We don’t get much snow here, so now that there’s a good covering, the road from my rural home here and the local road network generally are not where you want to be. The heater is on, and from the relative comfort of my home office I have a great view of the pristine snow outside. It’s a good reminder of how important it is for IT infrastructure these days to work equally well for the remote worker as for the users of your fixed, Active Directory managed, network-connected desktops.

I am just as likely to need a remote control connection from our helpdesk, as someone at HQ. Similarly I may want to lodge a request for assistance through the Web or monitor the progress of an issue I lodged yesterday evening. Equally, the configuration of my laptop needs monitoring, and Vector Networks, the organization I work for, is responsible for the correct licensing of the software inventory on this system.

ITAM / SAM / IT help desk support for the remote PCs

“Out of sight, out of mind”, is not an option in any well managed IT infrastructure. The flip of that is the challenge to anyone claiming to have full control and insight into their infrastructure – “Do you have equal IT asset management, software asset management and license management capabilities for both your network connected users and your remote users?” “Is it as easy for a remote user to request and receive assistance from the help desk?” A common response – which may have some validity in some organizations – is that the great majority of the remote users are computer savvy information workers, who do not need the same level of support and who can be trusted to understand software licensing and therefore to not install any unlicensed software. Do you believe that? No, I didn’t think so.

Software audits to include remote PCs?

We also expect that the software vendors leading the charge today on software license audits in their customer bases are going to become more inquisitive as to the numbers of machines compared to the number of employees in their customers. They are within their rights to ask about systems that are not necessarily visible on the network or in AD. Are you ready?

About the Author

Colin Bartram's background in IT Asset and Service Management runs uninterrupted from the 1980s, and includes specifying, writing, selling and supporting software solutions. Today he contributes to product strategy and marketing for the Vector Networks group of companies. His spare time is focussed on his horse and the related demands of maintaining 5 acres of ancient pasture in Derbyshire in the UK.