Enabling Data Sharing with Complementary Systems
Introduction
IT Asset Management (ITAM) tools like IT Management Center (ITMC) and data enrichment tools like IT-Pedia® can play key roles within the wider IT ecosystem. They can provide valuable data for multiple lifecycle and ITOps functions, including:
- Software Asset and License Management (SAM)
- Configuration Management
- Network and Endpoint Security
- Vulnerability and Risk Management
- IT Service Management (ITSM)
- Procurement
- Financial Management
- Capacity Planning and Modeling
- Vendor Management, and more
The ability to share asset and license information seamlessly and automatically with complementary business applications is essential. It is equally important for ITAM and SAM tools to be able to take advantage of data that resides in other systems. Sharing this data enables organizations to get more out of their investment in existing tools and processes.
Eracent Connectors and Integration Methods
To facilitate the sharing of data, Eracent provides multiple connection options.
Discovery and Normalization
Eracent provides specialized Eracent Data Extractors (EDEs) to import data from third-party discovery tools. This enables data from all discovery tools that are in use across various platforms, business units and geographical locations to be incorporated into a single database for a consolidated view of the complete network environment.
This data is processed by the SCANMAN™ normalization process to ensure that common naming conventions are utilized, making the data more useful and relevant for multiple purposes. The system also identifies any duplicate records for machines that were scanned by multiple discovery tools. This avoids double counting to ensure accuracy in license reconciliation and optimization reporting.
EDEs are provided for commonly used tools such as:
New EDEs are developed regularly based on customer and market requirements.
Service Desk, Procurement, Financial and other Applications
Data from Eracent’s ITMC Lifecycle™, Continuous License Reconciliation™ (CLR™) modules, and IT-Pedia® IT product data library may be shared for multiple purposes, including:
- Populating and updating CMDBs and other repositories
- Creating, expanding and updating product and service catalogs
- Supporting procurement and employee self-service processes
- Providing a basis for automated license and asset provisioning
- Identifying candidates for automated license harvesting
- Supporting asset service and maintenance processes
- Updating financial and fixed asset systems
Eracent provides flexible web service-based integration methodologies that are highly configurable to enable secure bi-directional data sharing. Eracent also provides pre-configured integrations for:
- ServiceNow (CMDB, Asset Management, and other modules)
- Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) and Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) tools including IBM’s Maas360 and MobileIron
- other complementary business applications.
Service Desk and ITSM Tool Enhancement
Eracent’s Discovery, Data Normalization and IT-Pedia® solutions increase the power of enterprise ITSM solutions like ServiceNow, BMC Remedy and Helix, and Ivanti by supplementing their formidable core functionality with increased data collection coverage across platforms (from data centers to mobile devices) and license reconciliation and optimization for complex license types. The combination of Eracent tools and ITSM systems provides a comprehensive and aligned solution to provide high quality and automated service delivery for enterprises of all sizes.
Security, Vulnerability and Risk Management
Highly accurate and complete data about your asset base – including all hardware and software on your network and endpoints – is essential for security and vulnerability management purposes. ITMC Discovery provides continuous discovery and detailed, normalized inventory data of all physical and virtual machines, network equipment and peripherals that have software running on them, and all software installations and SaaS applications that are being utilized. This information is tied to user data as well. This data provides a rock solid asset baseline that can be managed in Security and Risk Management solutions such as Eracent’s Intelligent CyberSecurity Platform (ICSP) and similar tools.
ITMC Discovery can even read Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) files that contain all open source components and libraries that make up your applications. Details about software applications and SBOM content can be matched to known vulnerabilities provided by NIST and other sources to ensure that potential threats are identified and mitigated before they become breaches.
To learn more about our unmatched data collection and data enrichment solutions, contact Eracent today or visit www.eracent.com.
Eracent, Inc.
519 Easton Road, P.O. Box 647
Riegelsville, PA 18077 USA
info@eracent.com
+1- 908-537-6520
www.eracent.com
