1、Visibility:The key to effective IT estate management GUIDE 2023 Flexera2 VISIBILITY:THE KEY TO EFFECTIVE IT ESTATE MANAGEMENT GUIDETable of contentsWhy IT visibility matters 3Start by asking the tough questions 4Look to data for the answers 5Creating your single source of truth 6Discover 7Aggregate

2、8Enrich 9Gain insight through dashboards and reports 10Streamline and automate through integration 13Automatically clean and enrich CMDB data 14Automate ITSM processes 16Improve outcomes 17 2023 Flexera3 VISIBILITY:THE KEY TO EFFECTIVE IT ESTATE MANAGEMENT GUIDEWhy IT visibility mattersDigital techn

3、ology is ubiquitous.Its now an integral part of virtually every enterprise,across every industry,in the private and public sectors.Digitalization is fueling the expansion of all types of computing systems:on-premises,SaaS,cloud,open source and more.Controlling todays complex and multifaceted IT envi

4、ronment takes a near-Herculean effort.The key to achieving control is gaining broad and deep visibility into your IT estate.However,the Flexera 2021 State of IT Visibility Report reveals that less than 25 percent of the organizations surveyed have accurate visibility into their IT estate.Lack of vis

5、ibilityor even limited visibilityexposes your organization to numerous risks:Security risks due to insufficient visibility into software vulnerabilities Financial risks due to insufficient visibility into resource costs and license terms Service interruption risks due to insufficient visibility into

6、 operational parameters Risk of regulatory noncompliance due to limited visibility into resource regulatory compliance status Sustainability and obsolescence risks due to insufficient visibility of hardware energy consumption and software and hardware lifecycle datesThe data you need to develop IT v

7、isibility is scattered across your IT estate.So how do you find it,consolidate it and turn it into actionable information that guides decision-making?Server 1 192.168.1.240(Data FS)Server 2 192.168.1.241(Data FS)Server 3 192.168.1.242(Application)Server 4 192.168.1.243(Web/internet)LANRouterWANInter

8、netHP 10/100/1000 Unmanaged SwitchOffice LAN35 workstations&printers10/100/100024 Port HPEngineering group12 workstations&printersQuality control lab 6 workstations&printersFactory controls LAN PLC,drives,gauges 80 devices&increasingFactory floor LAN users15 workstations10/100 Switch 24 port10/100 S

9、witch 8 port3 x 24 Port 10/100 Switch 10/100 Switch 24 portGateway 2023 Flexera4 VISIBILITY:THE KEY TO EFFECTIVE IT ESTATE MANAGEMENT GUIDEStart by asking the tough questionsThe first step in gaining visibility is asking the right questions.By answering them,you get a jump on gaining the visibility

10、you need to guide you in effectively managing your IT estate.You can then begin to take action to optimize the infrastructure.Youll reduce costs,maximize service availability and performance,strengthen security,and bring other benefits to your organization.Thin clientApplication farmDatabase cluster

11、Web serversRich clientLoad balanced web farmFirewall NY FireWallLaptop2 Tablet PCWorkstation_3 DesktopWorkstation DesktopLaptopLaptopMobile_DeviceSmart phoneServer_AServer_BServer_CNetwork_Node_1 RouterFirewall SFOFireWallNetwork InternetServer_A2Server_B2Server_C2Server_EServer_FFirewall OR FireWal

12、l?Infrastructure What components make up your infrastructure?Where are they?Who uses each one?How and how often?Context What are the resource interdependencies?Which resources support which business services?Security Are there software vulnerabilities?Are updates available to mitigate these vulnerab

13、ilities?Obsolescence What resources are at or approaching end of life(EOL)or end of support(EOS)?Sustainability What is the carbon footprint of hardware?Improvement opportunity Can you reduce the number of versions?Can you reduce the number of hardware and software vendors to get greater discounts?A

14、re you overspending on software licenses?Can you shrink your carbon footprint?Are resources from different vendors performing the same or similar functionsdifferent laptops with similar capabilities,different applications with similar functionality?2023 Flexera5 VISIBILITY:THE KEY TO EFFECTIVE IT ES

