{"id":3012,"date":"2025-11-25T08:00:37","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T07:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lyynx.eu\/itam-sam-license-management-are-you-still-keeping-track\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T07:59:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T05:59:40","slug":"itam-sam-license-management-are-you-still-keeping-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lyynx.eu\/en\/itam-sam-license-management-are-you-still-keeping-track\/","title":{"rendered":"ITAM, SAM, License Management – are you still keeping track?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BLOG | November 25, 2025<\/p>\n

ITAM, SAM, License Management,\u2026
\nAre you still keeping track?<\/p>\n<\/h1>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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\"Portrait<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Lambert Huber<\/strong>
CEO<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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What\u2019s what?
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IT Asset Management? Software Asset Management? Or just \u201csomething to do with inventory\u201d? Put simply, asset management<\/strong> refers to the management of \u201cthings that represent value\u201d \u2013 more specifically, those that incur or have incurred costs. These can include cars, office furniture, machinery, or even computers and software. <\/p>\n

Just as an asset register<\/strong> is important for cars and real estate, keeping detailed records of IT assets in a company is also sensible \u2013 if not required.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

The Big Picture \u2013 Asset Management<\/h2>\n

1. IT Asset Management (ITAM)<\/h3>\n

\n ITAM refers to the management of all IT assets, including hardware<\/strong>, software<\/strong>, and the relatively new discipline of services (more specifically, SaaS or compute resources).
ITAM is described in great detail, particularly in the ITIL V4 framework, and provides numerous best practices. Hardware Asset Management (HAM)<\/strong> and Software Asset Management (SAM)<\/strong> are subdisciplines of ITAM.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

As with all IT management disciplines, the following processes are recommended:<\/p>\n

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  • Governance Framework<\/li>\n
  • Lifecycle Management<\/li>\n
  • Risk Management<\/li>\n
  • Security Management<\/li>\n
  • Financial Management<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

    ITAM therefore encompasses both hardware and software asset management.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

    2. Hardware Asset Management (HAM)<\/h3>\n

    HAM involves the management of all hardware resources within the company. This essentially includes: <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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    • Inventory management (including warehousing)<\/li>\n
    • Lifecycle management (procurement, change, disposal, including the destruction of physical data storage media)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

      There are no explicit standards for hardware asset management. However, the processes described above are addressed in control frameworks such as COBIT, ITIL, etc. <\/p>\n

      One can also refer to the ISO 55000 series (ISO 55001, ISO 55002), which describes asset management in general terms.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

      3. Software Asset Management (SAM)<\/h3>\n

      SAM is also a component of ITAM and focuses on the management of software assets. In a narrower sense, it involves the inventory and documentation of paid software, sometimes referred to as proprietary software.
      Free software (e.g., open source) does not strictly fall under the scope of SAM. However, in some cases, it may make sense to manage it as well.
      The discipline of SAM is described in great detail in the ISO 19770 series. The standard is now in its fourth iteration. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

      The processes listed above primarily include:<\/span><\/p>\n

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      • Inventory and documentation of assets<\/li>\n
      • Software lifecycle management and asset pooling<\/li>\n
      • Finance Management<\/li>\n
      • License management and compliance management <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

        In many cases, Software Asset Management is significantly more extensive than Hardware Asset Management due to the following factors:<\/span><\/p>\n

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        • Intangible asset (i.e., not physically \u201ctangible\u201d)<\/li>\n
        • Can change form (e.g., \u201cupgrades\u201d)<\/li>\n
        • Location (inventory location) is not always clear (e.g., \u201creassignment\u201d)<\/li>\n
        • Usage is very difficult to track without specialized tools (e.g., Snow Atlas)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

          4. License Management \/ Compliance Management<\/h3>\n

          Within software asset management processes, the license management \/ compliance management process reflects the comparison between assets in use and asset entitlements. This is often referred to as a \u201clicense balance sheet,\u201d although this term is not entirely comparable to an accounting balance sheet. <\/p>\n

