Hardware asset management (HAM) tools are needed within a technology asset management strategy to oversee hardware visibility, manage life cycles, optimize costs and reduce risk. HAM tools are software applications and technology used by organizations to manage the life cycle of different hardware assets, including IT, line of business and facilities management — regardless of location and industry.
Password management (PM) tools are products that provide users with the means to reset their own passwords after an account lockout or when they forget their passwords. PM tools can also synchronize passwords for users across multiple systems, allowing users to access multiple applications with the same password.
Gartner defines SaaS management platforms (SMPs) as software tools that aim to help organizations discover, manage, optimize and automate the SaaS application life cycle from one centralized console. Core SMP capabilities include discovery, cost optimization, employee self-service via an application store, insights to increase adoption and automation of onboarding/offboarding activities. As SaaS adoption accelerates, IT leaders will struggle to discover and support SaaS-hosted applications in accordance with company, market or geographic policies and regulations. Increased SaaS costs — combined with limited visibility into the entire SaaS portfolio (including unapproved SaaS) and high levels of overdeployed and underconsumed licenses — result in significant financial, operational and cybersecurity risk.
Gartner defines software asset management (SAM) managed services as services that expert providers deliver to manage the software, SaaS and cloud assets of end-user organizations. Their delivery includes skills, processes, technologies and governance to transform and run the SAM discipline on behalf of the client. SAM managed services employ the providers’ proprietary skills and methodologies to transform and run SAM and FinOps disciplines on behalf of the client, augmenting the client’s resources. Delivered by skilled resources and leveraging the provider’s expertise, intellectual property (IP), rigor and best practices, SAM managed services address the gap in available SAM and FinOps skills, enable scalability and enhance maturity. At the same time, they deliver day-to-day SAM and FinOps activities and oversee the full life cycle. SAM managed services are delivered directly to end-user customers, on either a continuous or a project basis, employing required discipline to meet software and cloud cost optimization, and governance objectives.
Software asset management (SAM) tools aim to decipher the complex and ever-changing world of software licensing. Organizations now have a diverse set of SAM tool requirements to meet. Core capability of SAM tools include discovery, normalization, reconciliation, optimization and reporting. SAM tools are third-party solutions that provide some level of automation to support tasks required to produce and maintain compliance with independent software vendor (ISV) license use rights. SAM tools provide organizations with a means to manage software throughout its life cycle and centralize the view of software within the organization. SAM tools provide data on software utilization, identify over deployed and under consumed licenses, reharvest and reallocate licenses, track renewals and financials for purchased software, and proactively identify software misconfiguration. SAM tools offer integration with third-party tools, and can provide out-of-the-box reporting capabilities and produce management dashboards. The reporting and dashboards recommend areas for optimization.