Software Deployment and IT Asset Tracking

Remote automated Software Deployment and IT asset tracking are two important remote system management operations. In general, remote automated software deployment involves keeping desktops and servers updated with the latest service packs, anti-virus definitions, and other software. A successful software deployment means to automatically handle your Software distribution needs in a smart way. Management of the software deployment needs to be done in a structured way. Once an organization decides a policy for deploying software, the software deployment process takes few system administration resources. Two important factors for success for the chosen software deployment solution are ease and cost of implementation and ease and cost to run, support and maintain. In addition a modern software deployment solution should support distribution of any kind of software package and provide real-time reporting or feedback of each deployment. A good reporting functionality is required so that the helpdesk or system administrators are able to be proactive instead of waiting for the users to call when there is something wrong with the software deployment. It should be scalable for all sizes and structures of organizations and integrate well into the existing infrastructure. Moreover, it must have a client side target evaluation mechanism to decide if a software package should be downloaded and deployed or not.

IT asset tracking or configuration management is another important operation of remote system management which helps to keep a standardized compliant Windows network. To be really efficient, the IT Asset tracking process is required to look at IT Assets from the perspective of the computer as well as the logged on user. The IT Asset tracking is categorized as the inventory of hardware and inventory of software. The PC Software Inventory tracking involves two aspects, the actual Group Policy Software Installation and the License compliance software.

Software asset management (SAM) involves managing the software and the entire software lifecycle in the network environment, both on servers and desktops. Software asset management is more than an IT asset audit. The Software asset management is considered an important IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) process. The major parts in a professional software asset management strategy usually involve strategy for software deployment and IT Asset tracking. In addition, process for handling software licenses and license compliance, managing software support & maintenance agreements and tracking of software usage are other parts of software asset management strategy. The ultimate aim of implementing a long term software asset management strategy is to lower the total cost of ownership for the software assets.