual CoDs (Certificates-of-Destruction) and erasure reports for every single drive and device you’ve decommissioned with them.

Galide sample CoDs & Erasure Reports

ITAD Blockchain

The OBADA Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is developing an an open standard called “Representing Physical Assets using Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)” in conjunction with the International Standards Organization ISO TC/307 AHG3. This open blockchain protocol will allow any organization or ecosystem to establish their own NFT implementation for their own category of physical assets which will be interoperable across all categories.

This will eventually lead to the creation of and “ITAD Blockchain” utility that will make it easy for IT Managers to track the service history of any device, from manufacturer the recycler. Essentially, a CARFAX for IT assets.

Conclusion

The future of ITAM will include an increased focus on sustainability, more IoT devices being introduced to IT environments, AI integration, cloud-centric management, data-driven insights, a greater need for remote workforce support, and blockchain transparency. It is pivotal that IT Managers embrace these trends in order to capitalize on the opportunities, and overcome the challenges, related to them.

Created by DaVinci AI

Email ITAD@galide.com to schedule a demo of our portal and learn how Galide can help you maximize the value of your aged technology, securely and sustainably.

Publish By Galide Team

June 8, 2024