SolarWinds Discovery offers low-cost way to manage IT assets
SolarWinds expands its IT service management offerings with a software service that lets IT teams locate, map and manage their software and hardware assets.
IT asset management software vendor SolarWinds launched a software service aimed at IT organizations that seek a low-cost way to keep tabs on IT assets and improve their service delivery.
The software, called SolarWinds Discovery, is a SaaS tool designed to help IT teams locate, map and manage their software and hardware assets. The software combines both agent and Agentless technology to provide a view into critical assets, providing insights for IT pros who manage and monitor those assets.
"IT service delivery requires managing the lifecycle of the technology that enables customers to meet their needs," said Gartner analyst Roger Williams. "Many organizations, however, do not have visibility into everything on their network due to poor controls and an inability to keep up with the pace of change in their environment."
The agentless SolarWinds Discovery Scanner locates and collects information on IP connected devices, like servers, routers, switches, firewalls, storage arrays, VMware hosts, VMs and printers, according to the company.
The SolarWinds Discovery agent can collect more than 200 data points from Windows and Apple computers and servers, as well as iOS and Android mobile devices. The software integrates with Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager, VMware vCenter and Chrome OS.
The new service integrates with SolarWinds Service Desk, enabling enterprises to focus on risks affecting IT services, as well as to comply with software licensing contracts. The tool can also import data from key configuration management sources, enabling organizations to regularly update all their asset data and make it available within SolarWinds Service Desk, the company said.
The product was launched on August 21 and is available only under SolarWinds Service Desk. Cost is per month, per agent and billed annually. A free one-month trial is available on the company's website.
Williams said IT asset management is part of Gartner's Software Asset Management, IT Asset Management and IT Financial Management category that saw $1.24 billion in revenue in 2018, a 23.4% increase over 2017.
He said vendors in this market are challenged to offer a product with features unique from what is already available, considering there are over 100 competitors. He said SolarWinds has the largest presence of any vendor in the related network performance monitoring and diagnostics market and is used as a discovery source by many organizations.
Competitors include ManageEngine, BMC Software and IBM, to cite a few examples. ManageEngine ServiceDesk combines asset management and help desk functionalities in one platform. BMC Helix offers digital and cognitive automation technologies intended to provide efficient service management across any environment. IBM Maximo offers a tool to analyze IoT data from people, sensors and devices to gain asset visibility.
