xAssets Newsletter
Read our June 2010 Newsletter here
White Papers
The Right First Step
In March of this year the CIO of the United States of America, Vivek Kundra, mandated that government agencies and departments begin to develop plans to consolidate their data centers. With 1,200 data centers currently identified as being in operation, the mandated task will not be an easy one. However, a successful project outcome would bear real fruit. With software and file servers accounting for more than a quarter of the federal IT budget, and with server utilization estimated to be under 15% of total capacity, consolidation would result in real budgetary savings, likely measuring in the billions of dollars.
How to Write an RFP
In a recent interview, I was asked if knew of a good Request For Proposal (RFP) template that applied to the selection and acquisition of enterprise IT asset management systems. I told the interviewer that unless any number of companies or organizations have exactly the same needs, budgets and organizational structures, such a template would have no value. I was then asked if I could write an article on how to write an RFP, as it seems to be a task that a number of people struggle to accomplish. Having worked on more RFP’s than I care to remember, and having some thoughts on how to make the process more effective, I agreed.
Agentless Discovery versus Agent-based Discovery
The comparison between Agent-based Network Discovery and Agentless Network Discovery very much mirrors the comparison of staging an application on an internal network versus staging on a hosted network. Executed properly, any choice in both scenarios will provide the same very useful result, however, in both cases the remote solution greatly reduces overhead in both cost and manpower.
Considering Software-as-a-Service in the Asset Management World
Is Your Business Up In The Clouds?
The concept of providing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has been growing in interest within recent years, and has now reached a critical-mass of acceptance within the IT field, becoming a fully viable option for service and application provision.
Case Studies
Panasonic Electronic Devices Corporation of America (PEDCA) ®
PEDCA implemented xAssets Network Discovery and xAssets Service Management in May 2005 as a holistic IT Asset Management solution.
The system is used to manage Software Compliance, Help Desk, Hardware Assets and Contracts.
New Mexico Department of Health
New Mexico Department of Health implemented xAssets Network Discovery as a hosted service in May 2008. The system is used to manage Hardware and Software Assets
and covers over 4600 computers running Microsoft Windows and over 15,000 hardware assets in total.
Telos® Corporation
Telos implemented xAssets Service Management Software and Asset Management Software as a single, integrated solution,
in January 2009. They manage over 40,000 Assets and use the software for both Asset Management and delivery against
service contracts.
Qinetiq
Qinetiq implemented two distinct solutions from xAssets covering service management and technology asset management in 2003 and 2005.
Gloucester County Council, CTMS and Sungard
Gloucester County Council implemented a best of breed solution including xAssets Asset Management Software through their
service provider Sungard Vivista and xAssets UK Enterprise Partner CTMS.
This case study opens a link within the Sungard website.
Articles
July 2010
The changing face of IT: Five trends to watch
A presentation at the TechRepublic Live 2010 event entitled "The Changing Face of IT" outlined five key trends that are changing the way IT is delivered, administered, and staffed.
Rackspace Announces Open Source Cloud Platform
Rackspace is sponsoring an open source cloud computing project called OpenStack, and contributing its own code to it. The project's objective is to generate more uniform cloud environments, which would enable customers to move around at will. OpenStack may actually generate new competitors for the Rackspace Cloud. One provider, cloud.com, has committed to adopt the project's output. Intel, AMD and the NASA space agency are also participants in the project.
Changing Role Of IT As Services Ascend
Cloud computing is still in its relative infancy, but the responses from 828 poll respondents indicates how it may change the way people work and do business. Organizations that have anticipated and embraced change have seen their business models prosper. Cloud computing may not compare with the invention of the internal combustion engine, however it is highly disruptive, and the pace of change caused by cloud computing will be measured in years, not decades.
Reining In the Cloud
In order for any business get real control of its cloud computing initiatives, it will need to do more than just monitor what's going on. It will also need ways to adjust and control systems down to a fine-tuning level. If that sounds like a major project, that's because it probably is. As cloud computing gains traction, higher levels of management complexity will be required for large enterprises, managed service providers (MSPs), and small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Gaining and keeping control will be even more as applications are virtualized and as services and data sourcing options proliferate.
