What is IT Asset Lifecycle Management? Why Visibility Matters

IT asset lifecycle management (ALM) is the comprehensive process of managing an organization’s IT assets from acquisition through disposal, which encompasses several stages: planning, acquisition, deployment, use, maintenance, and disposal. ALM aims to optimize the value and efficiency of assets throughout their lifecycle, ensuring they are used effectively, appropriately maintained, and securely disposed of.

ALM in IT is essential because every organizational activity depends on assets. Managing an asset’s lifecycle — from selection and deployment to maintenance, security, and eventual disposal — directly impacts an organization’s performance.

The importance of ALM lies in its ability to provide visibility and control over IT assets, which allows decision makers in departments like operations and IT to make informed choices, optimize investments, and maintain secure and efficient operations.

However, without clear visibility into the lifecycle of IT assets, organizations cannot effectively manage their resources, leading to increased risks, higher costs, and potential security vulnerabilities.

In this post, we will provide a clear definition of IT ALM, outline the five key stages of the IT asset lifecycle, and delve deeper into why IT asset lifecycle management is essential, as well as the vital role that real-time visibility plays in creating an effective lifecycle management strategy for today’s expanding and increasingly complex IT environments.

• ALM for IT definition
• Is ALM different than IT asset lifecycle management?
• Why is IT asset lifecycle management important?
• What are the benefits of following the IT asset lifecycle management process?
• The 5 stages of the IT asset lifecycle
• How to implement an effective IT asset lifecycle management strategy
• How integrating ITAM and asset inventory insights optimizes IT asset lifecycle management

ALM for IT definition

IT asset lifecycle management is a critical process that ensures your IT assets are performing optimally and are cost efficient from the moment they are acquired until they are securely disposed of.

This comprehensive practice also enhances the performance of your employees and the IT infrastructure supporting them by ensuring optimal asset utilization, reducing downtime, and providing timely maintenance and upgrades, which leads to increased productivity, improved job satisfaction, and a more efficient and secure IT environment.

Done right, IT ALM provides two types of visibility:

1. Comprehensive visibility into all IT assets within the organization
2. Lifecycle visibility into each stage of each asset’s lifecycle

Simply put, by providing a better understanding of the breadth and depth of all assets across the organization that includes details about each asset’s status, IT ALM provides the visibility stakeholders need to quickly answer important questions, such as:

• Are IT assets being maintained properly to minimize the chance of breakdowns?
• Are they within warranty?
• Which assets are at risk of underperforming, failing, or being vulnerable to security threats?
• Are all IT assets updated with necessary security patches to minimize the risk of data breaches?
• Which assets require maintenance soon, which need maintenance now, and which are overdue?
• Is asset maintenance across the organization timely and effective?
• Which IT assets are nearing the end of their useful life and need to be retired?
• Do employees have the necessary hardware and software to perform their jobs effectively, and are IT assets providing the experiences needed for success without compromising digital employee experience (DEX)?
• Is there a shortage of assets, or are any assets already purchased but underused, such as software licenses?
• Are we meeting goals for operational efficiency with these IT assets?
• Does our finance department have the visibility to calculate important metrics, such as depreciation?

With this understanding of IT asset lifecycle management, it’s important to recognize that managing IT assets presents unique challenges and considerations compared to general asset lifecycle management. While both processes share common principles, the intricacies of IT assets require a distinct approach.

[Read also: Do I need an IT asset management or inventory system?]

Let’s explore the key differences that set IT asset lifecycle management apart from general asset lifecycle management.

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Is ALM different than IT asset lifecycle management?

Asset lifecycle management refers to the comprehensive management of all types of assets throughout their lifecycle, from acquisition to disposal. This includes a wide range of assets such as office furniture, paper supplies, parts, finished goods in inventory, and more. ALM is used across various industries like manufacturing, healthcare, and education to optimize asset performance, reduce downtime, control costs, and extend the lifespan of assets.

On the other hand, IT asset lifecycle management focuses specifically on — you guessed it — IT assets. IT assets include hardware and software used by employees or as part of overall IT operations, such as laptops, servers, mobile phones, and software licenses, including those for desktop tools, SaaS applications, and public cloud platforms like AWS, GCP, and Microsoft Azure.
 

Learn how Tanium Software Inventory and Usage (SIU) reduces risks of costly software waste and audit traps

This departure from ALM to IT ALM grew from a need to address the unique challenges and requirements of IT operations. For example, the lifecycles of IT assets are vastly different from those of other assets.

