Understanding What, Where, How, and Why

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

Discussing the techniques for inventory collection with IT Asset Management is made challenging because there are two closely-related (but distinct) code entities that can be used. Each of these can be deployed to different locations within your enterprise network, and managed in different ways. How they are deployed (whether by automation within IT Asset Management or by other techniques you choose to use) also affects both management and functionality. Finally, different combinations of these factors are best suited to different scenarios of what you are trying to achieve and what aspects you want to avoid.

This section establishes a map of the terminology used throughout this reference, and the ways that different approaches affect the system requirements for, and management of, inventory tools available within IT Asset Management. (This discussion excludes inventory collected by other "third party" tools, and imported into IT Asset Management through adapters, whether built-in adapters or customized add-ons.)

Those unfamiliar with the inventory technology in IT Asset Management are encouraged to work through the following foundational topics. Experts who want only a terminology update can use the table below as an executive summary of what is deployed, how, and where; with each combination given a case name used consistently throughout this document:

Case name	What	Where	How
Adopted	FlexNet Inventory Agent	Target inventory device	Automatically by IT Asset Management
Agent third-party deployment	FlexNet Inventory Agent	Target inventory device	Third-party deployment
Zero-footprint	FlexNet inventory core components	On an inventory beacon	Not applicable (installed with the inventory beacon)
FlexNet Inventory Scanner	FlexNet inventory core components (in self-installing wrapper)	Target inventory device, or a network share	Third-party deployment
Core deployment	FlexNet inventory core components	Target inventory device running Microsoft Windows	Third-party deployment