Modern IT has become increasingly dynamic to meet changing business needs while staying ahead of constantly evolving cybersecurity threats. Remote work and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies have also become common, along with the adoption of cloud technology. These developments have increased the surface area of shadow IT and complicated the tracking of assets for businesses, which can negatively impact productivity and efficiency, along with increasing security vulnerabilities. Furthermore, the adoption of IoT devices is likely to add to the complexity of this situation. According to Axonius, 79% of organizations say they have an asset visibility gap, leading to three times more incidents than before. Businesses unable to find solutions to this issue are likely to suffer hindered operational performance, customer dissatisfaction, and reputational damage. This makes the use of an IT discovery tool essential for all enterprises.
What is IT asset discovery?
IT asset discovery is the process of identifying and collecting data on all IT assets on a particular network. IT discovery tools execute this process by conducting sweeps across the network to find all existing data. This includes:
- device name
- device type
- network address
- device configuration
- device status
- device capacity
- performance information
- device dependencies
IT discovery tools can also conduct more specialized sweeps to collect data from specific areas such as hardware, software, virtual instances, cloud components or smart devices. The insights gained from this data can be used to craft proactive plans for data consolidation, migration or modernization.
What are the types of IT asset discovery?
Asset discovery can be either passive or active:
Passive IT discovery
For a company to employ passive IT discovery, all devices on its network must be able to send out syslogs. Syslogs are stored by a log management program, which can refresh its logs to produce a report. Passive asset discovery can be used by a business of any size to monitor assets using current and archived data.
Active IT discovery
Active IT asset discovery involves pinging every device interfaced with a network. It depends on live activity to function, meaning archived processes or functions cannot sync or be detected. Active discovery also uses more bandwidth than passive discovery and is considered the more complicated asset discovery method overall. It also comes with the potential for network congestion.
How is IT discovery different from service mapping and monitoring?
While IT discovery shares some similarities with IT mapping and IT monitoring, it should not be conflated with them. IT discovery is mainly concerned with the identification of assets on a specific network, while IT mapping focuses on tracking asset dependencies and IT monitoring is used to keep track of asset health. Other differences between the three are highlighted in the table below:
| IT discovery | IT mapping | IT monitoring | |
| Purpose | – IT discovery involves identifying and cataloging all the assets within an IT environment. This includes hardware, software, network devices, and virtual machines. | – IT mapping focuses on understanding the relationships and dependencies between various IT assets. | – IT monitoring continuously tracks the performance and health of IT assets and services to ensure they are operating as expected. |
| Process | – Automated IT asset discovery tools scan the network to detect devices, software and services. – Asset details such as type, configuration, and location are collected and stored in a centralized database. | – Analyzing how different components interact and depend on each other. – Visual representation (maps) showing these connections and interdependencies. | – Setting up monitoring tools to collect data on various performance metrics (e.g., CPU usage, memory utilization, network traffic). – Real-time analysis of this data to detect anomalies, failures, or performance issues. |
| Outcome | – A comprehensive inventory of IT assets. – Improved visibility into the IT infrastructure. – Foundational data for further IT management activities. | – Clear diagrams of the IT infrastructure. – Insight into how changes or failures in one component can impact others. – Improved ability to plan changes, manage configurations, and troubleshoot issues. | – Proactive identification of potential issues before they impact users. – Alerts and notifications for IT staff to take corrective actions. – Historical data for performance analysis and capacity planning. |
What are IT discovery tools?
IT discovery tools are software applications that conduct network-wide sweeps to identify, track, and manage assets on an IT ecosystem. Key features of IT discovery tools include:
- Automatic asset detection
- Inventory management
- Network mapping
- Configuration management
- Reporting and analytics
- Integration capabilities
Examples of IT discovery tools include:
Microsoft System Centre Configuration Management (SCCM)
Microsoft SCCM can be used to manage Windows, Linux and MacOS devices. Once integrated with your ITAM software, it will start discovering IT assets and update their data through regular syncs. Using SCCM for IT discovery gives real time information on software tools, license keys, IDs and other data on your devices.
Jamf
Jamf detects and manages iOS and MacOS devices on your network. It can give you a device’s login history, warranty information and security measures. Jamf helps save time and reduce manual effort by mass importing asset data from Apple devices to your ITAM database.
Microsoft Intune
Microsoft Intune is a leading Mobile Device Management (MDM) and Mobile Application Management (MAM) platform. Using it for IT asset discovery upgrades your IT governance, especially with respect to security. Integrating Microsoft Intune with your ITAM tool helps discover Windows and Android devices.
Google Mobile Device Management
Google MDM is meant for Android and Chrome devices. It can be integrated with your ITAM software to find undetected devices on your IT network.
Kandji
Kandji is used to monitor and manage MacOS and iOS devices. Its features include automated enrollment, real-time monitoring, detailed inventory management, security and compliance management.
Google Workspace
Google Workspace is primarily used for its productivity and collaboration tools but it has features that can assist with IT discovery. These include device management, centralized admin console, security management and application management.