15、TATE MANAGEMENT GUIDELook to data for the answersMost likely,youve already been gathering massive amounts of data about your IT estate from a number of solid sources.The figure below illustrates some of those sources.However,as the Flexera 2022 Tech Spend Pulse indicates,the greatest challenge in IT

16、 decision-making is a lack of good-quality data.Much of the data gathered is raw data,and its scattered across internal and external sources.To leverage raw data,you need to transform it into actionable information by aggregating and enriching it.For example,by enriching raw data with information on

17、 software and hardware lifecycle dates,you can stay ahead of obsolescence.And you can act on software security vulnerability information to mitigate vulnerabilities.You also need to share information with stakeholders so they can put it to use when they make business decisions around cutting costs,i

18、ncreasing profitability,maximizing service and availability,strengthening security,and putting the customer first.Aggregation and transformation enable you to create a single,comprehensive and accurate source of truth.This single source forms the foundation for effective management by providing broa

19、d and deep visibility that permits smart business decisions and fuels automation.Raw dataDiscovery toolsEndpoint management toolsCloud providersSaaS solutions 2023 Flexera6 VISIBILITY:THE KEY TO EFFECTIVE IT ESTATE MANAGEMENT GUIDECreating your single source of truthFlexera offers a solution for cre

20、ating a single source of truthIT Visibility.Flexera partner SoftwareOne backs that solution with a robust offering of consulting and support services to help you reap maximum return on your IT investment.As the figure shows,IT Visibility collects data on all your assets across multiple sources.It th

21、en aggregates,enriches and consolidates it in one place.You can leverage the information in different ways:Gain visibility through individualized dashboards and reports Share information with all stakeholders Make information accessible to other solutions through a public APIfor example,IT service m

22、anagement(ITSM)solutions,IT financial management(ITFM)solutions and business intelligence solutionsTechnopedia,Flexeras curated catalog of more than 4.9 million hardware and software products,is a unique component of IT Visibility.It delivers market insights about lifecycle,categorization,security v

23、ulnerabilities,power consumption,open-source components and more.Another unique component is provided by Secunia Research,part of Flexeras Software Vulnerability Research.Secunia Research delivers reliable,curated and actionable vulnerability intelligence in the form of standardized,validated and en

24、riched vulnerability data on specific versions of software products.IT Visibility builds a single source of truth using three processes:discover,aggregate and enrich.Raw dataDiscovery toolsEndpoint management toolsCloud providersSaaS solutionsDashboardsReportsITSM solutionsITFM solutionsSecuniaTechn

25、opediaIT Visibility 2023 Flexera7 VISIBILITY:THE KEY TO EFFECTIVE IT ESTATE MANAGEMENT GUIDEDiscoverThe first process is discovery of all relevant data.The data resides in discovery tools,endpoint management tools,SaaS providers,cloud providers and other solutions.These sources can be internal or ex

26、ternal.IT Visibility integrates out of the box with a number of these sources,including Flexera Discovery,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft System Center,Amazon AWS,ServiceNow,BMC,Qualys and Tanium.Because the IT environment is constantly in flux,IT Visibility continually scans the environment looking for c

27、hanges.When necessary,it updates the single source of truth to keep information current.Raw data 2023 Flexera8 VISIBILITY:THE KEY TO EFFECTIVE IT ESTATE MANAGEMENT GUIDEAggregateThe data aggregation process involves cleaning and consolidating the data.It encompasses two cleaning processes:Deduplicat

28、ion removes redundancies that occur,for example,when a resource is reported by more than one source.Normalization eliminates inconsistencies in resource naming by assigning unique names to each unique product.For example,Microsoft Windows 10,MS Windows 10 and Windows 10 all refer to the Microsoft Wi

29、ndows 10 operating system.IT Visibility uses Technopedia taxonomy to determine the unique names,which mitigates the confusion caused by multiple names representing the same product.In addition to deduplication and normalization,IT Visibility adds usage information such as who uses each resource,how