General assets like parts and finished goods are directly linked to incoming orders, manufacturing processes, shipping operations, and logistics, meaning they typically have a much faster turnover than IT assets tied to ongoing operations. Parts might come and go in a matter of weeks or months. However, an IT asset like an employee’s laptop will likely be expected to have a service life of three years or longer.

Similarly, the use cases for tracking general assets and monitoring their status are very different for IT assets than other asset types. For example, tracking the lifecycle of physical parts, which might sit unused on shelves in a stockroom for many months, requires different insights and management compared to tracking IT assets, such as laptops and mobile devices, which frequently move between company buildings, home offices, convention centers, and cafes. This constant movement necessitates real-time tracking and management to ensure these IT assets are always available, secure, and functioning properly.

Bottom line: General asset management focuses on the overall management of an organization’s physical and intangible assets; IT asset lifecycle management zeroes in on the IT assets’ lifecycle.

With this better understanding of the distinction between asset management and IT ALM, we can begin to grasp why the IT asset lifecycle process is crucial for organizations. In the next section, we’ll discuss its importance and how effective lifecycle management can significantly impact an organization’s efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and compliance management.

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Why is IT asset lifecycle management important?

With the rapid advancement of technology and the increasing reliance on digital tools, IT assets have become the backbone of modern businesses. IT asset lifecycle management plays a critical role in ensuring that IT assets are not only tracked and maintained effectively but also effectively optimized and utilized, helping organizations:

• Achieve greater efficiency: Effective IT asset management helps reduce asset downtime and the need for reactive, high-stress maintenance. It also ensures that employees always have the necessary assets, which helps streamline business operations and plays a crucial role in enhancing user experience within an organization. Additionally, it enables better forecasting and budgeting by providing real-time insights into asset utilization and lifecycle trends.
• Minimize costs: By maintaining a well-organized inventory and ensuring timely maintenance, this strategic approach helps organizations achieve greater financial stability. This proactive approach minimizes the risk of over-purchasing or under-utilizing assets, leading to significant cost savings.
  
  Organizations can ensure each asset is used to its fullest potential, increasing efficiency and avoiding unnecessary purchases. Effective IT asset lifecycle management can also help predict future asset needs more accurately, allowing for better budgeting and financial planning.

Current economic conditions are forcing many IT leaders to take stock of their existing inventory of software and find ways to optimize its usage. Optimization of software assets may be part of larger technical debt reduction or application rationalization programs, which help reduce costs, drive utilization of resources, and the freeing up of investments for other projects.¹

• Ensure compliance: Effective asset management helps organizations ensure compliance and avoid penalties. For instance, by promptly patching endpoints like desktops and laptops, IT teams can enhance data privacy and security, supporting compliance with regulations like HIPAA and PCI DSS.
  
  Whether it’s encrypting sensitive communications or adhering to data localization laws, having control over IT assets through effective IT asset lifecycle management enables organizations to more easily secure and configure devices in adherence to company policies and industry standards.
• Inform decision making: Asset lifecycle management software enhances business and IT decision-making by providing data-driven insights into upgrades, procurement needs, and budget allocation. It leverages accurate, real-time information about asset performance, maintenance history, and costs.
  
  With up-to-date IT asset information, stakeholders can confidently plan future investments, ensuring resources are allocated where they are needed most. This approach helps avoid unnecessary expenditures and identifies opportunities for cost savings and efficiency improvements.
  
  Organizations can make informed decisions that drive growth and innovation by having a clear picture of asset performance and lifecycle trends, ultimately leading to a more agile and competitive business environment.
• Improve cybersecurity: By keeping a detailed inventory and tracking assets from acquisition to disposal, insights gained from IT asset lifecycle management can help organizations identify and fix security vulnerabilities, such as outdated software or unpatched systems, and ensure consistent enforcement of security policies across all devices, reducing the risk of breaches.
  
  Regular maintenance and timely updates facilitated through lifecycle management also help prevent security issues caused by neglected or obsolete assets, strengthening an organization’s ability to adopt and follow cybersecurity frameworks by maintaining a secure IT environment.

[Read also: What is data loss prevention? And why you need it]

While describing the importance of lifecycle management in these high-level and broad categories is meaningful, it’s the everyday impact that truly highlights its worth.