Cisco Meraki
Cisco Meraki is an integrated router and next-generation firewall that can integrate with ITAM software. It allows administrators to configure security for devices connected to a company’s IT network. This includes routers, switches, firewalls and WiFI networks along with any other endpoint that can act as a gateway to the company’s network. Cisco Meraki can help organizations with remote-work and BYOD policies strengthen their security and improve their IT device management.
Jumpcloud
Jumpcloud is an open-directory device management solution. It majorly focuses on environments relying on diverse device ecosystems. This includes industries such as IT, education, healthcare, professional service firms and remote-first companies. Integrating ITAM with Jumpcloud can enhance organizational efficiency and asset control by facilitating the seamless management of devices. It enables customers to oversee their entire device inventory, to ensure that both hardware and software assets are properly optimized. This helps the organization using it achieve unified device management, streamlined IT workflows, automated asset lifecycle management and improved compliance and reporting.
What capabilities should an IT discovery tool have in 2024?
An IT discovery tool needs a robust set of features that can meet the evolving needs of organizations in the current era. These include:
Comprehensive asset detection
The IT ecosystems of most organizations now use a mix of Windows, Apple, Linux, and Android devices. As such, the best tool for them would be one that can discover assets across a variety of ecosystems. The tool should be able to do this in cloud environments as well as on-premises, using both agent-based (installed on devices) and agentless methods(network scanning) to detect assets.
Real-time monitoring and alerts
Real-time monitoring and alerts can significantly boost visibility into the IT environment, security, operational efficiency, resource utilization and support data-driven decision making. The tool should also be able to give configurable alerts for changes in asset status, discovered vulnerabilities or addition of unauthorized devices to the network.
Advanced network mapping
The ability to visualize a network’s topology, find devices connected to it, along with the dependencies between the various devices is essential for IT discovery tools due to the increasing adoption of cloud networks and IoT devices. This is also known as Dynamic Network Topology. This capability enhances visibility, security, management, planning and the capacity to quickly respond to and resolve incidents.
Cloud service integration
The tool should be able to integrate with major cloud providers such as AWS, Azure and Google Cloud to discover cloud-based resources. It should also be able to discover assets and manage hybrid IT environments with on-premises and cloud resources.
Security features
Improved security is one of the primary reasons an organization would employ an IT discovery tool. A modern IT asset discovery solution should be able to identify and report vulnerabilities in discovered assets, ensure the discovered assets are compliant with regulatory and policy requirements, and integrate with commonly used security tools such as SIEM, endpoint protection, and the internal security policies of the organization using it.
AI and ML capabilities
AI and ML are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in all industries. As such, IT discovery tools should have the capability to conduct predictive analytics. The tool should be able to use AI/ML to predict incidents related to hardware failures and security breaches as well as resource utilization trends. It should also be able to identify unusual patterns and behaviors in the network via automated anomaly detection.
What are the benefits to employing IT asset discovery?
The enhanced visibility into an IT network created by employing IT discovery comes with many upsides that can enable a business to achieve higher productivity and deliver better customer service. These include:
Better asset management
IT discovery tools can autonomously detect and catalog all IT assets, maintaining an accurate inventory. This reduces the likelihood of asset loss or redundancy. These tools also record data on the status and lifecycle stage of each asset, helping businesses plan for upgrades, replacements or decommissioning strategically.
Reduced costs
IT discovery can help identify underused or poorly utilized assets. Organizations can use this data to relocate resources for greater efficiency and to minimize avoidable purchases. IT discovery tools also keep IT staff updated regarding software license and compliance status, preventing costly penalties.
Easier risk identification
ITAM and service desk solutions can be fully integrated with an IT discovery tool. This allows IT staff to view asset details directly from incoming tickets or service requests. This system makes identification of incidents related to particular assets quick and simple, and also helps identify potential risks or security gaps.
Increased efficiency
The increased visibility created by IT asset discovery can be used to improve asset optimization and reduce downtime. The continuous monitoring of asset health also allows proactive application of ITAM solutions before company time is lost due to asset downtime.
Asset tracking in remote locations
The rise of hybrid and work-from-home policies has made it important for businesses to be able to track all assets connecting to their network, regardless of their geographic location. Real-time network scans by IT discovery tools can give businesses this data, along with IP address, last known activity and assigned users.
All organizations depend on an inventory of their assets to maintain a degree of asset visibility. In recent decades, this function has been served using spreadsheets which are manually updated by employees. This is a resource-intensive and error-prone method that can’t keep up with the needs of today’s businesses due to the dynamic technology environment of the modern workplace. Replacing spreadsheets with automated IT asset discovery tools can give full asset visibility with limited or no human involvement. The use of these tools leads to better data integrity, which improves productivity, security and prevents reputational damage. IT discovery is all the more in the current era because of BYOD policies, work-from-home policies and the increasing use of cloud technology which have increased the security vulnerabilities faced by businesses and their IT networks. Asset discovery will also become more important as IoT becomes more prevalent, with the International Data Corporation predicting 41.6 billion IoT device endpoints will be online by 2025.
