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Differences between Asset Intelligence and HW/SW Inventory

Answered Differences between Asset Intelligence and HW/SW Inventory

  • Wednesday, May 23, 2012 8:48 PM
     
     
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    Hello,

    I am required to collect an Installed Software Inventory based on a registry and file scan and produce a "human readable" output of Installed Software Product Names, Versions, and Manufacturers. 

    I understand that I need to use HW and SW Inventory at a minimum to accomplish this, but could not find a definitely answer to whether I also need to use Asset Intelligence.

    Will the base HW and SW Inventory options give me an Installed Software Inventory that is readable (i.e., not just a list of file names and sizes) - this is where I'm confused, not sure if I need the Asset Intelligence Identification Catalog to convert file names/sizes to products names?

    Any help would be appreciated!

     

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  • Thursday, May 24, 2012 10:26 AM
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    Likely the reason you haven't found a definitive answer to your question is that the answer is "it depends".  It depends upon how much time, effort, and how good your personal SQL report writing skills are to take only the Hinv/Sinv data and turn it into the report that your boss' asked for.  Even with Asset Intelligence cataloging, you will still not likely get the perfect results you are anticipating.  That's not to say it can't be done by one individual--I'm sure there are companies who have taken that challenge on and cataloged AI and customized reports and the report results are all they expected.  But it's not an easy endeavor. 

    What our company has done is brought in a 3rd party vendor (of course that costs extra $$) to normalize the data and present the "human readable" reports you are asked for.  There are two vendors I'm aware of that normalize the data:  1e's Appclarity and BDNA's Normalize.  You may want to check out those products.

    Standardize. Simplify. Automate.

     
  • Thursday, May 24, 2012 11:45 AM
     
     
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    Sherry - thanks for the response. 

    Do you know if AI uses the same tables as HW/SW Inv or completely different tables/views?

    E.g., if I develop a report based on SOFTWAREPRODUCT, SOFTWAREINVENTORY, and Add_Remove_Programs_DATA tables, would the data on these tables change if I'm using AI or does AI use different tables?

    Thanks

     
  • Thursday, May 24, 2012 1:43 PM
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    Start here:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd334593.aspx

    Standardize. Simplify. Automate.

     
  • Thursday, June 28, 2012 2:25 PM
     
     
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    There's a few more vendors out there that do data normalization for SCCM.   As well as Appclarity & Normalize, AssetCheck from AssetLabs is also a SCCM normalization solution.  And I just happen to be the architect of 'AssetIntelligence'; Microsoft acquired the 'AI' stuff when they bought my AssetMetrix .

    Blatant plug aside, the concept of normalization/recognition is simply a means to a bigger end.   If your company is asking for a human readable format, it suggests that you're reviewing deployments against purchase for a SAM/Entitlement review..... and there are many things that simple 'normalization' will not accomplish

    If you're reviewing Microsoft software titles, ignore the File EXE data and go strictly with the 'Installed Software'.   Furthermore, initiate 'AI' or you *will* get double counts for many MS 2007 Office products.  Seriously.

    If you are reviewing Adobe data, then review the EXE data if the audit request is coming from Adobe, and review the install data is it's internal.... but watch out for duplicate entries  (even with AI activated!!) for Acrobat 8 Standard & Professional.

    AI reports *will* give you category based reports, and that may help in the requirement of identifying 'licensable' titles,  but the categories are based upon 'function' and not license requirements  (I built them). So, the reports won't separate components, or free software.  (express, etc.)

    After data normalization, your team will want to be able to 'push' licensing calculations across several versions of a single productline  ( Volume licensing lets you buy Office 2012 Pro...but deploy to lessor versions of Office Pro),  so they will need 'ProductLine' rollups  (not inherently found in SCCM)

    2nd last bit of advice:   don't mix up the 'editions' of any productline.   Office Standard is not a subset of Office Ultimate, and you can't push licenses of Ultimate to deployments of Standard.

    last bit of advice:  SCCM does not inherently enumerate the editions of SQL Server, only the versions.  Your SAM team will freak if the editions aren't declared.  MS-MAP ( a free tool from Microsoft) will do the job quite nicely.

    Cheers

     
  • Thursday, June 28, 2012 5:51 PM
     
     
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    Sorry for delay in response.     AI will place the software data in  GS_INSTALLED_SOFTWARE view.   It will also clean up the 2007 office double install artifacts.