Let’s examine the tangible benefits of IT asset lifecycle management. By examining some of the most meaningful outcomes, we’ll illustrate how effective lifecycle management can make a real difference in your organization’s day-to-day operations.

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What are the benefits of following the IT asset lifecycle management process?

Organizations can experience numerous positive results from effective IT asset lifecycle management, such as enhanced asset performance, minimized downtime, cost savings, improved security, and increased productivity.

We’ve compiled several examples of how these specific benefits can look in practice to demonstrate the potential value of IT asset lifecycle management in an organization:

• Enhance asset performance: IT ALM ensures that IT assets are optimized and working efficiently. By tracking the lifecycle of IT assets, organizations can proactively manage their resources, anticipate potential issues, and schedule maintenance activities to prevent unexpected failures.
  
  This approach not only extends the lifespan of IT assets but also enhances their performance, leading to increased productivity and reduced operational costs that enable better decision making by providing valuable insights into asset utilization and lifecycle trends, allowing organizations to plan for future needs and investments more accurately.
• Inform proactive asset maintenance: Asset management helps organizations reduce the costs of unplanned repairs and achieve better returns on investments by enabling proper maintenance and timely repairs that extend the lifespan of IT assets. Not only does this lead to significant cost savings, but it also ensures that IT assets remain reliable and efficient, minimizing downtime and disruptions to business operations.
  
  By proactively managing IT assets, organizations can optimize their performance, enhance productivity, and ultimately achieve a higher level of operational excellence.
• Optimize asset spending: Ensuring that finance teams and other stakeholders always have the real-time information they need for accurately forecasting asset requirements, asset depreciation, and other financial metrics related to the purchase, maintenance, and disposal of assets can help organizations make informed decisions, optimize budget allocations, and improve financial planning.
  
  This proactive approach not only enhances transparency and accountability but also minimizes financial risks and ensures that resources are allocated efficiently to support the organization’s strategic goals. Additionally, it helps avoid the accumulation of excess assets and licenses, reducing unnecessary costs and ensuring that the organization only invests in what is truly needed.

[Listen to our free podcast: We need to get proactive about vulnerability management]

• Quickly address vulnerabilities: An organization can quickly identify and address any vulnerabilities by maintaining an up-to-date inventory of all IT assets. For instance, if a new security patch is released for a specific software, the IT team can promptly apply the patch to all relevant assets, reducing the risk of exploitation by cybercriminals. Additionally, by securely decommissioning outdated assets, the organization minimizes the risk of data breaches from old devices that may still contain sensitive information.
  
  With cybersecurity attacks increasing in frequency and cost, CISOs and security teams need real-time insight into and control over IT assets everywhere, whether on-premises, in the cloud, or in remote locations, and effective IT asset lifecycle management can provide this comprehensive view.
• Better employee productivity: By managing the complete lifecycle of assets, business and IT leaders can ensure employees have the necessary tools to do their work, boosting productivity and job satisfaction. Investing in IT assets and managing them effectively enhances business competitiveness and results.
  
  IT asset lifecycle management can help organizations create a seamless and efficient digital employee experience by ensuring that IT assets are well-maintained, up-to-date, and readily available.
• Strengthen risk management: IT asset lifecycle management can help organizations mitigate risks by ensuring compliance, addressing vulnerabilities, and managing user access permissions. It helps reduce risks from unpatched or unmanaged assets (like shadow IT) by ensuring all assets are continuously monitored and updated, minimizing the risk of exploitation by cybercriminals.
  
  Additionally, it provides better visibility into and control over user access permissions on endpoints. By deploying assets to the right employees in the correct departments, organizations can ensure that access permissions are appropriately assigned and managed, reducing the risk of unauthorized access and potential data breaches.

[Read also: What is risk management? A simplified overview]

So far, we’ve learned what IT asset lifecycle management is, its importance, and some of the great benefits it offers. But how exactly does it achieve these results?

Let’s delve into the structured approach by outlining its five stages to understand what makes IT asset lifecycle management so effective in optimizing asset value and such a critical strategy for modern organizations to maintain control over their IT assets.

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The 5 stages of the IT asset lifecycle

When researching asset lifecycle management, you’ll often come across explanations focusing on general asset management, even when they claim to be about IT assets. However, as we’ve discussed, this broad guidance does not fully address the unique lifecycle requirements of IT assets and could lead to missed opportunities and inefficiencies in managing your IT infrastructure.