          The following terms are used in license management:<\/span><\/p>\n

          EDP \u2013 Effective Deployment Position<\/strong><\/p>\n

          means \u201cWhat is in use \u2013 for what is a license required or would be required.\u201d<\/p>\n

          ELP - Effective License Position<\/strong><\/p>\n

          means \u201cWhich licenses or license entitlements are permitted to be used.\u201d <\/p>\n

          Comparing these two positions yields the license balance per asset<\/strong>.
          The figure can be negative (under-licensing), positive (over-licensing), or \u2013 ideally \u2013 zero.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

          How does asset management differ from other IT management disciplines?
          <\/strong><\/h2>\n

          Asset management is primarily concerned with the management of assets. It therefore always involves costs, investments, and accounting issues.
          Nevertheless, asset management also relies on technical data. This is where things that have nothing to do with asset management per se are often conflated.
          We repeatedly encounter misunderstandings about which discipline should be used for what. Technical or organizational issues are often conflated with the business-oriented discipline of ITAM. <\/p>\n

          Here are a few typical confusions \u2013 I call them \u201cfalse flags\u201d \u2013 that sound a bit like ITAM but actually have little to do with it.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

          False Flag 1 \u2013 IT Service Management (ITSM)<\/h3>\n

          Service management involves defining a service and operating it reliably. When managing a service, it is important to define all components involved, identify bottlenecks, and develop backup and scaling strategies. <\/p>\n

          Distinction from ITAM<\/strong>
          In the ITAM process, the relationships between assets (service map) are irrelevant; only the associated risk and costs matter. Conversely, in the ITSM process, the cost of a service component (which may even be free) is irrelevant; only its availability matters. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

          False Flag 2 \u2013 IT Configuration Management<\/h3>\n

          IT Configuration Management can be viewed as an \u201cupstream\u201d discipline to Service Management. CM organizes all components of an IT infrastructure into Configuration Items (CIs), which can then be grouped together to form a service.
          The CIs are managed in a Configuration Management Database (CMDB) and made available to other disciplines (e.g., the ITAM process). <\/p>\n

          Distinction from ITAM<\/strong>
          Configuration Management can, under certain circumstances, be managed in a very static manner, even involving purely manually maintained data records. In many cases, this actually improves data quality. ITAM, by contrast, always requires up-to-date data on end devices. Incidentally, a license is, by definition, not a Configuration Item (CI), although it is sometimes treated as such \u2013 due to the absence of ITAM. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

          False Flag 3 \u2013 Endpoint Management<\/h3>\n

          Endpoint management is a purely technical discipline and serves primarily to deploy software to computers and servers, configure settings (e.g., policies), and install updates. The goal of endpoint management is to ensure that the configuration and operational security of clients and servers are always up to date. <\/p>\n

          Distinction from ITAM<\/strong>
          Like ITAM, Endpoint Management requires up-to-date data on all computers and servers \u2013 in other words, a clean inventory. In this regard, the two disciplines can even complement each other. The main difference, however, is that Endpoint Management actively makes changes, whereas ITAM only accesses the systems in read-only mode. Furthermore, licenses (i.e., usage rights) are irrelevant to Endpoint Management. <\/p>\n

          I have singled out these disciplines because they are particularly often confused with ITAM-related initiatives.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

          SAM Tools \u2013 Are They Really Necessary?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

          This question is as old as the discipline itself. Let me clear up a few misconceptions here as well. SAM purists often say that an Excel spreadsheet can handle everything.
          A SAM tool makes sense when the complexity of the IT environment exceeds a certain threshold. This could be the number of computers, contracts, employees, software products in use, or the number of changes to any of these parameters.
          It\u2019s difficult to give a definitive answer here, but it\u2019s safe to assume that an environment with more than 500 computers is difficult to manage, and one with 1,000 computers is nearly impossible to manage without an ITAM tool.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

          What does a SAM tool actually do?<\/strong>
          Strictly speaking, it essentially does just three things:<\/p>\n