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As a result, it can be very difficult to track hardware or software seat licenses for the purposes of resource deployment and the management of IT spending. As employees change departments, new people are hired and existing employees leave the company, PCs and other devices are redeployed and loaded with different software versions. Simply put, the first step toward the effective management of hardware and software is learning what hardware and software is deployed. Discovering and Tracking Hardware and Software The following are four considerations for the simple, secure management of hardware and software assets in the enterprise:ġ. As more people work from remote offices, on the road or from home, IT departments have come to realize that user-initiated configuration changes and out-of-date software on remote machines are the new weakest link in corporate security.
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In addition to cost and control considerations such as inventory and asset management, or logistical concerns such as technical support, hardware and software management is in many ways a security issue. With more systems and more applications in more places, budget-constrained IT departments face a considerable challenge. The complexity is compounded by the increasing number of corporate users working on the road or in remote offices that are beyond the reach of traditional LAN-based management systems. These days, users employ a range of applications on their PCs, laptops and handheld devices, each requiring support. The management of hardware and software assets has become much more complex since the days when the corporate user had one PC on the corporate LAN running a small number of applications.
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