To address this knowledge gap, we customized our explanation of lifecycle management stages specifically for IT assets. We also included key goals to measure the success of each step, addressing the common challenges IT departments face in managing asset lifecycles.

By understanding and implementing a tailored approach to IT asset lifecycle management, you can ensure that your IT assets are optimized for utilization, security, and performance, ultimately supporting your organization’s operations and goals better than using general asset lifecycle stages.

Exclusively for IT assets, an effective lifecycle management process must include these five stages:

1. Planning and procurement: This stage covers all aspects of acquiring assets, from handling purchase requests and managing RFPs to budgeting. It’s essential to consider maintenance costs and return on investment, not just the initial purchase price. Deciding whether to buy or lease assets is also part of this stage.
   
   Assessing your organization’s needs and budget during planning and procurement helps you make informed decisions about which assets to acquire. Additionally, choosing the right vendors and negotiating favorable terms can significantly impact the total cost of ownership.
   
   Once assets are received, they must be tracked through an asset inventory system to ensure accurate delivery.
2. Deployment, configuration, and installation: This stage involves configuring and integrating new assets into your existing infrastructure, ensuring they are ready for use. It’s crucial to follow manufacturer instructions and company policies during configuration. Early monitoring of the digital employee experience also helps determine if the assets meet employee needs and expectations.
   
   A primary goal during this stage is to support employees and overall company operations. Best practices include paying attention to how assets are deployed and the digital experiences they support, with continuous monitoring throughout the lifecycle.
3. Operation and utilization: Once deployed, this stage focuses on monitoring and managing assets to ensure effective use. Gathering data on how employees interact with tools and systems helps understand employee sentiment and identify areas for improvement, with the digital employee experience remaining a crucial component for optimizing asset utilization.
4. Preventative maintenance and ongoing maintenance needs: Regular maintenance is vital for keeping IT assets in good working condition, preventing downtime, and extending their lifespan. Maintenance schedules should be informed by manufacturer recommendations, security updates, and insights from digital experience monitoring tools.
   
   Proactive monitoring is key during this stage to ensure assets remain efficient and effective, supporting employee productivity and satisfaction. IT ticketing tools linked with asset inventory systems, such as CMDBs and help desk platforms, are also essential for tracking and resolving asset-related requests.
5. Decommissioning, disposal, replacement, and other end-of-life needs: This stage involves securely decommissioning and disposing of assets that are no longer needed, ensuring compliance with data security and other regulations. Enforcing policies and procedures is crucial even during disposal to protect data privacy, such as erasing hard drives before disposal.
   
   If an organization has sustainability goals, decommissioning workflows may also involve working with specific vendors or technologies to prevent environmental harm.

[Read also: The risks and mitigation of unpatched software – and potential costs]

We’ve outlined the five key stages of IT asset lifecycle management, specifically created to address the unique challenges and needs of IT assets. These stages are crucial for optimizing asset utilization, security, and performance.

Let’s dig deeper into how you can implement an effective IT asset lifecycle management strategy. This section will guide you through the essential steps and best practices for managing IT assets from acquisition to disposal.

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How to implement an effective IT asset lifecycle management strategy

Implementing an effective IT asset lifecycle management strategy is crucial for organizations to maximize the value of their IT investments, ensure compliance, and minimize risks. By following these guidelines, you’ll be able to streamline processes, reduce costs, and enhance the overall efficiency of your IT operations.

Whether you are just starting to develop your strategy or looking to refine an existing one, this comprehensive approach will provide you with the tools and insights needed to achieve success:

• Start by assessing your organization’s specific needs: Evaluate the size of your IT environment, the types of assets you need to manage, and any unique challenges you face. This will help you identify the features and capabilities that are most important for your solution.
• Establish a comprehensive asset inventory: An accurate and up-to-date inventory is foundational for effective IT ALM, providing the necessary data to manage assets throughout their lifecycle. This involves cataloging all IT assets, including hardware, software, and network resources.
• Ensure you have real-time visibility into your IT assets: Real-time visibility is essential for effective IT asset management, as it allows you to instantly identify at-risk devices and reduce vulnerabilities by applying patches and enforcing security protocols. Real-time data also feeds a proactive approach to asset management that minimizes downtime and the need for reactive maintenance. Additionally, having accurate, up-to-date information is crucial for making informed decisions, responding to incidents, and ensuring compliance.

