2023 ITAM Virtual Summit Recap: Reimagine IT Asset Management and Control Cloud Costs

The 2023 IT Asset Management (ITAM) Virtual Summit has wrapped! We want to extend a big “thank you” to all the attendees and presenters who made this year’s event a success.

The theme for this year’s summit was Reimagine ITAM. During the event, industry experts discussed why ITAM is central to almost every transformation and how to gain more value.

Missed the live event? No fear of missing out (FOMO) is needed! Instead, check out a full recap of the sessions below—or jump down to our key takeaways if you’re short on time.

Reimagining ITAM: Driving Operational Efficiency and Lowering Risk in the Cloud

– Josh Greenbaum, Independent Analyst and Principal Enterprise Applications Consulting

Before reimagining ITAM, it's critical to understand how technology has evolved to support businesses in a dynamic, global economy and why that evolution requires a different approach to managing technology assets.

On the downside, the pandemic, war, supply chain disruptions, and inflation have impacted the economy. On a positive note, the cloud offers new capabilities and ways to bring products to market.

Companies in all geographies and industries are moving to Software as a Service (SaaS) and the cloud to stay competitive in an interconnected global economy. However, not all cloud growth is purposeful. Many companies struggle with uncontrolled, unmanageable environments and shadow IT. As the cloud enters its maturation phase, companies are rationalizing their purchases—without throwing away any upsides, they realize.

Modern ITAM allows you to manage IT assets strategically. It combines ITAM, software asset management (SAM), and cloud financial management (FinOps) to drive business and technology success in an era of growing complexity.

How to Find Hidden Value in Existing ITAM Data

– Nate Dickson, Senior Consultant, ServiceNow, SoftwareOne

Organizations collect massive amounts of ITAM data. But you'll have difficulty deriving value from this data and your ITAM strategy if you don't have the right systems and tools.

To get maximum value from this data, you need both ITAM and configuration management. Start by identifying your asset data using a platform such as ServiceNow. It will show you which assets are nearing end of life, what isn't covered by maintenance, and any associated costs.

Next, add basic data from your configuration management database (CMBD). The information may include configuration items, their attributes, and any dependencies. You can find this data using automation tools, such as a top-down discovery by . Then, you can prioritize assets based on how they are connected and used across your organization.

Your IT asset management databases can evolve into effective CMDBs that support critical processes in security, portfolio management, financial operations, and more. Ultimately, these databases will help you achieve your ITAM goals and find opportunities hidden within your data.

Governance of Software Asset Management Leveraging Microsoft Processes and Technology

– Patrick Graff, Senior Service Engineer, Microsoft

The more cloud services you bring in, the harder it is to track and manage everything. Microsoft's Software Licensing Service (SLS) and Third-Party Governance Program can mitigate your license compliance and security risks—while optimizing your employee experience. 

SLS covers all the data, infrastructure, governance, and processes needed to effectively manage your Microsoft software licenses. As a result, SLS helps you save money by cutting unnecessary software spending, finding discounts, and negotiating better contracts. SLS also boosts operational efficiencies while minimizing compliance risks. 

Microsoft's Third-Party Governance Program reduces risks when bringing in on-premises and cloud software from other vendors. It wraps governance policies around all your entitlement data, deployment data, and SAM processes.

Why ITAM Pros Should Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Cloud

– Rich Gibbons, Managing Director, ITAM Review

A few years ago, IT professionals thought you didn't need SAM in the cloud—but now you need SAM more than ever.

SAM and ITAM are critical for cloud cost management and security. With ITAM, you can use hybrid licensing and your existing investments to optimize your cloud spend.

ITAM also gives you a proper inventory of your cloud assets, which is necessary when securing them. It allows you to track and manage your cloud assets, including virtual machines, storage, software licenses, and open-source applications. ITAM can also help you identify potential threats and demonstrate compliance.

Since the cloud provides many business benefits, it is highly relevant to leadership teams. If you embrace ITAM and the cloud, you can get a seat at the table and earn the recognition that furthers your career. Learning to love the cloud could be the best thing you'll do as an ITAM professional.

Flexera 2023 State of the Cloud Report

– Josh Fraser, Vice President, Solution Engineering, Executive Advisory and FinOps, Flexera

Economic uncertainty hasn’t slowed cloud spending. Instead, the need for innovation and increased revenue is prompting more organizations to double down on the cloud. According to the Flexera 2023 State of the Cloud Report, 45% of respondents plan to increase their cloud usage and spend this year. Many of these investments are going to the public cloud, as 65% of respondents rely heavily on it.

But as cloud usage grows, organizations struggle to control their costs. Respondents cite “managing cloud spend” as their top challenge and estimate that they waste 28% of their cloud budget.

With this level of waste, it’s unsurprising that the leading cloud initiative is optimizing existing usage and costs. To do this, respondents are implementing many cost savings measures, including utilization monitoring, shutting down workloads after hours, and rightsizing.

ITAM and FinOps: Stronger Together

– Ben de Mora, FinOps Engineering Director, FinOps Foundation

ITAM and FinOps teams have blind spots. ITAM teams lack insight into cloud usage and costs. Meanwhile, FinOps doesn’t have visibility into on-premises usage and software licenses.

Bringing these teams together is necessary to gain a complete view of your IT environment. When ITAM and FinOps partner, you can better understand what you’re paying for and if it’s driving business value.

For example, your cloud FinOps team can help you understand how your unit costs change with demand. They can also coordinate enterprise agreements, owned software licenses, and entitlements in the cloud. Ultimately, this partnership can maximize your business value by empowering engineers, finance, and business teams to collaborate on data-driven spending decisions.

From Crawl to Run: How to Master Allocation of Cloud and Containers

– Bala Kaliamurthy, Principal Product Manager, Platform and Infrastructure Services, Apptio

The rising adoption of containers and third-party cloud applications creates new allocation and chargeback challenges. However, accurate allocation is critical to the first phase of FinOps. During this “Inform” phase, you need visibility into your cloud spending to match each expense to the correct business unit. 

Here are three ways you can effectively allocate your cloud and container costs:

1. Map resources from your cloud bill to Kubernetes (K8s) clusters. Leverage your K8s constructs to split up and allocate clusters. 
2. Use a tool like Apptio Cloudability to integrate containers with your broader FinOps and cloud cost management practices. The tool should allow you to view expenses relevant to each business unit and apply mapping to achieve a full chargeback.
3. The platform should also let you track your total spend, including third-party software, show backs, chargebacks, and unit costing.

These practices can help you allocate every cloud expense and reduce your unit costs by 30%.

5 Ways to Improve Your Cloud Financial Management Health

– Wade Piehl, Cloud Financial Management Methodology, AWS

Cloud financial management (CFM) is much more than saving money. It also helps you improve your forecasting and quantify the cloud’s business value so you can get buy-in for your transformation initiatives.

The first key to successful CFM is using a cost allocation tool like the one AWS offers. These tools allow teams to take ownership of their cloud purchases. Companies that allocate more than 70% of their cloud spend to business units can cut their costs by 52%.

It would help if you also had a FinOps team to manage your cloud spend and drive efficiencies as usage increases. A FinOps team can analyze your key performance indicators (KPIs) and produce more accurate forecasts. They can also implement savings plans or right-sizing to reduce your unit costs.