IAITAM 2014 Fall ACE Review

IAITAM 2014 Fall ACE Review

The ITAM Review was the ‘Media Partner’ at the IAITAM 2014 Fall ACE – Taming Your ITAM Jungle November 4-6, Sandusky, Ohio USA hosting in the region of 450 ITAM professionals.

IAITAM Conference location

Some of the attendees were attending their 10+ IAITAM ACE conference but there was also a healthy percentage of first timers which shows that IAITAM are doing a lot of good work championing ITAM as a core business activity.

The conference

The 3 day conference consisted of nearly 100 educational sessions, covering ITAM best practices, case studies, standards, licensing and how-to information suited for all experience levels. Each of the 3 days consisted of approximately 40 presentations and workshops across a variety of ITAM topics such as Audit, Process, Disposal, Security and Licensing. IAITAM provided a book containing all the presentations which was very useful.

IT Asset Disposal (ITAD)

Interesting to find that ITAD was such a big topic provided the largest number of exhibitors at the event. We had a very interesting plenary session from Steven Mellings. Steve outlined how ITAD has an image problem because people just think about it in terms of junk. This is further compounded by the fact that there is no budget set aside for ITAD and it cannot be done for free because the market value in asset reclamation of plastics and metals has fallen through the floor.

Steve detailed that asset disposal was a critical issue for all businesses with an estimated 40% of equipment purchased in the 2nd hand market has corporate data on it and it is not just your hard drives you need to consider:

• Flash drives
• Mobile Phones
• Network equipment – need to protect from DDOS attacks
• Data stored in printers
• People working from home using BYOD using cloud and social media service
• Cars – suck your address book from your mobile so that you can do hands free calling

The biggest issue in most organisations is that there is no central ownership of ITAD and where there is inconsistency there is risk.

ITAM & ITSM Integration

Another common theme from the many sessions was the topic of integration between ITAM and ITSM. Both ITAM and ITSM are operated as separate disciplines in most organisations but we had an interesting debate on what the synergy was between both disciplines and how the disciplines should be integrated. The most sensible approach that came out from the sessions was to use the CMDB as single source of the truth for ITAM and ITSM – looking at ITAM and ITSM as a common platform rather than an integration project.

Event Review

Positives ✔

• Really well run and organised, everything ran like clockwork
• IAITAM staff are a genuine bunch of people who just wanted to make the conference deliver a great experience for all
• Exhibition hall was well attended each evening creating a real buzz and opportunity for exhibitors and attendees to mix
• A presentations book was provided consisting of all the slide decks for each session

Negatives ✗

• Sandusky was an out of season location and an hour by car from Cleveland airport

Conclusion

Dr. Barbara Rembiesa and Timothy LaFleur

In our interview with IAITAM CEO Dr Barbs she stated “you cannot operate your business without technology so why aren’t you managing technology as your business” and I believe the IAITAM Fall Ace conference delivered on this message.

The IAITAM Fall ACE Conference was a quality event and I recommend going to next year’s event in San Diego. (Platinum Sponsorship by Eracent) I’ll certainly be there in San Diego!