Asset Inventory Service Aids License Management

The Asset Inventory Service (AIS), part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (DOP), provides an easy to deploy and maintain system for inventorying software (such as OSs, Office, commercial applications, and custom software) installed on desktops and mobile devices and, in the case of Microsoft software, reconciling the data with actual purchases. This information is helpful for assessing desktop software license compliance, utilization, and conformance to corporate policy (e.g., discovering instances of unsanctioned software), as well as assisting in software purchase forecasting and budgeting. However, several limitations prevent AIS from providing a complete software inventory and license compliance assessment.

Overview of AIS

Gained in Microsoft’s 2006 acquisition of AssetMetrix, the AIS consists of a client agent application that collects detailed information about the software on desktop PCs and mobile devices in an organization, uploads this information to a Microsoft-hosted service (System Center Online), and adds it to an inventory database as well as to a dynamic software catalog that contains signatures (including the reported software name, version, and publisher) of more than 430,000 applications. An organization can access this information from the service to help licensing compliance, forecasting, and budgeting.