As the cloud becomes more ubiquitous IT departments and business leaders will need the means to effectively manage services use, business processes, and the end-users. The challenge will be how to move beyond traditional manual management methods to automate, standardize, and control the way services are utilized.
What's stopping CFOs putting their money on cloud computing?
The appeal of cloud computing to finance directors has increased recently, and is directly correlated with budget squeezes and the need to cut costs in difficult economic circumstances. But most CFOs of enterprise-sized companies have been wary of putting financial data into the cloud, even though some are already using such services for analysis purposes. CFOs who have also already invested heavily in installed, behind-the-firewall applications may be unlikely to evaluate new options until these large on-premise systems have reached the end of their useful life. However, other factors will also weigh on their decisions to adopt of skip of cloud-computing services.
SaaS Revenue to Surpass $8.5 Billion This Year
According to Gartner, cloud computing revenue in the enterprise application software market will exceed $8.5 billion in 2010. The economic benefits resulting the adoption of SaaS are the major driving factor in cloud computing revenue growth. It is becoming apparent that the acceptance and awareness of the cloud computing platform, and the requirement for more cost effective IT solutions, have been driving factors for the success of the cloud-computing environment.
June 2010
Microsoft Signs Massive Cloud Apps Deal
The Kentucky Department of Education has signed up 700,000 students, faculty, and staff for free e-mail, instant messaging, and online storage running on Microsoft’s cloud services. Microsoft officials called the agreement "the largest Cloud deal in the United States." And observers commented that the deal may turn out to be the communications and collaboration model for education systems, and their IT staffs, in years to come.
EPA Now Awarding Energy Stars for Data Centers
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, announced June 7 that it is extending its Energy Star program to include entire data centers. Data centers and buildings that house large data centers can earn the Energy Star label if they pass the agency's qualification requirements. To qualify, data centers must be in the top 25 percent of their peers in energy efficiency, as defined by the EPA's energy performance scale.
Amazon encrypts CloudFront, but security comes at a price
Users of Amazon's content delivery network service will have to pay more to deliver content using an HTTPS connection, as compared to using HTTP. Amazon announced that Amazon Web Services' content delivery network service CloudFront now enables users to transfer data using an encrypted HTTPS connection. However, users will pay more than if they transfer it via HTTP. CloudFront can be used to distribute all files that can be sent over HTTP, including images, audio, video, media files, or software downloads.
Google Testing Google Cloud Print Internally as It Preps for Launch
Google is internally testing its Google Cloud Print service and plans to make it available in the coming months after fully testing it with printer makers. HP announced its support for Google Cloud Print where the company unveiled a suite of cloud-aware printers. These printers will work with Google Cloud Print out of the box. The company introduced Cloud Print in April as a service that lets any application print to any printer from any computing device using Google's cloud computing infrastructure.
What's stopping CFOs putting their money on cloud computing?
Significant investment in in-house IT systems, combined with concerns regarding reliability and data security, have made many CFOs reluctant to adopt cloud computing. Nonetheless, work is being done to address some of those concerns. The appeal of cloud computing to CFOs has grown recently, as a result of reduced budgets and a need to cut costs in a challenging economy. However, most CFOs, unless they work in small companies, have been skeptical of storing sensitive financial data into the cloud, even though some are currently using cloud-based services to analyze small statistical datasets.
Six Ways to Attract a Vendor Audit
A humorous look at what companies can do in insure that SIIA or BSA or FAST come knocking on (or knocking down) the front door.
Cloud computing for business goes mainstream
Cloud computing is IT-as-a-Service. Instead of building your own IT infrastructure to support and operate databases or software, a third party hosts them in secure datacenters. User companies access their data and software via the internet. Cloud fans claim five key benefits: 1) inexpensive pay-as-you-go billing models, 2) Quick - The basic cloud services work out-of-the box.. The more complex cloud computing software and database solutions, allow users to avoid hardware procurement and capital expenditure, 3) Up-to-date as most cloud computing vendors constantly update their software and include new features as they become available, 4) Scalable - fast growing businesses, or firms with seasonal spikes, can quickly expand as cloud systems are designed to handle sharp workload increases, 5) Mobile – Cloud-based services are designed to be accessed using the web, consequently a mobile workforce has access to cloud-based systems from any location providing web access.