30、they use it and how often.With visibility into usage,you can answer such questions as:Are you paying for resources that are sitting idle?Are you overpaying on tiered licenses for features that people arent using?Raw dataAggregateTechnology assetsUsageRiskAssets and resourcesTechnology content4.3M pr

31、oductsFlexeras curated catalog of technology productsNormalizeDuplicatesIrrelevant data95M+identification rules24:1 filtering ratio 2023 Flexera9 VISIBILITY:THE KEY TO EFFECTIVE IT ESTATE MANAGEMENT GUIDEEnrichData enrichment is the third process in the creation of a single source of truth.IT Visibi

32、lity enriches the data by:Mapping resources to business services to provide insight into which resources support which business services Identifying software vulnerabilities as provided by Secunia Research Showing EOS and EOL status of resources Describing vendor contract and software license use ri

33、ghts Listing hardware specifications such as power consumption and cooling requirementsThe output is a comprehensive,up-to-date,single source of truth that delivers the broad and deep visibility you need to answer questions on infrastructure,context,security,obsolescence,sustainability and improveme

34、nt opportunity.You can tap the power of this single source of truth in two ways.You can view it through dashboards and reports.And you can make it available to other solutions,such as ITSM,ITFM and business analytics solutions,through integration via a public API.Raw dataAggregateTechnology assetsUs

35、ageRiskAssets and resourcesTechnology content4.3M productsFlexeras curated catalog of technology productsNormalizeDuplicatesIrrelevant data95M+identification rules24:1 filtering ratioEnrichCleanEnrichedTechnology content(e.g.,EOL data)Business services,vulnerabilities,use rights,consumption 2023 Fle

36、xera10 VISIBILITY:THE KEY TO EFFECTIVE IT ESTATE MANAGEMENT GUIDEGain insight through dashboards and reportsIT Visibility presents its wealth of actionable information through a prism of meaningful dashboards and reports.The result is unprecedented breadth and depth of visibility into the farthest r

37、eaches of your IT environment.Here are some examples:The dashboard below shows the EOL status of the software in the IT estate,giving you a heads-up on upcoming obsolescence.2023 Flexera11 VISIBILITY:THE KEY TO EFFECTIVE IT ESTATE MANAGEMENT GUIDEThe dashboard below shows the software security vulne

38、rabilities across the IT estate so you can take fast action to shore up your protection.2023 Flexera12 VISIBILITY:THE KEY TO EFFECTIVE IT ESTATE MANAGEMENT GUIDEThe dashboard below shows the power consumption of the hardware in your infrastructure so you can replace power-hungry components with more

39、 energy-efficient equipment.Drag-and-drop editing makes it easy to tailor dashboards and reports to meet the unique requirements of individual stakeholders,business units and departments,and your organization as a whole.People can drill down into the dashboards for more detail such as finding out wh

40、at software is running on a particular server or to see which servers are running SQL.You have the flexibility to give stakeholders controlled access to dashboards and reports as well as the ability to send dashboards and reports via email on an agreed-upon schedule.2023 Flexera13 VISIBILITY:THE KEY

41、 TO EFFECTIVE IT ESTATE MANAGEMENT GUIDEStreamline and automate through integrationYou can make actionable information even more valuable by sharing it with other tools and solutions through IT Visibility public APIs.IT Visibility integrates out of the box with popular solutions,including ServiceNow

42、(IT Visibility dashboards can run in ServiceNow),BMC Remedy,Flexera,Snow,Apptio,Plainview,Mega,Qualys and Tanium.The following pages show a few examples of the power this integration unleashes.SecuniaTechnopediaIT VisibilityITSMITAMFINOPSAPMEAINFOSECDATA LAKES 2023 Flexera14 VISIBILITY:THE KEY TO EF

