Accurately managing the lifecycle status of hundreds of thousands of IT assets is impossible without some degree of automation, but all too often the largest and most complex data center operations in the country – including those within the federal government – are left to rely on manual data entry processes and low-tech solutions. Identifying the current lifecycle status of any individual IT asset, even at smaller organizations, frequently requires time, physical access, and tribal knowledge that isn’t accessible on demand.
A large federal agency with complicated data processing requirements was using such outdated, manual technologies for tracking the purchase or new assets, deployment status, service contract status and most recent service dates, and decommissioning of assets.
The data center management teams for this agency knew, anecdotally, that there were likely many servers in their data centers not currently in use that were still using power and cluttering up rack space. But without a comprehensive report of the situation, they had no idea what the full scope of the problem might be and what was needed to fix it.
Passive RFID tags and robust integration capabilities were a must for this project, since any audit of IT assets would need to be communicated to other teams. Once the assets were tagged and audited, the teams were able to line up each asset with existing load demands and service contracts.
This allowed the teams to:
The findings of these audits confirmed the data center management teams’ suspicions. This federal agency was spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in energy costs to power and cool servers that were not currently online and handling processing load. Furthermore, many of those assets were also still being serviced by third parties as part of on-going service contracts, which obviously weren’t needed any more if the assets were offline.
Formally decommissioning and removing these assets saved this agency a huge amount of money both in energy and service costs. But better still, setting up a vastly improved, as well as highly-automated, system for managing assets through their lifecycle moving forward means this won’t be a problem again.
Here’s a table highlighting the challenges of IT asset tracking in government:
| Regulatory Compliance | Government agencies must adhere to complex regulatory requirements, making compliance tracking a significant challenge. |
| Vast and Diverse IT Ecosystem | Government organizations often have large and diverse IT environments with numerous devices and software to track. |
| Legacy Systems and Technologies | Outdated legacy systems can be challenging to integrate with modern asset tracking solutions, leading to data inconsistencies. |
| Budget Constraints | Limited budgets in government agencies can restrict investments in comprehensive asset tracking solutions. |
| Data Security and Privacy | Protecting sensitive government data during asset tracking processes is of paramount importance. |
| Scalability and Data Volume | The sheer volume of assets and data in government IT systems can strain tracking systems’ scalability. |
| Accountability and Oversight | Ensuring accountability and oversight in a government’s asset management process is a complex task. |
| Data Accuracy and Quality | Maintaining accurate and high-quality asset data across large government IT environments can be a challenge. |
| Change Management | Implementing new asset tracking technologies often requires change management strategies to overcome resistance. |
| Asset Diversity | Governments manage diverse assets, from computers and servers to vehicles, requiring tailored tracking solutions. |
Addressing these 👆challenges is crucial for efficient and secure IT asset tracking in government agencies.
From our earliest conversations, we’ll be happy to provide a free demo and for qualified prospects we’ll also provide a free process evaluation. Learn more about how we work with new clients.
Asset Vue, LLC is a Paoli, Pennsylvania-based provider of RFID-enabled asset management solutions. With decades of experience as data centers directors, Asset Vue’s leadership knows the features asset management departments need, and our solutions are built through the lens of “For IT professionals, by IT professionals”. Our technology and solutions solve the challenge of maintaining asset and inventory information, continually keeping it up to date, and doing so throughout the entire asset lifecycle. Asset Vue has worked across industries and executed for companies of all sizes including small and medium-sized businesses, colleges and universities, federal agencies and municipalities, and Fortune 100 companies across multiple continents. With easy integrations, quick training, and rapid implementations, Asset Vue can have you operational and realize positive ROI quickly.