Cloud.com Unveils Open IaaS Platform
Cloud.com announced its CloudStack Platform, an integrated software solution that lets enterprises and service providers build, manage and deploy Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solutions.
Cloud.com focuses on helping users develop data centers as a service to create, deploy and manage multi-tier and multi-tenant SaaS applications. Cloud.com provides an open environment that interoperates with a user's existing SaaS deployment.
Making the Case for Enterprise Cloud Apps
Cloud computing leverages virtual infrastructure, but that shouldn’t preclude enterprises from consider it as an option. In a keynote address at the Interop conference, Kristof Kloeckner, IBM's CTO for cloud computing, made the point as to why cloud-computing is a viable approach for application deployment in the enterprise.
Global CIO: Steve Ballmer Interview: 'Hockey Stick' Cloud Growth Ahead
Microsoft is "all in" with regard to cloud computing. In an interview with InformationWeek editors, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer made clear that this the company’s bet on cloud computing isn't just a long-term play. He said that the cloud growth is taking off right now and he makes a passionate case explaining how the investment Microsoft has made in cloud computing products and infrastructure makes it different from rivals Google, Amazon, and Salesforce.
SaaS-querade: When On-Premise Vendors Try to Pass as SaaS Vendors
What happens when an on-premise vendor, who experiences a decrease in new license sales starts to recognize that Software as a Service (SaaS) is a viable, competitive threat? Too often the vendor decides that a ‘hosted’ application is a reasonable facsimile to a SaaS solution. All the “new’ product needs is a little SaaS marketing and it’s ready to go. They can’t be more wrong.
Why CIOs Are Choosing Cloud E-Mail
E-mail is hot again. E-mail delivered as an online service redefines the competition, as customers of all sizes aim to lower costs and eliminate operational problems. Of the nearly one billion business mailboxes worldwide, IDC estimates that in 2009, only 2% were SaaS-based. in 2009. However, when considering an upgrade their e-mail, they must consider SaaS options. GlaxoSmithKline, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Panasonic, and the city of Los Angeles are among the major organizations that have put their e-mail to the cloud.
Feds Commence Huge Data Center Consolidation
The federal government has begun what will likely be the largest data center consolidation in history. Fueled by mandates from the new federal CIO and the office of management and Budget, the project seeks to dramatically reduce the IT operations that are distributed across more than 1,100 data centers.
Microsoft's cloud-enabled Office 2010 set to join battle with Google
In May of 2010, Microsoft will release Office 2010 into the cloud, in direct competition with Google’s Google Apps office productivity software suite.
Cloud computing shakes up traditional IT outsourcing
IT outsourcing has been a mainstay source of cost savings for decades. However cloud computing, is changing how companies stretch scarce budget dollars with flexible, hosted IT services for a broad swath of enterprise technology. Cloud services are a benefit for many IT departments not requiring customized applications. Cloud computing helps organizations reduce capital expenditures from infrastructure build-outs to customer-facing software. The cloud is turning the traditional IT services industry on its head. Consequently, according to Gartner, “Cloud computing represents a fundamental shift in how companies pay for and access IT services."
Why Less is Often More - Hosted Agentless ITAM Solutions May Be All You Need
A hosted, agentless IT asset discovery and inventory solution is a great example of the expression "less is more."
The internet offers a great definition of what that less is: "The notion that simplicity and clarity lead to good design."
A hosted, agentless solution is one way to bring clarity to IT asset discovery and inventory.
Hosted Software License Reconciliation Services- The Fast, Economical Solution to the Software-Compliance-Reporting-Blues
By now it is no secret that IT asset management solutions, and systems that calculate and report an organization's degree of software
license compliance (or lack thereof) are valuable assets to any IT operation. However, let's be frank here,
the economic times ain't what they used to be. IT budgets have been slashed and programs have been cancelled or postponed across the board.
Traditional ITAM and SAM systems have a reputation of being expensive and complex, putting new systems out of the reach
of many organizations and companies. So, what are your options if you really need a solution right away?