43、FECTIVE IT ESTATE MANAGEMENT GUIDEAutomatically clean and enrich CMDB dataA CMDB provides the foundation for effective IT service management.As the Flexera 2022 State of ITAM Report states,71 percent of the organizations surveyed use a CMDB.However,many organizations struggle with building a CMDB an

44、d keeping it up to date.The figure below illustrates the variety and magnitude of the challenges organizations face in maintaining a CMDB.IT Visibility provides a solution.It automatically enhances CMDB data by extracting,cleaning,enriching,normalizing and pushing the enhanced data back into the CMD

45、B.The result is a healthy CMDB with data you can trust to fuel IT service management processes in event management,service discovery and service mapping.CMDBIT VisibilityOriginal dataEnhanced 2023 Flexera15 VISIBILITY:THE KEY TO EFFECTIVE IT ESTATE MANAGEMENT GUIDEYou can execute and automate ITSM p

46、rocesses with confidence and enjoy the results:Event management Reduce noise through event correlation Focus on the right issues Automatically generate incidentsService discovery Eliminate labor-intensive,error-prone manual data entry Achieve a higher level of trust in CMDB dataService mapping Under

47、stand relationships among IT resources and business services Prioritize actions based on business impact Identify single points of failure 2023 Flexera16 VISIBILITY:THE KEY TO EFFECTIVE IT ESTATE MANAGEMENT GUIDEAutomate ITSM processesAs IT environments grow in complexity,organizations are hard-pres

48、sed to keep up with ITSM processes.IT Visibility helps relieve the pressure through its integration with ITSM solutions.In the above illustrated example,based on information provided by Secunia Research,IT Visibility indicates a security vulnerability in a software product that can be mitigated with

49、 an update.IT Visibility automatically sends a request to Flexera AdminStudio to create an update package based on the vulnerability data.IT Visibility also automatically creates tickets in ServiceNow to roll out the package.SecuniaTechnopediaIT VisibilityAdminStudioServiceNowSoftware update 2023 Fl

50、exera17 VISIBILITY:THE KEY TO EFFECTIVE IT ESTATE MANAGEMENT GUIDEImprove outcomesBy providing broad and deep visibility into your IT estate and streamlining and automating processes,IT Visibility improves outcomes in a number of areas.ITSMITFMWorkflow and ticketingService deskProblem managementRequ

51、est managementEvent managementSecurity operationsLifecycle managementOperational resiliencePlanning and budgetingTechnology business managementService costingGeneral ledger alignment NEXT STEPSLearn how SoftwareOne and Flexera can increase your IT visibilityCONTACT US1-800-374-4353| 2023 Flexera Sof

52、tware LLC.All other brand and product names mentioned herein may be the trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners.|1356About Flexera Flexera delivers SaaS-based IT management solutions that enable enterprises to accelerate digital transformation and multiply the value of their

53、technology investments.We help organizations inform their IT with unparalleled visibility into complex hybrid ecosystems.And we help them transform their IT with tools that deliver the actionable intelligence to effectively manage,govern and optimize their hybrid IT estate.More than 50,000 customers

54、 subscribe to our technology value optimization solutions,delivered by 1,300+passionate team members worldwide.To learn more,visit About SoftwareOneSoftwareOne is a leading global provider of end-to-end software and cloud technology solutions,headquartered in Switzerland.With an IP and technology-dr

55、iven services portfolio,it enables companies to holistically develop and implement their commercial,technology and digital transformation strategies.This is achieved by modernizing applications and migrating critical workloads on public clouds,while simultaneously managing and optimizing the related

56、 software and cloud assets and licensing.SoftwareOnes offerings are connected by PyraCloud,its proprietary digital platform,which provides customers with data-driven,actionable intelligence.With around 8,900 employees and sales and service delivery capabilities in 90 countries,SoftwareOne provides around 65,000 business customers with software and cloud solutions from over 7,500 publishers.SoftwareOnes shares(SWON)are listed on SIX Swiss Exchange.To learn more,visit VISIBILITY:THE KEY TO EFFECTIVE IT ESTATE MANAGEMENT GUIDE