1. Presents a single consolidated view of the network - Too often there are different views because a number of different audit tools / methods are required in order to cope with all platforms and protocols. 

2. Achieves 99% accuracy – To achieve the highest levels of accuracy requires that the inventory monitoring and audit tool can be configured to the specifics of your network, does not require agents, refreshes daily, and supports multiple protocols and platforms.  

3. Deep inspection – knowing a device exists is not enough, you will want to know its physical characteristics and configuration too (e.g. CPU speed, back-ups, disk space, etc.). 

4. Flexibility – the information you need will vary from time to time, with new questions about the network arising.  Older tools are pretty much fixed in terms of the information they can gather, however the new breed of solutions, enables managers to set custom queries, looking at their network in a new way all the time. 

5. Ongoing monitoring – an inventory once conducted is quickly out-of-date.  That is why a daily refresh of network information is important, together with alerts of key state changes that may require your attention.

6. Integration with SAM, ITAM, ITSM, CMDB, etc. systems.  Stand alone audit tools are of little value unless they can integrate with your other IT management systems.  Similarly, audit solutions provided as part of a broader IT management suite must be vendor agnostic.

iQuate’s network inventory tools meet all the above characteristics.  That makes them faster, more accurate and more flexible.