Aiming to create a harmonious marriage of IT management interests this month are Hornbill Service Management and Certero who have announced a new strategic partnership.
The firms say that they realise we are “far beyond” simply managing printers and laptops on a network in terms of what drives asset management today: trends such as the growth of virtualisation, consumerisation and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) are bringing huge changes to the IT landscape.
Certero says it will bring its “full range” of asset and power management solutions to Hornbill Supportworks ITSM software customers, integrating with Hornbill’s own analyst consoles. The companies claim that users will now benefit from what they call “broader asset management capabilities”, a term they use to suggest that there will now be an opportunity to gain full visibility over complex infrastructures from software to hardware to energy use.
“Having knowledge of and control over IT assets is a vital part of any ITSM strategy,” said Doug Pollock, client services director, Hornbill Service Management. “However, IT infrastructures are often evolving faster than ITSM practices can keep pace. IT teams need to both centralise their IT policies and ensure that they can successfully manage a spiraling variety of IT assets.”
Certero’s AssetStudio and PowerStudio products are web-based platforms that provide discovery and inventory capabilities together with automation. This, claims Certero, removes many of the complexities associated with management of IT assets and enables organisations to track their IT infrastructure, from energy use to individual items of software.
Information from warranty and patch status to application version can be recorded and monitored to ensure that the IT department has full visibility over its assets. Certeros’ AssetStudio also integrates with VMware in order to provide physical and virtual server relationships. By monitoring software as well as physical infrastructure, AssetStudio can potentially provide a granular view across an entire organisation.
“Asset management is irreversibly evolving,” said John Lunt, managing director, Certero. “We are moving from expensive physical hardware holding relatively inexpensive software to relatively inexpensive physical or virtual environments where the true value lies in the software and data on board. By working together with Supportworks, AssetStudio and PowerStudio, Hornbill and Certero are helping enterprises to tackle these new challenges, helping to maximise their investments whilst avoiding wasted spend.”