KPMG report: Software Asset Management - Mitigating Risk and Realizing Opportunities
According to the KPMG report titled 'Software Asset Management-Mitigating Risk and Realizing Opportunities',
"It will not be long, in fact, before companies with limited SAM capabilities will become the exception."
FAST Ltd produces SOS Survival Guide for Software Audits
FAST Ltd, a UK authority on software asset management and IT compliance, has produced an SOS Survival Guide for Software Audits
Dilbert on Software Audits
Gartner Raises PC Market Forecast
Gartner has significantly raised its 2010 projected growth in worldwide PC shipments and revenue, as sales of mobile computers increase rapidly in the recovering economy.
Microsoft Office Heads For The Cloud
Steve Ballmer says his company's popular productivity suite is evolving to take advantage of Web-based computing.
IT Centralization Is Back In Fashion
The pendulum is moving toward IT consolidation as CIOs try to save money and gain efficiencies. But it's possible to go too far.
Press Releases
xAssets Announces Industry Information Resource Service
xAssets announced today that it has launched an industry resources service on its website at www.xassets.com. Ed Cartier, the company's US Marketing Director, noted that, "It is our intent to provide individuals involved in the use, selection, and support of IT asset, fixed asset management tools and cloud-computing services with a place to go for news, information and discussions on topics that impact their professions..."
Read the press release here.
xAssets Hardware Discovery Service is Released - February 2010
xAssets Hardware Discovery Service is a hosted solution to enable customers to quickly
establish their Hardware Inventory.
The service runs for 60 days and is fast, affordable, agentless, low bandwidth, hosted and requires no expertise.
Click here for more information,
read the PDF press release here or get the
fact sheet here.
xAssets Network Discovery Receives SIIA Certification - January 2010
Wiltshire, United Kingdom January 5, 2010 - xAssets (www.xassets.com), a privately held developer of IT and software management,
fixed asset management software and helpdesk software tools, with offices in the United Kingdom, United States of America and Australia,
announced today that its IT asset and software discovery and reconciliation software has been certified by the Software & Information Industry
Association's (SIIA) as meeting its standards for accuracy, reliability, and ease of
use for performing software audits.
Read the full press release
xAssets Software Discovery Service is Released - October 2009
xAssets Software Discovery Service is a hosted solution to enable customers to quickly
establish their Software License Compliance position.
The service runs for 60 days and is fast, affordable, agentless, low bandwidth, hosted and requires no expertise.
Click here for more information or get the
fact sheet here.
The following Press Release was made public on the 29th October 2009:
Wiltshire, United Kingdom October 29, 2009 - xAssets (www.xassets.com), a privately held corporation with offices in the United Kingdom, United States of America and Australia, provides IT and software management, fixed asset management software and helpdesk software tools to medium and large scale enterprises, announced today that it is introducing a fully integrated automated hosted software compliance service.
xAssets hosted software discovery service provides organizations with the fastest and least complicated route to achieving software compliance. It requires no server acquisition, no software or agent deployment and minimal setup. A very small collection server tool is placed on the user's network and the system is typically up and running in minutes. The hosted service allows discovery for 30 consecutive days and reporting for an additional 30 days. Users can then choose to continue with the hosted service as needed.
Read the full press release
Learn More
xAssets Software has been nominated for a Codie award - October 2009
Wiltshire, United Kingdom October 19, 2009 - xAssets (www.xassets.com), a privately held corporation with offices in the United Kingdom, United States of America and Australia, provides IT and software management, fixed asset management software and helpdesk software tools to medium and large scale enterprises, announced today that it's flagship product suite has been nominated for the prestigious SIIA CODIE Award.
The CODiE Awards hold the distinction of being the industry's only peer-reviewed awards program, which provides member companies with a unique opportunity to earn praise from their competitors. Now in its twenty-fourth year, the CODiE Awards program has raised the standard for excellence and serves as prestigious representation of outstanding achievement and vision in the software and information industry.
Continued... Click Here
to read the full press release.
Other Resouces
Ed Cartier, our US Marketing Director, spoke live on the "My Technology Lawyer" radio show on the 11th March 2010.
Follow This Link to access the archive.
xAssets is sponsoring the IAITAM training program this year. This program allows companies to leverage their IT Asset Management
capabilities through ITAM training from industry experts. See this document for more information.