How to achieve complete IT visibility with Tanium

• Integrate IT asset management with other IT service management functions: An integrated approach ensures a holistic view of your IT environment and enhances overall operational efficiency. This includes incident management, change management, and problem management.
• Utilize the right solution: Streamlining asset management processes helps maintain an accurate inventory, track asset usage, schedule regular servicing, and manage compliance and risks. The solution should also provide real-time dashboards that allow teams to drill down into device information and uncover dependencies to help inform everything from procurement cycles and maintenance strategies to financial efficiencies.
• Continuously monitor and review your IT ALM strategy: Finally, regularly assess the effectiveness of your strategy and adjust as needed to ensure it continues to meet your organization’s needs and goals.
  
  Like other key practices, managing your asset inventory lifecycles must continuously evolve to meet the demands of rapid technological advancements and the increasing complexity of IT environments, and it starts by recognizing the challenges involved in managing different aspects of an asset’s lifecycle.

We believe that from a central point, we’re managing a singular lifecycle. That’s not the case. Instead, we have three lifecycles (Financial, Useful Life, and Economic Life) with different stakeholders involved at each stage, which are often in conflict…

In this new age of asset management, we need to be the neutral party balancing the demands of those three lifecycles while entrusting each of them to share and consume information in near real time to make better technology decisions. And moreover, we need to be focused on ensuring we have the right data shared with the right stakeholders at the right time to make the right decisions based on our organisation’s priorities.²

The next evolution in lifecycle management must take a holistic approach to ensure seamless integration and collaboration among various stakeholders. This will, in turn, allow organizations to optimize all aspects of an asset’s lifecycle, enhancing visibility, decision making, and value from IT investments.

By creating a comprehensive asset lifecycle strategy, you can uncover opportunities to drive significant value and support your strategic goals. Let’s look at what some of these initiatives to optimize IT asset management and asset inventories look like in the real world.

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How integrating ITAM and asset inventory insights optimizes IT asset lifecycle management

Many steps used to optimize IT asset lifecycle management involve the same best practices an organization would use to improve ITAM and IT inventory management, since these strategies share the common goal of optimizing asset utilization, security, and performance.

Today, organizations are moving towards unifying their efforts around managing IT assets using a comprehensive, accurate view of their IT environment, which enables continuous improvement, enhances decision making, and supports compliance. By aligning these areas, organizations also reduce redundancies, streamline processes, and help achieve higher levels of IT asset optimization.

At the core of this comprehensive approach, organizations are leveraging real-time data and automation to ensure every aspect is aligned and working together seamlessly, allowing them to make informed decisions fast, respond to issues proactively, and maintain a high level of operational efficiency.

[Read also: Announcing the general availability of Tanium Autonomous Endpoint Management (AEM)]

Effective IT ALM begins with real-time visibility of your IT assets. After all, without visibility, you can’t monitor and manage assets throughout their lifecycles; in fact, you can’t even build an accurate asset inventory.

By using real-time visibility to gain accurate, reliable asset information throughout the process and automation to act on insights quickly and effortlessly, organizations can more easily optimize the value of IT assets throughout their lifecycle.

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Tanium Asset Discovery & Inventory is built to grow with your evolving needs. With Tanium, you can discover every endpoint in your environment – even in remote subnets – typically within minutes. You can also choose to block unmanaged assets or actively bring them under management.

Forget error-prone spreadsheets and multiple discovery tools; Tanium can help you build a real-time inventory that continuously discovers and categorizes new assets for efficient management.

By integrating with your other essential business platforms, such as Microsoft and ServiceNow asset management solutions, Tanium provides your organization with real-time data to enhance endpoint management and ITSM workflows. For example, you can connect Tanium directly to your CMDB to keep endpoint and usage data fresh and accurate, ensuring consistent reporting, better collaboration, and informed decision making across security, operations, risk, procurement, finance, and leadership teams, providing a single source of truth.

This seamless integration ensures your organization always has an accurate, up-to-date inventory of its assets, helping to maintain security, optimize costs, and streamline operations. With a comprehensive, real-time list, you can easily identify unauthorized or underutilized software and reclaim or redistribute licenses to reduce software licensing expenses and audit fees.

Tanium Asset Discovery & Inventory is a dynamic, adaptive, and highly scalable ITAM solution and part of the greater Tanium AEM innovations that leverage AI insights to provide the visibility, automation, and integration essential for your organization to keep pace with modern IT challenges.

Ready to modernize your IT asset strategy? Request a personalized demo today.